70 bags of human remains recovered in Tonalá, Jalisco

As many as 70 bags of human remains were discovered Wednesday on a vacant lot in Tonalá, Jalisco, where at least 11 bodies have been distinguished amid a grim collection of body parts.

Residents of Alamedas de Zalatitán, 30 minutes from Guadalajara, complained last month to authorities of a nauseous smell. Thirteen barely concealed bags of body parts were found at the lot when work began on April 25.

This week heavy machinery was used to dig further, revealing dozens more bags.

The lot — with an unroofed building on an area of 180 square meters — is not in a secluded location, but between houses and streets through which residents circulate every day.

State Attorney General Gerardo Octavio Solís laid out the numbers. “Seventy bags have been located with various human remains which to this point are counted as 11 victims, and the corresponding work continues,” he said.

Jalisco is the worst state in the country for the number of missing people, more than 12,790, according to the National Search Commission.

In February, 18 garbage bags with dismembered bodies were found in front of the Chivas soccer stadium in Zapopan. Three months earlier, 189 bodies were discovered in a huge clandestine grave in El Salto.

Sources: El País (sp), Proceso (sp)