“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
The National Registry of Missing and Unaccounted for Persons of the Ministry of the Interior reports more than 110,000 missing persons in Mexico.
The Mexican National Guard found on Thursday four bodies in a clandestine grave in the state of Zacatecas that presumably belong to the four young individuals, one of them a U.S. citizen, who disappeared on December 25 in the border between Zacatecas and Jalisco.
The Zacatecas Attorney General’s Office informed in a press release of the discovery of an “irregular burial zone” with human bodies and other evidence in the ranch “Monte de la Presa Vieja”, in the municipality of Tepetongo, near where the four young people from Jalisco last communicated with each other.
“The preliminary analysis of forensic anthropology shows that they could be at least four different victims, three females and one male; for the moment they remain unidentified since it will be necessary to carry out a confrontation of genetic profiles to determine their identity”, the text deepened.
The prosecutor’s office had notified on Tuesday that the National Guard and the Army found the truck in which the young people were traveling in the community “El Cuidado”, close to the ranch where the grave is located.
Next to the vehicle they found another in whose trunk was the body of a person between 20 and 25 years old wearing a tactical uniform.
Daniela Márquez Pichardo, 31 years old; her fiancé José Melesio Gutiérrez Farias, 36 years old; her sister Viviana Márquez Pichardo, 26 years old, and her cousin Irma Paola Vargas Montoya, 27 years old, disappeared on Christmas in the town of Víboras, municipality of Tepetongo, near the border with Jalisco.
Melesio Gutiérrez, a U.S. citizen and resident of the state of Ohio, had traveled to Colotlán, in northern Jalisco, on December 23 to spend the Christmas holidays with his fiancée.
The group decided to go on a trip to the town of Jerez, Zacatecas, on December 25; upon their return they communicated with their relatives for the last time while they were driving on Federal Highway 23, near Víboras, and then they were never heard from again.
At the same time, the Government of Jalisco informed that after intervening the municipal police of Colotlán and Villa Guerrero they found that some elements were carrying weapons that were not registered, besides the fact that the commissioners of both corporations did not show up and have not been located.
The border zone between Jeréz and Colotlán has been the scene of armed confrontations between organized crime groups during 2022 and there have also been reports of other disappearances.
The Interior Ministry’s National Registry of Disappeared and Missing Persons (RNPDNO) reports more than 110,000 missing persons in Mexico.
Jalisco is the state with the highest number of cases, with 15,043 as of January 18, followed by Tamaulipas, with 12,471, and the State of Mexico, with 11,884 cases. Zacatecas has 3,363 cases. EFE
MVS Noticias Borderland Beat Archives