Veracruz: Victim's Remains Delivered to Family in Plastic Garbage Bags

"Yaqui" for Borderland Beat

The victim's mother at a prosecutor's office in Veracruz with the bags containing the remains of her son.

Eladio's family searched and found his remains on their own. Natalia Aguirre would like to take him to a cemetery and begin her grief, but the bureaucratic procedures denied her that opportunity.

Meanwhile, the recalcitrant heat and a nauseating smell emanating from the black bags permeates the woman's face mask and the walls of the Las Choapas law enforcement sub-unit .

An official in Veracruz has been fired over the incident:

A senior law enforcement official in Veracruz has been fired after the recently-located remains of a 30-year-old man were delivered to his family in black plastic bags on Saturday.

The Veracruz Attorney General’s Office (FGE) announced Monday that Alberto Torres Rivera, head of its sub-unit in the municipality of Las Choapas, had been dismissed for delivering the remains of Eladio Aguirre Chable, who disappeared in April 2020, to his family in the bags, which weren’t even sealed.

His dismissal came after members of a Coatzacoalcos-based collective made of up mothers of missing persons denounced the way in which the man’s remains were handed over to his family.

The Colectivo Madres en Búsqueda Coatzacoalcos called for criminal sanctions to be imposed and for Torres and Las Choapas prosecutor Lenin Juárez to be sacked.

The Las Choapas sub-unit of the FGE delivered the body in “deplorable” conditions without complying with its obligations in accordance with the legal framework that applies to missing persons and without abiding by “necessary forensic standards,” it said.

Eladio's body was located in recent days thanks to the work of the collective Mothers in Search Coatzacoalcos that, according to an anonymous report, inspected a vacant lot in the municipality of Agua Dulce.

The collective organization said the insensitive way in which the man’s body was delivered to his family  was "with great indignation and pain the cruel, degrading, inhuman and revictimizing treatment that the Aguirre Chablé family has suffered."

After the discovery, the FGE came to begin the removal of the remains. And without further ado, he handed them over to the family in plastic bags, violating all the protocols stipulated in the Law for the Protection of Victims of Crime.

Candelaria and her daughter Natalia spent all of March 26 completing forms until the prosecutor Lenin Juárez agreed to sign the delivery of the skeleton. However, he would have told them that it was too late, to go the next day to the Las Choapas Forensic Medical Service.

The women, outraged, were crushed. The mother asked to look at the corpse in the Semefo pantheon to be convinced that it was Eladio. There were no doubts. The jaw and three overlapping teeth convinced her.

Prosecutor Alberto Torres Rivera told Natalia Aguirre to notify her funeral home to pass the remains to the Las Choapas prosecution unit. The sister went to that place where there were more forms to sign.

Eladio Aguirre Chable (30 years old) made a living in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo. There he worked as a taxi driver where he transported tourists. On April 21, 2020, he paid a visit to Las Choapas to visit with his mother, Candelaria, and his children.

That trip was quick, because one of his children was sick. As soon as it improved, he planned to return to Quintana Roo to continue to make a living with tips in dollars. But his plans were not fulfilled: he was deprived of his liberty on a Monday and his whereabouts were not heard from again.

“We demand the immediate dismissal of prosecutor Lenin Juárez and Alberto Torres; the rights of victims must be guaranteed,” they said.

In addition to announcing Torres’ dismissal, Veracruz Attorney General Verónica Hernández Giadáns said Monday that an investigation had been opened to identify all of the public servants responsible for violating the General Victims Law as well as state and federal protocols that apply to the treatment of bodies of missing persons.

She issued an apology to Aguirre’s family and said she was committed to eradicating practices that violate victims’ rights.

The attorney general added that “exemplary punishments” will be imposed on those found to be responsible for the delivery of the man’s body to avoid any repeat of “such regrettable actions.”

She didn’t say whether Juárez, the Las Choapas prosecutor, would remain in his job but issued a stern demand to all FGE employees.

“The necessary investigations are carried out to impose exemplary sanctions in order to avoid the repetition of such regrettable events. I reiterate my demand to the public servants of this institution to adhere strictly to the law and to apply it with sensitivity and respect to human rights. I will not tolerate a single act that is removed from the principles that govern the institution that I represent,” Hernández said.

The State Human Rights Commission (CEDH) initiated two complaint procedures, one against the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) for delivering in the municipality of Las Choapas the remains of a person reported as missing inside bags of garbage.

The second was against the municipal public security directorate of Atzacán - a district located in the central mountainous area of ​​Veracruz - for the murder of a man with intellectual disabilities at the hands of a municipal policeman.

In the case of Las Choapas, the ECHR initiated the ex officio complaint DAV / 0093/2021 after learning that the body of Eladio Aguirre Chablé, who disappeared in May 2020, was delivered to his family in two black plastic bags.

After the discovery, the FGE came to begin the removal of the remains. And without further ado, he handed them over to the family in plastic bags, violating all the protocols stipulated in the Law for the Protection of Victims of Crime.

The ECHR is already providing accompaniment to the victims and is investigating the responsibilities of the FGE regional officials in Las Choapas.

In her social networks, the head of the FGE, Verónica Hernández Giadáns, reported this Monday that she started the folder FGE / FIN / 16/2021 to establish criminal responsibilities against Las Choapas officials, accused of transgressing the aforementioned law, as well as than search and investigation protocols.

Hernández reported that Jessica Lizbeth Orozco Prescenda will be the new prosecutor in charge of the Comprehensive Subunit of Procurement of Justice in Las Choapas, while the previous person in charge, Alberto Torres Rivera, and the prosecutor Lenin Juárez Jiménez, who delivered the body, are investigated.

Candelaria expected to receive the remains found of her brother, however, the authorities gave it to her in garbage bags.

The Eladio family reported his disappearance and his file began to be disseminated by the State Search Commission. The months passed without news, until Candelaria Chable received an anonymous sketch that said: Look in this place for your son , there they went to throw him away.

"Ignore that , they want to make you look like a fool":

Candelaria received the sketch on March 25, when members of the group to which she belongs searched for bodies on properties in the Los Tuxtlas region. She gave notice to the Prosecutor of Veracruz , but the response was blunt: "Ignore it, maybe want to extort you ";  the prosecutor retorted Lenin Juarez Jimenez.

The mother saved her courage and ignored those words. Sola went to a place marked on the map, near the Tonalá River, in the municipality of Agua Dulce. Candelaria rented a boat and found a skeleton that still had clothing attached to it that Eladio was wearing on the day of his disappearance .

In the water floated a polo shirt , blue jeans, black tennis shoes and a cap. "It's him," Candelaria said and sent a photograph to the FGE's expert services personnel. The authorities there were surprised but  sent a vehicle to collect the skeleton.

There are more than 70,000 missing persons in Mexico, including a large number of people who disappeared in recent years in Veracruz, where many hidden graves have been discovered.

Source: Reforma / MND / LaJornada / LSR / Piedepagina