DURANGO, SET VIOLENTO

Durango, Dgo. Mex. During the war that is fighting against the drug cartels in Mexico, violence and other related events have increased their level of intensity, causing increasing fear in Mexican society.

A few months ago in Durango city, -capital of the northern mexican state, which bears the same name- a series of kidnappings of ordinary citizens, in addition of recognized members of local society, were being given at an alarming rate, leading the entity, -according to figures from the federal authorities- to become the second state in the country, where more committed this crime.
By the middle of last March, to the kidnappings wave added a new series of violent acts that began to occur all over the capital.
Armed clashes, private properties burned, missing people, decapitated bodies and some others charred, -all accompanied by “narco-messages”- appeared on different parts of the city.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Preventive Police, after a series of raids in the city of Durango, managed to arrest some members of an armed group identified with the Sinaloa cartel, currently fighting and defending their territory places from other organized crime groups. From their capture, information emerged about the existence of clandestine graves at certain points in the same city, where criminals buried many of its victims.
It was then, and before the start of the "Semana Santa", -a holiday season in Mexico, which recalls the last days of Christ's life- when it began with the location of the nicknamed "Narc-pits" to continue then to a mass exhumation, where from the beginning to its completion, a lot of human remains were sprouting. Federal authority estimate it could be removed more bodies compared with the "Narc-pits" located in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.
Durango clandestine graves are located within cluster housing complexes, and very close to educational institutions. The exhumation work began to take place without the most minimal standards of safety required when a job like this has to be done. Locals complained of smelling a pungent stench and a rare dust that was perceived in the environment, so they are still fearful of infections, or some other serious diseases that can be caused by the excavation. After more than 15 work days, state authorities in health, too late began to intervene to provide health measures to the habitants, whom until before the macabre finding, were living between the dead without realizing.

According to information issued by federal authorities, more than a half of those buried are people linked to the Zetas cartel, a criminal group that once tried to move into Durango, and have been awarded to a series of abductions and extortions in the state capital that ever in its history had been given.
And although until just a couple of days of work between the State and federal agencies seemed to cum developed in harmony with respect to the exhumation of more than 100 bodies in clandestine graves, today there are indications that the provision is being lost
between State Attorney and the Federal Police to follow up on the whole, of what´s related to the "Narc-pits" in Durango capital.
Although the Federal Police claimed that the removal of carcasses is the responsibility of the state authorities, the General Attorney in the State of Durango, Ramiro Ortiz Aguirre, at 17 days after the mass exhumation began in these clandestine graves, has declined to continue reporting on data related to these
findings, since it ensures that it is the responsibility of federal authorities, because they are the ones that have the research.
The Forensic Medical Service of the General Attorney of the State of Durango, does not have enough space to store both corpses, for that reason they rented a refrigerated road transport, with which they have been covering the demand for space has led to the gruesome discovery. Some relatives of missing persons have already appeared in person to the state authorities, to see if any of the exhumed bodies is one of his missing family member.
Due to the advanced state of decomposition of exhumed bodies, it is very difficult to recognize at a glance. Neither the Attorney General of the State of Durango, and the state delegation of General Attorney of the Republic, have not the equipment and infrastructure needed for DNA testing in the entity, which is only way to identify the bodies. For those reasons, the tests must be sent to Mexico City, for what is being asked to the families concerned, to assume the full cost of such a test means.
The “narc-pits” found in Durango and Tamaulipas, have become the most striking finding to date since the start of the brutal drug war in Mexico. This action undertaken by President Felipe Calderon has claimed more than 34 000 lives. The offensive has only led to a fragmentation of the Mexican cartels, which has been an increase of several groups fighting for their territories throughout the country. Meanwhile, in the clandestine graves of Durango, the body count has ended with figures of approximately 102 to106 corpses, but there are information of a third discovery of a new "narc-pit”, so the number of dead bodies could rise precipitously.
At the conclusion of the work of exhumation in the late evening of Thursday April 28, it beginning to cause new clashes between criminals and police forces, where two policemen were killed and others wounded. Everything indicates that we will continue living in Durango difficult days, like in the rest of the country.

* Victor Montenegro is editor of the local weekly publication
“El Contralor”, “Contralíneas” magazine columnist and www.lobotimes.net virtual diary of the Autonomous University of Durango opinion columnist

* The review is based on journalistic notes, published on local
media in the city of Durango, Dgo. Mexico.


(En el pasado Durango se distinguió por sus paisajes cuasi cinematográficos en donde se rodaron cintas del far west gringo, con pueblos de utilería que incluía saloon, hotel y el despacho del sheriff. Ahora la violencia ha sacado de cuajo ese pasado acartonado e idílico, donde los ciudadanos de paz ya piden esquina. Nota de Víctor Montenegro tomada de la web.)