Mexican commission calls for protocols for handling bodies

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said Thursday that the improper burial of 119 bodies in a common grave is just the latest indication that the country must establish national protocols for handling human remains.

Investigator Enrique Guadarrama Lopez said only 21 of the 119 people buried in the Morelos state common grave had been identified by name. In 44 cases the deaths appeared to be violent, but were not properly investigated. There were three cases where family members identified bodies that officials still buried in the mass grave.

The Morelos state prosecutor’s office buried the 119 bodies in March 2014. Two were exhumed the following December. The remaining 117 were exhumed this June. Only about half had legible tags matching them to their case files.

Morelos state prosecutor Javier Perez told Radio Formula later Thursday that his agency would follow the rights commission’s recommendations and has “no problem with all its points.”