Mazatlán families recreate a clandestine grave in protest

Reporting and context

About 150 members of the search collective Por las voces sin justicia staged a clandestine grave outside Mazatlán’s municipal palace to demand answers about missing relatives and action to prevent further disappearances, according to Jornada Baja California.

The demonstration used sacks of soil, shovels, pickaxes, paper flowers and yellow barrier tape to recreate the discovery of a clandestine burial site. It was a protest installation intended to convey the experiences of searching families. Missing-person notices and hundreds of photographs of missing teenagers, young women and men surrounded it.

Jornada Baja California reported that collective representative Alejandra Martínez Carrizales, whose brother Ismael is missing, described the emotional burden of repeated searches. Families leave home hoping to find their loved ones, she said, but sometimes receive only remains. For those still searching, she said, the Day of the Dead offered no reason to celebrate.

Martínez Carrizales criticized what she described as a lack of search operations and preventive action, saying families were tired of finding clandestine graves while more people disappeared. She asked residents to accompany searching families, respect missing-person notices displayed in public, share them and help however they could.

Poet and actress Gloria Manyula took part in a performance recreating a clandestine grave. At the end, collective members read aloud the names of their missing loved ones. The report, dated November 1, described the installation as an effort to make the families’ daily pain visible.

Original report: https://jornadabc.com.mx/region/sinaloa-colectivos-de-buscadores-colocan-fosa-clandestina-en-explanada-municipal-de-mazatlan