Salvatierra mass graves

Last updated
Salvatierra mass graves
Part of Mexican drug war
Location Salvatierra, Guanajuato, Mexico
DateOctober 20, 2020 (discovery)
Deaths79
PerpetratorUnknown

On October 20, 2020, mass graves containing at least seventy-nine bodies was found in a neighborhood of Salvatierra, Guanajuato, Mexico. The discovery was the largest mass grave ever discovered in Guanajuato.

Contents

Background

In 2020, Salvatierra was the site of a conflict between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, like many of cities in Guanajuato. In Irapuato, cartel members shot and killed thirty-eight people in two massacres in June and July. [1] Forty percent of all mass graves discovered in Mexico that year were concentrated in the state. [2]

Mass graves

The graves were discovered in a vacant lot inside the town of Salvatierra, whereas most mass graves are often discovered in the rural countryside. [3] The lot was situated next to the Lerma River and a slaughterhouse, with a park across the river. [3] The first indication there may be mass graves in the area came from a tip from local residents searching for missing relatives. [3] Karla Quintana, the head of the National Search Commission stated that because the location was in a neighborhood, "the people [had to have] known]" that there were graves being dug. [3]

The search for the bodies began on October 20 and was spurred by the Mariposas Destellando Corazones organization, with Mexican National Guard elements and Mexican Army soldiers keeping watch while coroners exhumed the sites. [4] [3] Quintana announced the discovery of the graves at fifty-two sites on the lot on October 29, along with the discovery of fifty-nine bodies exhumed and that there were still more bodies untouched. [2] The bodies were buried between seventy centimenters and one meter deep. [5] Residents of Salvatierra and other areas of Guanajuato who had missing relatives lined up around the site to see if they could recognize their relatives among the graves. Authorities encouraged the onlookers to take DNA tests and submit them to the government so the bodies could be identified. [3] [6]

On November 4, Quintana and the National Search Commission stated that the death toll had risen to sixty-seven, sixty-six of which were located in Salvatierra. [7] Of the sixty-seven, fifty bodies had been identified. [7] This number increased to seventy-six bodies on November 8, and sixty-five graves with seventy-nine bodies by December. [5] [8] [9]

Reactions

The Salvatierra City Council demanded on January 9, 2021, that the Mexican government investigate the perpetrator of the killings and for action to be taken against the killers. [10]

In October, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his condolences and deployed the National Guard to the area. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guanajuato</span> State of Mexico

Guanajuato, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato, is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bajío International Airport</span> International airport serving León, Guanajuato, Mexico

León/Bajio International Airport ; officially Aeropuerto Internacional de Guanajuato, is an international airport situated in Silao, Guanajuato, Mexico. It is the main international airport serving the Greater León Metropolitan Area and the State of Guanajuato, which is home to a population of 6 million residents, including the cities of Celaya, Guanajuato, Irapuato, Salamanca, and San Miguel de Allende. In addition to offering domestic flights within Mexico, it serves as a gateway for international travel, connecting Central Mexico to various destinations in the United States. It serves as a focus city for Volaris and supports flight training, cargo, logistics and general aviation activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvatierra, Guanajuato</span> City and municipality in Mexico

Salvatierra is a Mexican city located in the valley of Huatzindeo in the lowlands of the state of Guanajuato. It is rich in civil and religious architecture; haciendas, bridges, convents and large houses surrounded in tradition and history. With an area of 507.70 square kilometres, Salvatierra accounts for 1.66% the total area of the state. It is bordered to the north by Tarimoro and Cortazar, to the south by Acámbaro and the state of Michoacán, to the west by Yuriria and Santiago Maravatío, and to the northeast by Jaral del Progreso. The municipality had a total of 94,558 inhabitants of which 34,066 lived in the city of Salvatierra, according to the 2005 census. As of 2020 the municipality had a total of 94,126 inhabitants, compared to 2010, the population in Salvatierra decreased by -3.02%

Santiago Maravatío is a Mexican city located in the Bajío (lowlands) of the state of Guanajuato. With an area of 91.760 square kilometres, Santiago Maravatío accounts for less than 1% of the surface of the state. It is bordered to the north, east and southeast by Salvatierra and to the west by Yuriria.

