Tip of the Iceberg in Salto, Jalisco: 23 Bodies Buried in Clandestine Grave

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Animal Politico

                          23 bodies found in a clandestine grave on a farm in El Salto, Jalisco
At the moment, only three of the bodies have been identified; they also found 4 bags with various signs of evidence.

In Jalisco the true level of violence is hidden underground. In just a year and a half of the current administration, there are 428 bodies of murdered people discovered in clandestine graves in various municipalities of the state, a number that will continue to increase after the discovery of five more graves that have not yet been reviewed, writes Arturo Angel on June 24, 2020.

The Jalisco Attorney General's Office reported the discovery of 23 bodies in a clandestine grave in the municipality of El Salto. According to the agency, the grave is located inside a farm, in the El Pedregal neighborhood and was discovered July 13. El Salto is just south east of Guadalajara.

In addition to the 23 bodies, the authorities found four bags with different clues. At the moment, only 3 of the bodies have been identified. Both the bodies and the evidence were transferred to the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF).

In a statement, the State Prosecutor's Office detailed that, according to investigations, crimes related to the disappearance of people were committed on this property.

Therefore, the investigation is carried out by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Missing Persons (FEPD), in collaboration with the IJCF.

May 10, 2020 / AP

The Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office reported on Saturday the discovery of 25 bodies in a clandestine grave in the municipality of El Salto, in Jalisco.

Work on the farm in the La Piedrera neighborhood began on Thursday and, in addition to the remains of the unidentified deceased, five bags were found "in which it is presumed there could be more human remains ," the prosecution said in a statement.

This is the first discovery of clandestine burials in Jalisco during the COVID health emergency after excavations in the municipalities of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Zapopan and Tonalá, which until the first days of March had reported the location of 60 bodies.

June 24, 2020 / AP

In Jalisco they found more than 400 bodies in clandestine graves in a year and a half, and the number continues to grow. It is the entity with the largest number of missing persons and bodies found in graves during the current administration. At least 10% of homicide victims are buried underground.

In Jalisco the true level of violence is hidden underground. In just a year and a half of the current administration, there are 428 bodies of murdered people discovered in clandestine graves in various municipalities of the state, a number that will continue to increase after the discovery of five more graves that have not yet been reviewed.

The bodies that have been identified - just under half - correspond mostly to people reported missing or not located. In Jalisco, there are more than 2,300 women and men reported in this condition just so far in the current administration.

The number of bodies discovered in the graves is such that it has raised the total number of homicides reported in Jalisco by more than 10 %, which in turn is the fourth entity with the highest number of murders in the country.

Until last week, for example, crime incidence data published by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) gave Jalisco a balance of 700 homicide victims between January and April 2020. 

Last weekend the figure said figure was modified and rose to 888 victims.

In an explanatory note sent to the SESNSP, Jalisco specifies that this increase is due to the results of expert reports carried out by the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences that allowed 160 bodies to be identified in clandestine graves located in January; three in graves located in February; 22 more victims whose remains were located in graves in March; and another three more in April.

The Jalisco prosecutor, Gerardo Octavio Solis, had announced at a conference last weekend that the numbers of intentional homicides would increase due to the confirmed findings in the graves.

According to the official, in total there are 215 bodies located in clandestine graves this year, also counting those found in May. The graves where these bodies have been located are located, mainly, on land located in the municipalities of Zapopan, Tlajomulco and Tlaquepaque.

However, he warned that the number of victims will grow because five other points have been located where the remains of an as yet undetermined number of people were also illegally buried.

Preliminarily he announced that in an area known as Santa Anita (Tlaquepaque) 36 bags with human remains were located, while in the La Higuera neighborhood (Zapopan), 39 bags with remains were found.