Honduran officials search for more gang victims in clandestine grave

For the sixth consecutive day, Honduran authorities continued excavating a mass grave in the north of the country, where to date the remains of at least eight people, presumed to have been killed by gang members, have been recovered.

“The work continues,” Honduran Chief Prosecutor Marlene Banegas told AFP on Saturday. “We believe that there are at least five more people were buried here, which would bring the total to 13.”

The mass grave is 40 centimeters deep at a site with abundant vegetation, located outside the community of Las Glorias de El Calán, in the municipality of Villanueva, some 200 kilometers north of the capital.

“Forensic specialists found bodies with their hands and feet tied, and gunshot wounds to the heads, execution-style, common of gang-related murders,” a spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, Elvis Guzmán, said.

Exhumations began last Tuesday following reports from family members of the missing people and residents of Villanueva.

Guzmán said the remains are all male victims, and some have been there for up to two years.

“For the moment, we have been unable to identify the victims until DNA tests are performed,” Guzmán said, adding that, “the forensic work will continue until there are no more remains in this mass grave.”

The search for graves was begun a few days after an armed clash between police and suspected members of the Mara 18 gang, seven of whom were killed.

Police said residents of Ciudad Planeta began reporting the existence of common graves in the area, and that spurred authorities to launch the investigation.

The search team, consisting of about 25 people, is working in an area about 1 hectare (2.2 acres) in size where several graves have been discovered where initially it was thought that at least 15 people were interred.

However, Guzman said, other residents told authorities that as many as 40 people could be buried in the area.

Police suspect that two of their officers, who were murdered by suspected gang members, could be buried at Ciudad Planeta, where security forces have had to substantially increase their presence and vigilance to protect the local residents and the grave investigation team.

Guzman said that the majority of the houses located near the tract of land where the investigation is under way have been abandoned for some time, perhaps for fear of reprisals by the gang members who have controlled Ciudad Planeta.

Honduras is experiencing a significant wave of violence that is taking the lives of about 15 people each day, on average.


According to the United Nations, Honduras is the most violent country in the world outside of war zones, with a murder rate of 85.5 per 100,000 residents.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News-Briefs/Honduran-officials-search-for-more-gang-victims-in-clandestine-grave_Sunday-June-09-2013

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