The timeline of some of the most relevant events in the Mexican drug war is set out below. Although violence between drug cartels had been occurring for three decades, the Mexican government held a generally passive stance regarding cartel violence through the 1980s and early 2000s.

The 2010 San Fernando massacre, also known as the first massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 72 undocumented immigrants by the Los Zetas drug cartel in the village of El Huizachal in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The 72 killed—58 men and 14 women—were mainly from Central and South America, and they were shot in the back of the head and then piled up together. The bodies were found inside a ranch on 24 August 2010 by the Mexican military after they engaged in an armed confrontation with members of a drug cartel. They received information of the place after one of the three survivors survived a shot to the neck and face, faked his death, and then fled to a military checkpoint to seek help. Investigators later mentioned that the massacre was a result of the immigrants' refusal to work for Los Zetas, or to provide money for their release.

Gente Nueva, also known as Los Chapos, in reference to their drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, is a large group of well-trained and experienced gunmen that function as one of the elite armed wings of the Sinaloa Cartel, created to counter, battle and destroy the Juárez Cartel's influence in the Mexican north-west, as well as to battle and destroy La Línea which is currently the Juárez Cartel's largest remaining cell.

The 2011 San Fernando massacre, also known as the second massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 193 people by Los Zetas drug cartel at La Joya ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in March 2011. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal Highway 101 in San Fernando, and the kidnapped victims were later killed and buried in 47 clandestine mass graves. The investigations began immediately after several suitcases and other baggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros, Tamaulipas. On 6 April 2011, Mexican authorities exhumed 59 corpses from eight mass graves. By 7 June 2011, after a series of multiple excavations, a total of 193 bodies were exhumed from mass graves in San Fernando.

The 2011 Durango massacres were a series of mass murders that occurred in 2011. According to El Universal and Yahoo! News, at least 340 bodies have been found in mass graves around the city of Durango as of February 2012; These mass graves are the first of their kind in the state of Durango and third of their kind in Mexico. These mass graves had more bodies than the 2011 Tamaulipas massacre of 189 bus passengers. Since April 2011, there have been seven mass graves found around Durango. One of these mass graves was found in a vacant auto repair lot in Durango with 89 bodies. One of the bodies identified was Alfonso Peña, the former mayor of Tepehuanes, Durango.

The Coahuila mass graves was the mass murder of 38 people near the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, on 3 June 2011. The three clandestine mass graves where the bodies were exhumed were found by the Mexican military and authorized personnel after an anonymous call notified them of the location where the decaying bodies were. The investigators found buttons, shirts, coins, and watches. The mass graves were purposely covered with soil and grass to simulate a pasture. All of the bodies were burned to death.

The Nuevo León mass graves was the mass murder of over 70 people in the Nuevo León, Mexico on 25 June 2010 in several mass graves. The municipality of Juárez, Nuevo León counts with 51 of the 70 bodies found; most of the bodies were shot dead, while others were burned and mutilated.

The Guerrero mass graves was a multihomicide of more than 55 people found in June 2010 in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico. Officials of the state of Guerrero speculate that the mass graves where the bodies were found may hold up to 100 corpses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jalisco New Generation Cartel</span> Mexican drug cartel

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or CJNG, is a Mexican criminal syndicate, based in Jalisco and headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. The cartel has been characterized by extreme violence and public relations campaigns. Though the CJNG is known for diversifying into various criminal rackets, drug trafficking remains its most profitable activity. The cartel has been noted for cannibalizing some victims during the training of new sicarios or members, as well as using drones and rocket-propelled grenades to attack enemies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadereyta Jiménez massacre</span> 2012 mass killing by the Los Zetas cartel in Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo León, Mexico

