Since 2009, 660 clandestine graves have been discovered in Guanajuato: report

Jessica Xantomila

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 1, 2024, p. 11

Between January 2009 and June 30, 2024, at least 660 clandestine graves have been found in Guanajuato in 33 of its 46 municipalities, from which 1,245 bodies or human remains were exhumed, according to research by the Universidad Iberoamericana in León.

In a report, based on data from the state prosecutor’s office and the State Search Commission, as well as news articles and reports from groups of missing persons, researcher Fabrizio Lorusso indicates that the 10 municipalities with the most burial sites of this type and remains found are distributed along the industrial corridor and include large cities and small towns such as Irapuato, Salamanca, Juventino Rosas, Acambaro, Celaya, Salvatierra, Villagran, Cortazar, Leon and Moroleon.

He warns that the peak in the number of discoveries was reached in 2020, with the registration of 309 bodies in 145 clandestine graves; this was followed by last year, with 243 bodies in 130 sites of this type.

Lorusso, an academic from the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Iberoamericana and member of the Platform for Peace and Justice in Guanajuato, points out that of the 1,245 bodies exhumed in 15 years, 995, that is, 80 percent of the total, were found between 2020 and June 2024.

He explains that in Guanajuato the number of missing persons It has multiplied almost seven times, going from 621 in April 2018 to 4,272 in June 2024, without considering the unreported figure of those who do not report.

He says that 85 percent of the cases are men, and the rest are women. As for the age of the victims, he says that 95 percent of the total are over 18 years old.

The municipalities with the most missing persons, according to data as of March 15, are Celaya (505), Irapuato (472), León (459), Villagrán (265) and Pénjamo (222).

In this context, Lorusso points out, given the violence and the inadequacy of the institutional response, from 2020 to 2023 the number of search groups increased from two to 25, bringing together more than a thousand familiesRegarding information on mass graves in the state, he stressed that the data on unidentified bodies are inconsistent between the sources consulted and depending on the year.

There are 838 bodies or individual remains in the mass graves of municipal cemeteries, according to information provided by the municipalities themselves. However, according to information provided by the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Guanajuato, consulted in 2023, these were 825while in 2024 He replied that there are only 376.