Guanajuato: Rio Laja, The River Of The Dead

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Video translation is as follows: 

Ruth Barrios Fuentes: They call it the river of the dead. The dispute between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has turned the Laja River into a corpse dump since 2019. The river located in Guanajuato originates from the Jesús Maria Dam in San Felipe and crosses six other municipalities. Dolores Hidalgo, San Miguel de Allende, Comonfort, Celaya, Villagrán, and Cortázar.

A report from the State Attorney General's Office indicates that thirty bodies were found from 2019 to 2021. Twenty-one men and nine women. Twenty-four cadavers had gunshot wounds. And two more had their hands  tied. 

In the first four months of the year, local media reported another body found in the river. The victim also had traces of torture.

David Saucedo: Almost all the people kidnapped and thrown into the river beforehand went through a process of torture. Normally drug dealers, assassins, spies from rival organizations are abducted to purge them of information about the competition. Security houses, police officers who are collaborating with them, drug sales outlets are also disclosed. This information benefits them and they are killed and then thrown into the river.

Ruth Barrios Fuentes: The Laja River has an extension of 3,400 kilometers. Next to the waterway there are houses. However, the inhabitants refuse to talk about the violence in this perimeter. The largest number of corpses found belong to a group of individuals between twenty to thirty years of age. 

The struggle between both organizations has increased the homicides in Celaya by thirty two percent from January to April 2022. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System places this municipality as the most violent city in the country.

For the local police, the authorities haven’t been outmatched. 

Jesús Ignacio Rivera Peralta: Putting things in context we have never been outmatched. Never. No institution of the state is outmatched. We have programs and coordinated work in this regard.

  Ruth Barrios Fuentes

Foro Tv