In Ciudad Juárez, the urban landscape is intertwined with stories of anguish and hope, where entire families continue a tireless search for their missing loved ones.
Translated by Jesús Ronquillo / Circuito Frontera
The days become a marathon of personal investigations, pasting posters, organizing marches and checking for any clues that might lead them to the truth.
In the midst of this silence, there are those who find a ray of hope every time a clandestine grave is discovered, for there could be the answer they are looking for.
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A clandestine grave is any place where one or more corpses and/or human remains are illegally buried with the purpose of concealing them, deliberately or indiscriminately, and prevents the authorities from sanctioning and investigating the reasons for the burial.
These spaces have been used as clandestine cemeteries throughout Mexico, and it is estimated that there are at least 115,000 missing persons in the country.
Due to this situation, civil organizations such as Article 19, Data Cívica, Fondo Canadá, the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group collaborated in the development of the Citizens’ Platform of Graves.
In the absence of state action, families of missing persons have taken the initiative, undertaking search and documentation efforts, often at significant personal risk.
According to the Plataforma Ciudadana de Fosas, from 2006 to 2023, 222 clandestine graves were reported in the state of Chihuahua by the Chihuahua State Prosecutor’s Office, 19 by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and 96 by different media outlets.
Although at the state level, the municipalities with the most findings were Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Ojinaga, Madera and Aquiles Serdán.
However, Ciudad Juárez is the municipality with the highest number of clandestine graves in the state of Chihuahua, where 57 clandestine graves were reported by the press; 18 by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and 153 by the State Prosecutor’s Office.
Meanwhile, from 2020 to 2023, in Ciudad Juárez, 16 clandestine graves were documented by the press, none by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and 37 by the State Prosecutor’s Office.
The firs documented clandestine grave
According to newspaper archives, the first clandestine grave in Ciudad Juárez was documented in the house of Parsioneros #3633, in the subdivision Las Acequias, on January 23, 2004.
Officials from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), supported by DEA and ICE agents from the United States, had discovered the first modern “narco-grave” on this border.
The house had been used as a “safe house” by members of the Juárez Cartel, under the command of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and his main operator on the border: Heriberto Santillan-Tabares.
In this house, at least 12 bodies were exhumed after several days of excavation.
After 20 years of this first discovery, dozens of victims have been located in clandestine graves or cemeteries in this town.
As of March 14, a total of 17 bodies and human remains were found in a property located on Rivera Papaloapan and Rivera Lerma streets, in the Lomas del Valle subdivision.
At this site, agents of the State Prosecutor’s Office (FGE) conducted excavations for several days.
This discovery is in addition to previous findings in the same area, as in September 2023, authorities found six bodies, in addition to skeletal remains.
Unofficially, it was also learned that personnel from the missing persons department of the Prosecutor’s Office suspect that there may be more bodies in the grave.
On Tuesday, February 13 of this year, a banner became the center of attention in the western sector of Ciudad Juarez, warning about the presence of a “clandestine cemetery” in a house in the Altavista neighborhood.
The banner indicated that there were at least 30 bodies buried inside the house marked with the number #1171 on Cafeto Street.
The banner was located on the Díaz Ordaz Viaduct, where it was mentioned that an alleged inmate of the Social Rehabilitation Center (CERESO), identified as Martin, alias “El Pitufo”, had buried at least 30 corpses.
That same week, agents from the State Attorney General’s Office went to the address, although without giving official information, the agency’s vans were observed guarding the area.
However, on February 15, unofficially, this newspaper learned that two bodies were found in this place.
Missing persons
Mothers, fathers, brothers and sons face daily uncertainty and fear, but also the determination not to give up the search, in a collective effort that defies despair and refuses to forget.
As of May 16, 2024, Ciudad Juárez became the municipality with the highest number of cases of missing persons in the state of Chihuahua, with a total of 1,4 thousand cases.
In this period, a total of 470 people were under the age of 18 when they went missing, with the majority being boys at 63.62 percent. While from January to May of this year, two girls also disappeared.
These data were compiled by the organization Red Lupa and the Mexican Institute for Human Rights and Democracy A.C., in the Chihuahua section of their state monitoring reports.
According to this report, the five municipalities with the highest number of disappearances are Ciudad Juárez with 1,4 thousand, Chihuahua with 522, Cuautémoc with 533, Nuevo Casas Grandes with 197 and Hidalgo del Parral with 191.
According to Red Lupa’s state report, a total of 3,710 people are missing in the state as of May 2024.
Also, 62.15 percent of the cases of missing and unaccounted for persons are in the age range between 15 and 39 years old. While there are 123 cases with no age referenced.
As well as 27.61 percent of the cases of missing and unaccounted for women are in the age range between 15 and 19 years old.
The cases of disappearance in Chihuahua begin to be registered from 1972, as well as an increase was observed from 2007, being 2017 the year with the highest concentration of cases, with 352 people still missing.
Meanwhile, in 2020 and 2021, the cases registered in the state decreased, but in the years 2022 and 2023 there were significant increases.
