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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of four bodies were exhumed from two mass graves in far eastern Durango state Thursday, according to Mexican news reports.
The find was made in Lerdo municipality which is in the western part of the region colloquially known as La Laguna, which includes Ciudad Lerdo and Gomez Palacio, Durango and Torreon Coahuila. A Mexican Army unit had been dispatched to the area based on an anonymous tip, which found the graves.
According to a report in El Siglo de Durango news daily, two graves were found three kilometers away from each other, the first was a grave in Las Noas canyon area which contained the remains of two women in advanced state of decomposition.
The second pit was located in an area dubbed Los Compadres, which contained the remains of two men, also in a state of decomposition.
The report said the new find raises the death toll in Durango to 335, but plenty of doubt exists to that claim.
More than two weeks ago a Mexican Army unit began to excavate a site in Cristobal Colon colony in Durango city, where the last 50 dead were found last January. That report said the remains of at least one individual had been uncovered, and more were expected.
To date no further news has been released as to the new death toll by the Durango state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or attorney general from the latest excavation in Durnago city. The Durango FGE has been maintaining the official count to date.
Last January when the last of the Cristobal Colon bodies were exhumed, confusion reigned as to the final death toll. Local press had the total at 300, while Proceso news weekly counted 321. This writer had the death toll at 330.
The great bulk of the dead found in Durango, more than 90%, were killed in Durango city itself, while ten total were found in Lerdo municipality. It had been determined by Durango state legal officials that nearly all the dead were killed between 2007 and 2011 in the course of normal organized crime business.
While cumulatively the Durango mass graves are the worst in modern Mexican history, the honor of the worst mass murder goes to the San Fernando, Tamaulipas mass graves were 193 individuals were killed and buried between August 2010 and March 2011. Those murders were all apparently done by the same criminal group.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com