Officials in El Salvador said Thursday that an exhumation was under way at a secret cemetery found at the home of a former police officer containing up to 40 bodies, the vast majority of them women, according to the investigation.
The exhumation process could take about a month, authorities said. The bodies of 24 people have been recovered so far at home in the municipality of Chalcuapa, 78 kilometers northwest of the capital San Salvador. At least 10 people are facing prosecution, according to the attorney general’s office, including Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chavez, at whose home the secret cemetery was found. Neither Mr. Osorio nor his defense attorney was available for comment on the case.
Dozens of people, who believe that among the victims may be their relatives, gathered in front of the house, which is guarded by the police. The case brings to the fore the issue of female homicide in this Central American state of 6.7 million inhabitants, where the authorities recorded 70 female homicides last year and 111 in 2019, according to data from the Salvadoran police.
Sexual violence in Latin America has rapidly deteriorated during the new coronavirus pandemic, aid organizations say. A 72-year-old man has been arrested in Mexico this week on suspicion of killing women in a row, according to media reports. The remains of several people were found in his house in the state of Mexico as part of the investigation carried out for the murder of a 36-year-old woman.
