"Why don't they want to give me my son's body?" :Life and Death in Mexico

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat from ZonaDocs and VigilanteHuaste

His remains were with 5 others found in plastic bags

 The body of César Octavio was identified on February 16, 2019, by his relatives in the Forensic Medical Service; Despite this, the staff of the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) has refused to deliver it, as they claim to have no certainty as to whether each of the remains found correspond to it; The genetic tests to confirm it have taken more than three months.

Due to these delays and omissions, the family filed a complaint against the IJCF in the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission (CEDHJ); the forensic institute told them that they would not give them more information about the delivery of the body or the results of the genetic testing.

Ana has not stopped wondering why in the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO) do not want to return the body of her son since he has long been identified. And she wonders who could be so heartless to have left his son, César Octavio Mora Castañeda, dismembered.

The Attorney General of Jalisco, the body in charge of the investigation of the disappearance and murder of César Octavio, has left her alone with her questions because no progress has been made on the investigation of both crimes and, adding insult to injury, as if it were a mockery, they do not want to help him recover his son's body either.

On January 12, 2019, César Octavio Mora Castañeda left his home in the Víctor Hugo neighborhood in Zapopan, Jalisco; He told his mother he would return later, but he did not. Later neighbors told Mrs. Ana that her son and a friend had been abducted in the El Batán neighborhood of the same municipality.

From that day they searched for him. The complaint for disappearance was made in the Specialized Prosecutor's Office on Disappearances of the Attorney General of Jalisco, on January 17. They thought that it would help to find him, but there was never any news or progress ... they did not even investigate what happened to the young man who disappeared along with César Octavio , since he was located a few days later.

The only thing that appears in the file about this young man is a statement in which he says he does not know what happened that day, although those who questioned him assured them that they had already taken César Octavio's life: "what this young man said, is he was not investigated by the Prosecutor's Office ... we believe that this young man said pure lies, but he is free, and knows what happened to my son, "said Mrs. Ana.

Regarding the non-arrest of who they consider to be the probable responsible for what happened with César Octavio; In the Office of the Prosecutor they told him that the statement they took was enough, since there was no crime that could be brought against him. Both apparently disappeared together, but only one of them managed to return home.

Another of the irregularities suffered in the Special Prosecutor's Office in Disappearances is the poor integration of the investigation, since the statement of Ana Laura, sister of César Octavio, was not included in the file until after they admitted that they had not done because they had lost her statement.

The search that Ana undertook to locate César Octavio also included weekly visits to the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO); they went  there every eight days, but in the forensic photographs that showed them there was no trace of his son. "Your boy is not here", the Mora Castañeda family was assured on more than one occasion.

Ana was worried about the news about the location of clandestine graves and the findings of lifeless bodies on public roads, as she imagined that there, perhaps, her son could be. After each event he went to the forensic institute to ask about his son, but there was no one with his characteristics; however, everything changed on February 16, 2019.

That day they were told that there was a body with the characteristics of their Caesar Octavio: "That day they asked us about  tattoos and, then, they showed us some pictures of the torso and arms; seeing their tattoos on their body, we told them that it was him; we had found my son ... then they told us that we should start with the paperwork for the delivery and we did it, "said Ana, who until then had been the only one in the family to whom the DNA test had been taken.

The first complication that occurred was when the IJCF realized that more genetic information was needed from the Mora Castañeda family to match the remains that were located on February 12, inside a plastic bag in the town of La Venta, The Shipyard in the municipality of Zapopan. In that same place they found another five bags with human remains.

In this case, the Public Ministry assigned to them was negligent in authorizing the genetic testing of the mother; for this reason, they assured him in the IJCF, that some of the remains if there was high compatibility and in others, but they never showed him the results of such testings nor did they want to show them more forensic photos because "they were very ugly"; the last photo they saw was that of his head; Ana Laura, his sister, recognized him.

"They told me in SEMEFO that what we saw in the photos, I had already tested positive with my DNA, but that other parts were missing because my son was left in pieces or I do not know why they did not want to tell me what happened ... I, however remain strong, I want to know how my son was found ... but they do not tell me anything ... They only tell me that they are looking at the DNA that s from the bone and that it is slower ... but they do not tell me of what bone it is; They do not tell me anything, "said Ana, for whom the treatment given by the IJCF genetics directorate has been very hurtful and inefficient.

The Special Prosecutor for Disappearances did not say anything to him either; On the contrary, this area abandoned the case since he informed them that they had already identified  César Octavio in SEMEFO: "They never did anything ... after telling them this small amount of information ... they ignored us; they told us that there was nothing to do there and now everything had to be handled in the Homicide Unit; from that unit we have learned nothing…. ", said Ana, who finds it incomprehensible that no one will help her to recover her son if she already knows where he is and if they have already visually identified him.

The State Human Rights Commission of Jalisco (CEDHJ) recently presented the recommendation 10/2019 for the irregular and negligent act on the part of the General Prosecutor of Jalisco and the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences in the identification and safeguarding of the bodies of persons not identified, specifically, on those 322 that were stacked inside two refrigerated containers.

450 Bodies under “Protection”

The response of the forensic authority to what is indicated by the CEDHJ is that these errors no longer occur, since now the identification and delivery of the bodies of unidentified persons is faster and the families are informed of the whole process, but the truth is that this is untrue; This is not only proven by what was narrated by the Mora Castañeda family, but also by various stories that have recently been published in the local media and that denounce the same negligence and omissions in the forensic institute.

"Why don’t they want to return my son's body, how many pieces did they leave me?" Ana asks, because at SEMEFO they do not want to tell her anything since they found out that she filed a complaint with the CEDHJ.

"Since I reported them to the Commission they no longer want to give me information ... they tell me that they will only give it to the people of the Office of the Prosecutor, but not to me because of bothering them so much ... in the Prosecutor's Office they do not even say anything to me and what I want , the only thing I ask is that they return my son ... we already know that he is there in the SEMEFO, but they will not let us see him or explain why they do not return it to us ... we have had this since February 16 and it is almost over in May nobody tells us anything, "Ana complained.

César Octavio is one of the 450 bodies that, to date, are under the protection of the Attorney General of Jalisco and the Jalisciense Institute of Forensic Sciences. He, like tjhe others, has already been identified; the non-investigation and the delay in the expert actions keeps them within the forensic facilities whose capacity has already been exceeded ; nevertheless, the current administration of Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, denies that there is another forensic crisis, because the irregularities of the past are no longer committed.

However, the case of César Octavio Mora Castañeda, is far from that reality.