Mexico City, Jan 14 (EFE).- At least 30 clandestine graves containing an estimated 50 victims buried by organized crime syndicates have been found by relatives of missing people over two days of searching in El Choyudo, a region in northwest Mexico where the Sonoran Desert meets the Sea of Cortez.
The first finds at the site, located 90 kilometers from Sonora state capital Hermosillo, occurred on Friday night.
On Saturday, the Madres Buscadoras (Searching Mothers) collective found 19 clandestine graves and an exposed body. But on Sunday other groups of women with missing relatives joined in and found at least 11 more graves.
«We completed our search in Choyudo, with a total of 30 graves. We do not know the exact number of bodies located, since Prosecutor’s Office personnel are still working on the graves. On Wednesday we will continue with the search work in the same place,» the collective said.
Between the two most important search groups in the region, the Searching Mothers and the Searching Warriors of Guaymas and Empalme, there are more than 60 women, including grandmothers, spouses, sisters, aunts, nieces and daughters, searching in the desert in the hope of finding their missing loved ones.
The searching mothers said that in just one of the graves they found the remains of six people, while in several they found two or three victims, so they estimated that in total there could be more than 50 bodies, including several women and young men.
The area is being guarded by the National Guard and the State Public Security Police, while dozens of forensic experts from the Scientific Intelligence Laboratory and the Ministerial Criminal Investigation Agency are working at the scene, collecting tissue samples and evidence to try to identify them.
The Attorney General’s Office in Sonora recognized the discovery, but said that to determine the number of victims it is necessary to wait for genetic testing, which is why they are calling on families of the missing to come forward to take DNA samples.
According to specialists consulted at the site and the experience that searchers have developed over the years of looking in areas controlled by organized crime syndicates, among the remains found at the site, there are victims who were disposed of just weeks ago, and some that have been buried for months.
Due to the number of sites, work in the area will take several days. On Monday in Hermosillo, the search groups will meet with Teresa Guadalupe Reyes Sahagún, head of the National Search Commission, to get to know each other and coordinate the search and identification efforts for the victims.
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