Mexican extermination camps

Hallan “campos de exterminio” Zetas: 47 hornos crematorios o "cocinas" -
They find "extermination camps" Zetas: 47 crematoriums or "kitchens"

Gómez Farías, Tamaulipas .- Macabre find in Tamaulipas, the undersecretary of human rights in the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, located an "extermination camp" of the Zetas, in this there are 47 crematoria.

The federal official said that this could be one of the "kitchens" to undo larger bodies of the state. The property, the size of two football fields, was used by the Los Zetas criminal group to burn 200-liter drums to hundreds of people. "Zelas" extermination camps: 47 crematoria or "kitchens"

The horror that Tamaulipas has experienced since 2009 is unparalleled anywhere in the country. The "war against drug trafficking" has left thousands of people absent, dead and displaced. And despite the fact that several years of the bloodiest era have passed, the Mexican authorities keep a very brief record of what happened in this border state with the United States. For now, the new government intends to investigate and help the relatives of the disappeared to carry out a thorough search. The "accompaniment will be continuous," assured Encinas to the families this Friday.
El Rancho el Papalote, Los Zetas hideaway

Since 2013, the Mexican government learned of the existence of this ranch due to the declaration of a detainee. However, the authorities left the property abandoned. It was until September 2017 when groups of victims took the initiative to find their missing relatives. What they found was an "extermination camp".

El Rancho el Papalote turned out to be a good hiding place for Los Zetas. Here they developed a system to incinerate bodies; in 200-liter drums, corpses were burned with diesel and firewood for hours. The remains were thrown into a nearby river that watered (scattered) the bones. Since then, thousands of human fragments have been scattered among the vegetation and the earth. The passage of cattle and the weather did the rest, for a puzzle that seems impossible to put together.
For the relatives of the disappeared, the Mexican government finished spoiling the case. "He spent valuable time," says Graciela Pérez, who is looking for her daughter Milinaly, who disappeared in 2012.

Since September 2017, around thirty relatives of the disappeared have divided their work to search for remains in El Papalote. With shovels, fill a couple of buckets with earth where there are possibly human remains, then deposit the material collected in screens where they get rid of the fine clay; the stones and wood are meticulously checked. A bony remnant can be the size of a seed. The searchers also collect objects that could contribute to the investigation: a button, a prosthesis, a piece of cloth. To date they have collected 84 proceedings with thousands of remains found.

The works could last more than a year

The State Commission of Attention to Victims (Ceav), the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Attorney General of the Republic (formerly PGR) supervise the removal of remains on the premises. There are experts who say that the work on this site could last more than a year.

On Friday the 22nd, Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, Undersecretary of Human Rights of the Interior, arrives at the place at 10 o'clock in the morning in an armored truck. The 74-year-old man struggles with a biosecurity suit to enter the search area. It is also sprayed with insecticide to avoid the bite of the bugs or the "pinolillo" that leaves welts on the body.
Relatives of the disappeared take the opportunity to ask for help. A woman approaches and tells her to listen. That in 2010 a truck with 29 people disappeared with everything and driver. That his brother was there. That the case has not been investigated. That's how Tamaulipas is. Please take your case into account. Then, the woman puts on latex gloves and mask to look for bones in the ground.

An older man carefully checks the earth for bones, wants to find a clue about his son; He pauses with the arrival of the federal official who has the task of finding 40 thousand disappeared in Mexico and explains: "I have to stop working to come here to search," he says, before asking for financial support to keep looking
The groups Voice and Dignity for Ours and Milynali Red explain to Encinas that the problem is not to find the bones, but their identification, because once the remains are delivered to the General Prosecutor's Office, the remains are not identified or contrasted with genetic profiles .

"It is not possible that we are accumulating and accumulating remains," says Edith Pérez, of Voice and Dignity for Ours. The woman explains that the body identification work done by the FGR is too slow. To such an extent that the collected remains end up being forgotten in government laboratories.
- Is there forensic ability to analyze such small samples? - Encinas is asked.

-I am convinced that yes-. The official says, before adding that the Attorney General's Office is "underutilized".

- Do you have more cases like this in Tamaulipas?

-We have complaints in practically the entire state.

The Zetas and the Gulf Cartel carried out a bloody battle for Tamaulipas, which is the main passage of goods and people to reach the United States. The violence has diminished but the battle between the cartels is not over.
Several victim organizations have located at least 47 places that could be used as "kitchens" by Los Zetas. In these sites located between the limits of Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí have not been investigated by the Attorney General.

Before the monumental company that faces, Encinas says it will be necessary to invent formulas to locate the absent. "We're going to have to tropicalize search methods."