The discovery of eight new cartel mass graves in the border city of Matamoros highlights the ongoing security crisis in the region, while government officials continue to claim that the region is safe and quote manipulated crime statistics.
This week, a search group in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, called Fuerza Matamoros Buscadoras Por Amor Tamaulipas announced the discovery of eight new cartel clandestine gravesites on the outskirts of the border city. Since then, investigators with the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office have begun documenting the crime scenes and have searched at least five of the eight different gravesites. A number of victims at the gravesites remain unidentified. Mexico’s government has a long history of trying to hide the severity of cartel crimes in the region as a way to give a false sense of security.
Missing person posters in Matamoros. (Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles)
In 2016, Breitbart Texas reported on a series of cartel gravesites in the southeastern side of Matamoros in a region called La Bartolina that was colloquially known as the cartel’s “Cocina” or kitchen, where an unknown number of victims were incinerated by cartel gunmen. At the time, Mexico’s government tried to cover up the incident, claiming that investigators were unable to determine if the remains were human or animal bone fragments. Years later, Mexico’s government confirmed the reporting of Breitbart Texas, revealing that the place was a cartel incineration site.
More missing person posters in Matamoros. (Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles)
As government officials try to downplay the discovery, the city of Matamoros is covered with missing persons posters as the number of victims continues to increase each day. The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office has been steadily documenting missing-person cases; most remain unsolved.
The group has been posting messages on social media asking the public to file reports with authorities so the cases can be documented and also to provide DNA samples, which is one of the few tools that have proven effective in identifying some of the remains in the numerous mass graves that are constantly being found throughout Mexico.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart News Foundation traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas, including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” and “J.C. Sanchez” from Tamaulipas.
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