The Cadereyta Jiménez massacre occurred on the Fed 40 on 12–13 May 2012. Mexican officials stated that 49 people were decapitated and mutilated by members of Los Zetas drug cartel and dumped by a roadside near the city of Cadereyta Jiménez in northern Mexico. The Blog del Narco, a blog that documents events and people of the Mexican Drug War anonymously, reported that the actual (unofficial) death toll may be more than 68 people. The bodies were found in the town of San Juan in the municipality of Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo León at about 4 a.m. on a non-toll highway leading to Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The forty-three men and six women killed had their heads, feet, and hands cut off, making their identification difficult. Those killed also bore signs of torture and were stuffed in plastic bags. The arrested suspects have indicated that the victims were Gulf Cartel members, but the Mexican authorities have not ruled out the possibility that they were U.S.-bound migrants. Four days before this incident, 18 people were found decapitated and dismembered near Mexico's second largest city, Guadalajara.

In 2011 and 2012, during the Mexican drug war, hundreds of people were killed in massacres by rival drug cartels who were fighting for power and territory. These organized-crime syndicates were grappling for control over the drug corridors to the United States, the drug markets in local cities, extortion rackets, and human smuggling. Massacres occurred in the states of Veracruz, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and Nuevo León.

On 18 January 2019, a pipeline transporting gasoline exploded in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The blast killed at least 137 people and injured dozens more. Mexican authorities blamed fuel thieves, who had illegally tapped the pipeline. The explosion was particularly deadly because large crowds of people had gathered at the scene to steal fuel. Security forces tried to persuade people to move away from the scene, but they were outnumbered and asked not to engage with civilians for fear of causing a violent confrontation. The leak was reported at 17:04 CST (23:04 UTC), and the explosion occurred two hours later at 19:10. It took about four hours for responders to extinguish the fire.

On August 8, 2019, Mexican authorities confirmed the discovery of 19 bodies in Uruapan, Michoacán. The Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, through narcomantas, claimed responsibility for the massacre, whose bodies were abandoned in three parts of the city. Six of the bodies found were hung on a vehicular bridge and others were found dismembered.

On 23 May 2022, eleven people were killed in a mass shooting at the Gala Hotel and a nearby bar in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

References

  1. ↑ "Bodies of young people found in mass grave in Mexico's Guanajuato". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  2. 1 2 "La huella de la violencia en Guanajuato: suman 66 cuerpos hallados en fosas clandestinas de Salvatierra". infobae (in European Spanish). 2020-11-05. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Searchers find 59 bodies in Mexico mass graves, dig for more". AP News. 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  4. ↑ Bajío, Tonatiuh Hernández | El Sol del. "Acuden a pruebas de ADN para encontrar a desaparecidos". El Sol de León | Noticias Locales, Policiacas, sobre México, Guanajuato y el Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  5. 1 2 Bajío, El Sol del. "Suman 76 los cuerpos hallados en fosas de Salvatierra". El Sol de León | Noticias Locales, Policiacas, sobre México, Guanajuato y el Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  6. ↑ "Familiares de desaparecidos hacen filas en Salvatierra para muestra de ADN". Milenio. November 4, 2020. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  7. 1 2 Bajío, Tonatiuh Hernández | El Sol del. "Suman 66 cuerpos hallados en fosas clandestinas de Salvatierra". El Sol de León | Noticias Locales, Policiacas, sobre México, Guanajuato y el Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  8. ↑ Redacción (2021-01-07). "Fosas clandestinas en Guanajuato, más de 150 cuerpos hallados en 2020". Periódico Notus (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  9. ↑ "Fosas clandestinas en Guanajuato: desde mayo han sido hallados 159 cuerpos". infobae (in European Spanish). 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  10. ↑ Orozco, Mariana (January 31, 2021). "Exige gobierno de Salvatierra a la Federacion resultados y responsibilidad por fosas clandestinas". Debate Mexico. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
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