Authorities are planning to exhume the remains of more than 4000 unidentified people buried from 1991 to 2005 in common graves in Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. In order to identify the bodies, forensic scientists will take DNA samples. The Chihuahua State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez stated the purpose was “ ‘to bring order and clarity to past police practices.’ ” In Chihuahua City, 180 sets of remains were exhumed three months ago. Victims’ families and the international community brought pressure to the Mexican government about the Ciudad Juarez killings, but authorities deny this investigation and those cases are “ ‘directly related.’ ” Poor mothers and young women working in factories near the Mexican border with Texas have been the target of Juarez killings. One possible reason for the murders is domestic violence; some of the murders may have been sexually motivated.
Compiled from: Montemayor, Marina, “Mexican City Exhumes Thousands of Bodies,” Associated Press, 5 December 2007; “Bodies in Juarez Graves Exhumed,” BBC News, 5 December 2007.