Guadalajara’s Forensic Sciences Institute (morgue) is sufficiently well equipped and staffed to process the increasing number of mutilated corpses being discovered in Jalisco, Governor Enrique Alfaro declared after a tour of the facility this week.
Alfaro dismissed suggestions that the institute was in a crisis similar to the one last year when it was forced to store more than 300 unidentified corpses in refrigerated trucks due to lack of space.
His comments came as criticism of the state government grew following the recent discovery of 119 bags containing body parts in the Primavera Forest outside Guadalajara.
On Tuesday, Jacqueline Trujillo, the special prosecutor for missing persons cases in Jalisco, said that investigators have confirmed that the bags contained the remains of 27 men and two women, of which 13 have been fully pieced together and four identified by relatives.
While noting that three of those identified had criminal records, Trujillo stressed that their families will be treated with the same respect as all other victims.
Relatives of missing persons congregated outside the Forensics Institute in Tlaquepaque Tuesday to demand improved communication from authorities about their findings in the Primavera and inclusion in the identification process. “It may not be a crisis for (the governor) but it is for us,” said Maria Guadalupe Ramos, founder of Familias Unidas Por Nuestros Desaparecidos, who complained that the morguelacks funds and staff. “We need reliable results to give us certainty. That can’t happen if we don’t have trained personnel,” she said.
University of Guadalajara (UdG) Rector Ricardo Villanueva also weighed in, accusing the state government of a lack of sensitivity toward the families of the missing. In a strongly worded full-page (paid) announcement published in various local newspapers this week, the UdG noted that the discovery of so many bags of body parts was a sign that the “problem of insecurity and violence is much larger than the official figures tell us.” The letter also questioned the work of the Forensics Institute and their treatment of families. State Security chief Macedonio Tamez came in for criticism for his “unsubstantiated” comments that the victims were a consequence of a “settling of scores” among drug gangs.