The Union of Collectives of Seeker Mothers in Tamaulipas entered the center of extermination of people in the town of La Bartolina, Matamoros, without permission and presence of agents of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) who have the protection of the land. This Friday the search will continue in a neighboring area, said Delia Quiroa, representative of the group.
María Icela Chaidez and Alicia Gallegos, who are looking for their son Roberto Quiroa and daughter Yulisa Maité García Gallegos, respectively, led the contingent that toured the property, in search of bones, clothing or any document that would help find one of the more than 11 thousand people missing in Tamaulipas.
Read: Why collectives and FGR disagree on the search in “La Bartolina”, an extermination center in Tamaulipas
In the morning, Union members gathered in the hotel parking lot to pray before leaving for the site. At approximately 9:00 a.m., the convoy with eight private vehicles left on the road towards Baghdad Beach, since the property is located about 12 kilometers from Brownsville, Texas, United States.
Elements of the National Guard and state police guarded the group of cars to the road and then entered the gap leading to the country’s largest killing center, according to the National Search Commission (CNB).
Once at the site, the searchers found a part of the land delimited with orange tape that was placed by the FGR last Friday, August 6, during the visit of The Undersecretary of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas.
However, the members of the Union found the area that was not delimited and entered the killing center. It was barely the first half hour of searching with her eyes on the earthy ground, among the vegetation, when a seeker saw some bones, which they could not define if they were human or animal.
Alicia Gallegos, mother of Yulissa Mayte, who was kidnapped on August 12, 2017, walked and walked in the unguarded area of La Bartolina. After waiting months for a signature from an official, in December 2018, the Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) of Tamaulipas gave him the body of his daughter who was buried in a mass grave.
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“They gave us some remains, they told us that they were but because of pressures, we don’t believe them,” Gallegos said. Even with the sun, Alicia walked the property to get into the lagoon, approximately 35 centimeters deep, which is part of La Bartolina.
The search continued in areas near the judicial shelter, where women’s shoes were found. The bones and footwear could not be collected as evidence because there were no agents of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.
They announce sit-in
In the evening, the Union of Collectives of Seeker Mothers in Tamaulipas, through Representative Omar Bello, announced that they will call for a sit-in in front of the FGR office in Mexico City.
The companion of the search engines said that on Wednesday night, the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of The Crimes of Enforced Disappearance, Abel Galvan Gallardo, notified that they could not enter La Bartolina, because they would incur federal crimes.
Delia Quiroa added: “They replied that you cannot give me information because I am not a victim in the two investigations that they are conducting for these events, but if they declare that it is an extermination camp, it cannot be reduced to two investigations.”
However, the Union will re-enter surrounding areas this Friday with the support of José Martín, head of the office of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), in Reynosa; Leonel Salinas, representing the Fifth Visitaduría; and Carlos Treviño, of the Special Program for Alleged Disappeared Persons.
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