Estimate of Bodies in Juarez Graves Overstated

Mexico’s attorney general said Friday that a sweeping investigation of suspected mass graves containing victims of drug traffickers is now expected to yield far fewer bodies than originally reported, and he blamed U.S. officials for giving erroneous information.

“It was an error. The operation would have gone a lot better without these leaks,” Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.

In an unprecedented operation, Mexican police and soldiers, accompanied by scores of FBI forensic experts, descended on several ranches across the U.S. border near Juarez on Nov. 29. U.S. officials said at the time that 100 to 300 bodies could be exhumed, victims of the notorious Juarez drug cartel.

However, in nearly three weeks of digging at four alleged mass grave sites, experts have uncovered only nine sets of remains.

“I’m almost sure there will be more--a few more,” Madrazo said. He declined to give an estimate but added, “There aren’t 100.”

U.S. officials had initially described the joint inquiry as a model of U.S.-Mexican cooperation in fighting drugs. But the apparent error in anticipating the scale of the graves has fed a wave of criticism of Madrazo. Mexican politicians have charged that their national sovereignty was violated by Madrazo’s invitation to FBI agents to work at a Mexican crime scene.

Despite his annoyance at U.S. officials, Madrazo said he didn’t see any long-term damage to the bilateral relationship. The FBI did not comment on the report.

In Juarez, politicians and businesspeople are planning a march today to protest what they contend is an unfair smearing of the city’s reputation.

Madrazo said the early reports could have resulted from a mix-up by U.S. officials who learned of the sites and assumed that they held those reported missing in Juarez.

Nongovernmental organizations have reported about 200 disappearances in the border city in recent years, including 22 U.S. citizens or residents. Many of those who vanished are believed to have been linked to the thriving trade in cocaine, marijuana and heroin headed from Mexico to the United States. Some people reportedly disappeared after being detained by men in Mexican police uniforms, raising questions about the extent of corruption in Mexican law enforcement.

“There’s a list of disappeared, and there are dead, so [some officials assumed] there would be 200 or 300” bodies in the graves, Madrazo said. “But this will not be the case.”

The exaggerated reports could also have stemmed in part from information provided by the FBI informant who first revealed the existence of the burial sites.

The informant went to the FBI in February with details about ranches used as grave sites by the Juarez cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug organizations, Madrazo said. Mexican and FBI officials had already spent months discussing their probes of the disappeared in Juarez, he said. With the new information, the investigation took off.

The informant, who is in the U.S. and Mexican witness-protection programs, was debriefed by both sides, Madrazo said. Using his testimony, investigators took aerial photographs of the suspected grave sites and tried to confirm the information from other sources.

Finally, in late November, authorities decided to move in.

At the ranches, investigators found that the information the informant had obtained firsthand was correct; his details on grave sites were precise. But the informant had also passed on rumors of many more bodies at the site. Those reports have not been substantiated, Madrazo said.

“He didn’t tell us any numbers [of bodies]. He mentioned names” of several people believed to be buried at the ranches, Madrazo said. “He speculated there could be more.”

Even with the relatively low number of bodies unearthed, the attorney general maintained that the operation was a success. Investigators have received new leads and hope to prosecute members of the Juarez cartel, he said.

Madrazo said he had complained to FBI Director Louis J. Freeh about early comments by U.S. officials.

“I said to Louis, ‘We are worried about the leaks. They caused us additional problems,’ ” Madrazo said. “The operation would have been more successful without all the pressure from the media.”

Spokeswoman Debbie Weierman at FBI headquarters in Washington referred questions to the bureau’s El Paso office. Calls to the FBI spokesman in El Paso were not returned.

Asked if the FBI was concerned that Madrazo thought information had been irresponsibly leaked, Weierman said: “It’s a concern, but I have no comment.”

Madrazo said the digging at the suspected grave sites probably will be wrapped up by month’s end.

Authorities believe that they have already found all the bodies buried at two of the ranches, which yielded eight sets of remains. At a third site, investigators uncovered a new set of remains Thursday, bringing the total to nine. The bones were found in a shallow grave near the site of a laboratory apparently used to process cocaine or crack cocaine, officials said.

Authorities have just begun excavation at the fourth reported burial site, Madrazo said.

He said the victims had all been dead for several years and appear to have been linked to the Juarez cartel. The drug gang continues to be one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels despite the 1997 death of its leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, after cosmetic surgery.

The victims apparently had been killed either in disputes within the drug gang or in fights with other narcotics groups, Madrazo said. Their identities are still being determined.

“For some reason, the killers didn’t want anyone to know these people were dead,” Madrazo said. Hence, they were buried at private ranches. Several guards and a ranch owner believed to be a U.S. citizen have been detained.

Despite the embarrassment about the graves, Madrazo said cooperation with the FBI was excellent. He said he had requested U.S. assistance because the FBI has high-tech equipment to find buried bodies and because experts in El Paso have better forensic facilities than their counterparts in Juarez.

While he faced a storm of criticism in Mexico, where memories of U.S. invasions still are strong, Madrazo said he had no regrets. “You have to work on the basis of the law and of your conscience,” he said. “I would do it again.”

Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau in Washington contributed to this report.