Latest secret grave 1 of many around Juárez, bodies show signs of torture
By Diana Washington Valdez
Posted: 03/23/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT


Mexican authorities have excavated more than 100 bodies of men and women from clandestine graves in Juárez over the past 14 years.
The latest such grave -- with the bodies of seven men and two women -- was discovered March 13-14 in a desert patch near the Villas de Alcala area in far northeastern Juárez, across the border from San Elizario.

Photographs by Chihuahua state forensic specialists show bodies in various stages of decomposition. Some show signs of torture. One man's hands were cuffed behind him. A police badge was also found at the site.

Chihuahua state officials said no one has been arrested in connection with the grisly find, and the case continues to be investigated.

According to a statement by the forensic investigators in the Villas de Alcala, "no evidence was found at the (site) related to the burials."

The murders of people whose bodies are found in secret graves also appear to be among the toughest to solve.

El Paso's FBI office got involved in a Juárez "mass graves" case in 1999 after receiving a tip that Americans were buried at several sites in the city and at a remote desert ranch south of Juárez.

David Alba, the FBI special agent-in-charge at the time, oversaw the binational "Operation Plaza Sweep" that uncovered the bodies of nine men. Four of the victims were El Pasoans.

"The drug dealers are still fighting for turf," said Alba, who is retired. "(Juárez-El Paso) is a major smuggling pipeline. I feel bad about what's going on, and there

are many innocent bystanders who are trying to survive in the middle of a horrible situation."
In the 1999 case, the U.S. attorney's office indicted Mexican drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes for ordering eight of the nine deaths, plus two others unrelated to the graves.

Alba, who also served in the Drug Enforcement Administration, can only speculate on why the cartel buries some of its victims but kills others in the open.

"Some of the bodies they don't want you to find. They try to hide them whenever they don't want to call too much attention to themselves," he said.

In 2004, Mexican federal authorities, acting on a tip from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, dug up 12 bodies in the backyard of a house in the Juárez Acequias neighborhood. More than a dozen suspects were transported to Mexico City for questioning in that case.

Later, the investigation apparently came to a standstill. The Mexican official who oversaw the Acequias case, Santiago Vasconcelos, died in a plane crash Nov. 4 in Mexico City.

The same case became controversial after an ICE informant alleged the U.S. federal agency failed to prevent several of the deaths in which a Chihuahua state police commander was implicated. ICE officials denied the allegation.

Last year, at least 46 bodies were discovered in separate graves in the Bella Hermosa and La Cuesta neighborhoods.

Nothing has come of that case, either, and for a long time, Mexican federal and state authorities argued over who had jurisdiction in these cases. Recently, Mexican federal officials returned the cases to Chihuahua state authorities for disposition.

Over the years, the bodies of women also were found in clusters in shallow graves, according to Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May Our Daughters Return Home), which advocates for hundreds of women who have been killed and abducted in Juárez since 1993.

Authorities said the Carrillo Fuentes cartel seized control of the Juárez smuggling corridor in 1993.

Next month, the Inter-American Court in Chile is expected to hear testimony about how Mexican officials handled the investigation of eight women whose bodies were found in 2001 in a Juárez cotton field.

Marisela Ortiz, a founder of the Nuestras Hijas, said "the Mexican government itself will be on trial in the case before the international court."

Jaime Hervella, an El Paso businessman and co-founder of the International Association of Relatives and Friends of Disappeared Persons, is asking the FBI to help families of victims find relatives who may be missing in Mexico.

A Juárez member of the organization contends the cartel is suspected of abducting more than 900 people during the past 14 years, including 30 to 50 U.S. citizens.

"We would like for the FBI to help the families who want to know if they match the DNA samples taken from victims of the (clandestine) graves in Juárez," Hervella said. "The families are afraid of the Mexican authorities, and won't go to their offices.

"I heard the FBI in McAllen is helping families there with a similar issue, and that's why I decided to contact our FBI. I'm waiting for the official in charge to give us a response," Hervella said.


Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com






Juárez graves
Clandestine found graves in Juárez since 1993:

2009: The bodies of seven men and two women were found near Villas de Alcala in far northeastern Juárez.

2008: The bodies of 34 men, two women and a child were found in the La Cuesta neighborhood.

2008: Nine bodies are found in the Bella Hermosa neighborhood.

2004: The remains of 12 men are discovered in the backyard of a home in the Acequias neighborhood.

2002-2003: The remains of between six and nine women are found in Cristo Negro.

2001: The bodies of eight women are unearthed in a cotton field at Ejercito Nacional, near the new U.S. consulate.

1999: The bodies of nine men are found by the 1999 FBI-Mexico investigation.

1996: The remains of eight women are found in Lomas de Poleo in northwestern Juárez.

1995: The bodies of nine women are found in Lote Bravo, south of the Juárez international airport.

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