Residents of the Chapala area are reeling under a pall of shock and dismay after learning that a number of its native sons were among the bodies of 18 persons found early Wednesday, May 9 in the boundaries of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos.
The dismembered corpses were piled up inside two vehicles that had been abandoned just off the Guadalajara-Ocotlan highway near the Santa Rosa junction where the roadway branches off toward Chapala.
At press time only of the eight of the dead bodies had been officially identified, all apparently among individuals abducted in the lakeside area over the past several weeks. By all accounts, the victims were known as upstanding citizens, students and ordinary working folks with no direct involvement in any type of criminal activity.
An anonymous tip led Ixtlahuacan police to the location of the murder victims shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, May 9. The human remains were hidden beneath a deflated air mattress and a plastic sheet in the interior of a dark red Ford EcoSport SUV and a gray Toyota Sienna van parked on a dirt road connecting with the Guadalajara-Chapala highway just north of the Santa Rosa junction. The road runs along the northern perimeter wall of Motel Eddy’s, set across the road from the popular Burritos de Moyahua restaurant. The crime scene is about six miles south of the Guadalajara International Airport and seven miles north of the Chapala town center.
According to Chapala police chief Reynol Contreras, the two vehicles closely fit the description of ones that have been identified in connection with recent criminal incidents in the lakeside area.
State authorities arrived on the scene within a hour and issued orders for the vehicles to be towed to the headquarters of the Jalisco Forensic Institute in Guadalajara for examination. Due to the conditions of the corpses, it took several hours to complete the full body count.
Later in the day Jalisco Attorney General Tomas Coronado made his initial statement, reporting that the killings were linked to the May 8 police raid of a safe house in the Jalisco municipality of Tala, where a dozen individuals had been held in captivity by a criminal gang. He indicated that the multiple kidnapping-murder plot had been cooked up by the Zeta drug cartel in retaliation for a mass homicide of 23 persons late last week in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
Concern in the lakeside area at the growing number of reports of abductions reached a head early on Monday, May 6, when a group of about 40 concerned residents gathered at the steps of Chapala city hall to stage a “peace protest.” Under the escort of Contreras and the local government’s legal counsel Moises Anaya, the protestors filed inside for a meeting with Chapala Mayor Jesus Cabrera. Citizens vented their frustrations, while the officials repeated pleas for active community cooperation in detecting the hideouts and identities of criminals.
After the meeting, officials at Chapala’s Ministerio Publico (public prosecutor’s office) told the Reporter that 14 missing persons cases in the Chapala-Jocotepec corridor have been opened over the past four weeks. At least six people from towns situated on the lake’s the south shore have also disappeared since mid-April. At midday Thursday, Coronado put the tally of missing persons in the entire lakeshore region at 34.
The list begins with a 17-year-old girl and two males aged 15 and 24 who were grabbed off the street in San Juan Cosala on April 21.
Three Guadalajara construction workers hired for a local building project were abducted by as they were walking along the highway near Wal-Mart on April 26. They were held in an upper Ajijic rental property until one of the men managed to escape while his captors slept. He ran to the town center to alert police, but the place was empty by the time officers arrived on the scene.
On May 3, two young men from Ajijic and a friend from San Antonio Tlayacapan disappeared without a trace while partying together at the Ajijic Malecon. The unlocked car of one of the victims was later discovered parked at that spot.
A middle-aged Ajijic resident mysteriously vanished from his home while his wife was busy feeding their children dinner.
Finally, on Sunday, May 6, three Chapala young men employed as waiters in San Juan Cosala were heading home on foot when several men forced them into a truck that pulled over on the shoulder of the highway in Riberas del Pilar. A young woman who had just left work at a nearby bar was also grabbed and driven away. Her female companion was able to run off and call for help.
All of the abductions occurred after dark. Families of the victims received no requests for ransom. Authorities say they have not unraveled any common threads to explain why these particular people were targeted.
Names of the deceased found in the two vehicles Wednesday that are confirmed to date are: Abel Paz Enciso, Carlos Jesus Martinez Delgado, David Martinez Velazquez, Juan Luis Sandoval Camarena, Miguel Mata Barragan, Jonathan Daniel Martinez, Elias Flores Hernandez, Heriberto Centeno and Julio Cesar Arana Aceves. Authorities say they may need a week or more to complete DNA and other forensic studies to identity the others.
Extra state and federal police presence has become highly visible in the south shore area since Wednesday. A Mexican Army convey was also seen in the area. News of the bust of a safe house in San Nicolas hit the wires just as the Reporter was going to press Thursday night.
Cabrera and Contreras say local police are doing the best they can to protect the public with limited manpower – at best, 60 officers on duty for each 24-hour shift – and whatever assistance can be rustled up from state police and neighboring municipalities. On the question of bringing in Mexican Army patrols, the mayor explained that military commanders have to make the call on where to best deploy troops.