| Citizen Excursions Into Mexico's Juarez Valley of Dollars and Death Kent Paterson - CIP Americas | |
| go to original October 29, 2016 |
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Relatives of missing Juarez murder victims search the desert for remains (Ruptly TV)
It’s anybody’s guess how many victims of violence are still buried somewhere in the Juarez Valley on the Mexico-U.S. border. For starters, there is the still largely unexcavated Navajo Arroyo, where the remains of 18 young women who went missing from nearby Ciudad Juarez have been recovered and identified since late 2011, according to the local daily Norte.
“If Ayotzinapa is an emblematic case, Mexico is filled with emblematic cases. The Navajo Arroyo is another one,” said Dr. Julia Monarrez, a Ciudad Juarez sociologist who’s studied the disappearance and murder of women in the border region for decades.
The Navajo Arroyo victims mainly disappeared during 2009-2010, when Juarez and its adjacent rural valley paralleling the Rio Grande were engulfed in extreme violence and access to the valley was controlled by armed bands of criminals or police and military contingents.
Strongly suspecting more victims rest in the huge desert gully, dozens of human rights activists, relatives of victims and supporters fanned out across the Navajo Arroyo last month looking for more remains. Because of ongoing violence, Chihuahua state and federal police agents provided security.
Assisted by the Mexico City-based Grupo de Accion por los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Social (Human Rights and Social Justice Action Group) and the experienced hands of Grupo Vida of Torreon, a relatives’ organization that has successfully recovered numerous human remains in its home state of Coahuila, the citizen-led search covered approximately 354 of the 8,000 hectares comprising the zone.
During two days of probing, searchers found a total of 54 suspected human remains as well as a purse and clothing, including a t-shirt stained with what appeared to be blood.
...Another search by NGOs and relatives yielded more suspected remains and women’s attire on October 22; activists plan a third search later in November.
Read the rest at CIP Americas
Related: 'Mexico Is One Big Cemetery.' The Search for the Secret Graves of the Disappeared (The Los Angeles Times)
Related: El Sol de Mexico Reports Clandestine Graves Found in 16 Mexican States (Prensa Latina)
Related: Maps Lead Searchers to Bodies in Veracruz (Mexico News Daily)
Related: He Said, 'I'm on My Way, Mama.' Then Like Thousands of Others in Mexico, He Vanished (The Los Angeles Times)
Resources:
Grupo de Accion por los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Social, Mexico City
Red Mesa de Mujeres de Ciudad Juarez
Mexicanos en el Exilio, El Paso
Foundation for Justice, Mexico City
NGO letter on Jorge Gonzalez Nicolas appointment
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