Neighboring Sonora is among the Mexican states that account for the vast majority of the country’s unidentified human remains.
Roughly 80% of such bodies are in 10 Mexican states, including Sonora, according to data recently presented by a federal human rights body. There were just over 1,200 in Sonora, putting it 10th on the list, and far below chart-topping Baja California, where there are more than 9,000 unidentified bodies.
Human Rights Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas said that one of the most troubling factors at play is the significant delay in body identification, which needs to be “turned around in the short term.”
Some progress has been made, he said, and in Sonora specifically he pointed to mobile DNA labs that aid with identification, and a planned new facility that could serve for addressing the issue in the region.