President López Obrador States He is in Favor of a Pact Between Cartels and Missing Persons Search Collectives

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

In today's Presidential morning conference, Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that he is in favor of a negotiated pact between Mexican criminal organizations and missing persons search collectives in order to eliminate disappearances. 

Read More

The Effects of the Disappearance of a Parent

By Edgar Avila | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

When violence knocked on the door of his house, it struck everyone equally, even the smallest in the family.

The disappearance of the head of the family left in the limbo any explanation that could be given to Marcos, 6, to call it somehow, because the fear left by the incursion of crime in his home still does not let them fully adhere back into their old daily life.

The father of the child, Juan Manuel, 28, was swallowed up by the land in the port of Veracruz, as well as the other 2,312 veracruzanos who only exist in the official figures of denouncements, but who were physically absent from their homes in the middle of a war between drug cartels, the official fight against crime and many other factors.

It was in 2013 when they never again heard from the man, although they discovered that the last time he was seen alive, he had been “detained” by alleged police officers, a version that they have not yet been able to verify.

“How do you explain to a child that his father is missing, that he isn’t dead, that he’s alive, but that he is not with us,” says his mother.  They have not yet found a way to tell him, because she doesn’t even known if her husband “went to heaven” or if he’s still in captivity.

Read More

10 Years of Mexico's War on Drugs, In Pictures

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Former President Felipe Calderón declared the war against drug trafficking on December 11, 2006, in Mexico, leaving an outcome calculated with over 27,000 people disappeared, 150,000 dead, and 280,000 displaced from their home.  

December 11, 2016, marked the 10 year anniversary of Mexico's War on Drugs.

 

Former President Felipe Calderón watches a military vehicle on top of a pile of weapons confiscated in Ciudad Juárez.  The PANista unleashed the war on drugs on December 11, 2006.  Photo: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

In this archived photo of January 12, 2014, men belonging to the autodefensas of Michoacán travel on board a truck full of sandbags as they try to expel alleged members of the Knights Templar Cartel from the city of Nueva Italia, México.  Photo: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

In this photo from October 9, 2009, the corpse of an unidentified man beaten and mutilated hangs from his neck under a bridge on the old road Rosarito, in Tijuana.  Photo: AP / Guillermo Arias

Read More

Activists That Revealed Patrocinio, Coahuila “Extermination Camp” Find 5,000 Bone Remains in Viesca

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Silvia Ortiz, spokeswoman for the group Víctimas por sus Desaparecidos en Acción (VIDA), said that last Saturday, they found more skeletal remains, molars, and gun casings on a property in the locality Estación Claudio.

Mexico City, Mexico, December 13, 2016 (SinEmbargo) – More than 5,000 human remains were found on a site in the municipality of Viesca, Coahuila, by the same organization that revealed the existence of the “extermination camp” in the common land of Patrocinio.

Silvia Ortiz, spokeswoman for the group Víctimas por sus Desaparecidos en Acción (VIDA), said that last Saturday, they found more skeletal remains, molars, and gun casings on a property in the locality Estación Claudio.

This is the fourth time that the relatives of the disappeared have searched the place this year.  And for two years now, the families of the disappeared have searched the area in search of their relatives.

The property measures around three hectares, although it was only possible to check a quadrant of about 100 square meters, an activist told the newspaper Reforma.  Patrocinio measures around 43 hectares (106 acres).

“The forensic police told us that Estación Claudio is a small Patrocinio, they found about 5,000 [remains], but it still hasn’t finished searching the area,” Ortiz told the national media outlet.

“The woman told Reforma that it is necessary to continue the searches on both sides “but not only those of the forensics, the PGJE [Prosecutor General of Justice of the State of Coahuila] was supposed to help them, but no, they are now asking for the collaboration so that they can go to Claudio and for the others to continue in Patrocinio.”

Silvia Ortiz told El Siglo de Torreón that she expects these tasks to intensify at least this week because they will be suspended for the holiday period.

Read More

Forced Disappearance in Veracruz

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

The state of Veracruz is one of the states of Mexico whose residents have suffered through the disappearances of their relatives.  Since December 2010, the local government has recorded more than 650 cases according to official figures from the National Public Security System [SNSP].  But in a state in which victims blame the authorities for their complicity, the testimonies of the bereaved women agree that the black figure of this terrible phenomenon, associated with organized crime, is very high.

The presence of Los Zetas and its rivals, such as The Knights Templar Cartel and The Jalisco New Generation Cartel have led to the murder of hundreds or thousands of people whose bodies have been hidden in at least 144 illegal graves recorded by the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR) between 2006 and 2013.  Because of this, the magnitude of the crisis that the state lives through could be worse than what we know so far.

Although the disappearances have been counted from years ago, it wasn’t until 2016 when the first public search brigades were organized in the state which soon found dozens of clandestine graves in several cities in Veracruz.

VICE News interviews the women who have been part of these committees to find out what their efforts are in finding their missing relatives.

On December 1, 2016, Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares (PAN) took office as the new governor of Veracruz, a state marked by the economic crisis and corruption left by his predecessor, Javier Duarte (PRI), who is currently a fugitive from the Mexican justice system.

Source: Vice

Read More

The Story of Oliver and 149 Unidentified Bodies

Oliver liked to help, because of something he remained below, as if saying if I leave, you all will leave too; and that’s how it went

By: Mario Marlo | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Through signatures, forged documents and without death certificates, on March 28, 2014, the Attorney General of the State of Morelos carried out the burial of 150 bodies in an area that was not officially considered a cemetery.

Of the 150 bodies buried in the grave, one of them was Oliver Wenceslao Navarrete Hernández, son of María Concepción Hernández Hernández, who was found dead on June 3, 2013, days after his abduction.

María Concepción Hernández Hernández

With the intention that the authorities provide clarity about the case, relatives of Oliver agreed to the request of Liliana Guevara Monrroy, the deputy prosecutor for the eastern area, who had explained that it was necessary to further carry out forensic examination of the body.

A year and a half after the family of Oliver had made several steps and called for the authorities to deliver the body, they discovered that Oliver was one of 150 bodies that were in a clandestine grave in the community of Tetelcingo, Morelos.

Read More