157 unclaimed corpses really smell in Guadalajara

The lack of infrastructure to protect unidentified bodies has forced the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) to preserve 157 corpses in the refrigerated trucks has been stinking up neighborhoods throughout Guadalajara.

Until Thursday of last week, the trailer was in a warehouse in Colonia La Duraznera, in the municipality of Tlaquepaque, but due to pressure from neighbors who complained of bad smells, the municipal president, María Elena Limón, asked the state government to remove the trailer with a 48- hour deadline.

The mayor explained that she found out about the presence of the vehicle due to a report from the neighbors and the inspection of the municipality’s staff who tried to close the warehouse due to lack of permits. However, state police prevented the closing from being placed.

The municipality complained about the lack of coordination with the state government, as she said she was not informed about the storage of dead bodies in the warehouse.

After the claim was filed by the mayor, on Friday the state government made the decision to move the container and relocate it to an open-air plot behind the Paseos del Valle subdivision, in the municipality of Tlajomulco, but through social networks, neighbors complained about the smells that emanated and questioned the municipal authority about what was happening.

The government of Tlajomulco blamed the state and said it was not informed of this situation, so on Saturday again the Jalisco government decided to move the trailer with the bodies, but this time the container was sheltered in a warehouse of the state prosecutor’s office in the industrial zone of Guadalajara.

The State Commission for Human Rights of Jalisco (CEDHJ) opened an investigation and recalled that in general recommendation 3/2018, issued on March 21, 2018, the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences was required, in Coordination with the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), to establish a forensic cemetery to carry out, according to protocols, the controlled and individualized inhumations of the bodies or remains that are available to the ministerial authority.

The CEDHJ also indicated that complete data records of these bodies should be made, including genetic DNA profiles.

“The pits or niches must be marked with durable materials, with the folio number or unique registration number that corresponds to the remains; all the information on burials must be duly documented and incorporated both to the State Forensic Data Bank and to the case file at the prosecutor’s office,” said the ombudsman.

Last August the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Works of the state government began the construction of the forensic cemetery in a property donated by the municipality of Tonalá, in El Vado hill, however, the work was stopped the first week of this month due to complaints of neighbors in a nearby subdivision.

Although the closest fractionation is located a kilometer away, the state agency decided to stop the work until there is a consensus with neighbors in the area, who believe that they will be affected by bad odors and even by the violence by a criminal group attempting to recover a corpse.

This forensic pantheon is designed with 10 modules of 80 individualized drawers, with which 800 bodies can be protected in suitable conditions; the work was planned to be completed in two months, but now the project’s future is unknown.