Crime & Justice

Searching mothers find 19 clandestine graves in Mexico

Hermosillo, Mexico, Jan 13 (EFE).- The group Searching Mothers of Sonora announced Saturday having found at least 19 clandestine graves with human remains in northwestern Mexico.

The discovery was made at a site difficult to access near the coast of the Sea of Cortez, in Hermosillo, in the state of Sonora.

“We have discovered 19 graves with human bodies, we thank the people who overcame their fear and help us move forward with our search and allow us to find our missing people,” the group’s leader Cecilia Flores told EFE.

The activist, who in 2023 was listed among the BBC’s 100 most influential women in the world, said in a video post on social media that they had received an anonymous tipoff about a place with dozens of human bodies buried.

“In a pit there was a couple, a man and a woman because of their clothing and the shape of the skull; and in another pit apparently were two women by the hair (…) In truth it is a clandestine cemetery that we never imagined existed,” said Flores.

The site of the discovery was a beach, located 100 kilometers from the capital of Sonora, an area difficult to access because it is nestled between agricultural fields, aquaculture and the desert, an inhospitable place.

Regarding the finding, the Attorney General’s Office in Sonora confirmed that investigators and forensic experts were already at work, but they would be able to determine the exact number of victims only after the DNA tests are completed.

Cecilia Flores has been looking for two missing children – Marco Antonio Sauceda Rocha, missing since May 4, 2019 from Bahia de Kino, Sonora; and Alejandro Guadalupe Islas Flores, who disappeared on October 30, 2015.

Flores has managed to find more than 2,000 bodies of missing men and women across Mexico by carrying out searches in Jalisco, Sinaloa, Baja California, Guerrero and Michoacán, but mainly in Sonora. EFE

dsd/sc

Related Articles

Back to top button