Researchers confirm 1,606 secret graves in Mexico since 2006
MEXICO CITY — Mexican researchers said this week they have confirmed the existence of 1,606 secret graves containing 2,489 bodies from 2006 to 2017, but that may just scratch the surface of the true numbers behind what the study called a “building phenomenon.”
“Those are not all the graves ... Unfortunately, it’s just a fraction,” Denise González, lead coordinator of the study, said at press conference at Mexico City’s Iberoamericana University.
The study found that Tamaulipas, Guerrero, Veracruz, Sinaloa and Zacatecas were the states with the most reported cases of secret graves, all places with a strong presence of organized crime groups.
University investigators worked alongside local human rights’ groups to conduct the study that they say shows the “deterioration of security” in Mexico. They criticized the country’s Attorney General’s Office and said the government gave inconsistent statistics on secret graves and bodies recovered.
“The Attorney General’s Office is actively violating the rights of information and of memory,” said Carlos Dorantes of the human rights organization Article 19, which participated in the study.
Karla Quintana, the government’s national search commissioner, said the new administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador inherited a “forensic emergency” when he took office Dec. 1. She added the government is working on a digital database of disappeared persons, and said the president will meet Monday with families to update them on his administration’s work to find and identify their missing relatives.
Michael Krumholtz is an Associated Press writer.