From bad death to dignified burial

By: Alejandra Ramírez*

Although death is a universal event, each society has cultural ways, such as ritual practices, that allow the loss of a loved one to be processed, in two senses: on the one hand, saying goodbye to the person who died and, on the other hand, caring for and accompanying their loved ones. In this way, a new relationality is generated between those who departed from this physical plane and those who survive them.

However, in cases where the circumstances of death were violent, were framed in a halo of pain and suffering, or are disruptive of the symbolic order, an adequate treatment of death is impossible, and they are considered a “bad death.” This concept, widely worked on in anthropology, allows us to understand the importance of funerary rites so that the soul is not left “in pain” or in a state of impasse, but can move towards the world of the dead.

A dignified burial is an act that integrates the person who died into the community of those who live and gives a sacred character to said loss. Thus, we can understand that, for those searching for a missing loved one, particularly those who carry out a death or forensic search, recovering even just a part of the body of the loved one becomes a premise of life.

Just to relate some testimonies, I will mention the case of Gustavo Hernández, father of Abraham Zeidy del Razo, a young man who disappeared in April 2024 in Escobedo, Nuevo León. On April 10, within the framework of the dialogue tables for reforms in the matter, Mr. Gustavo approached the Secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, to beg her to locate his son: “even if it is a little bone to know that they are there, a little bone to give them a burial.” Similarly, the following anonymous testimony that I collected during my beginnings accompanying victims in 2014, gives an account of the dramatic situation: “Even if it is a bone, its ashes, a piece of skin, I want to have it with me, to know that it is there, that it is not rolling around who knows where. I want my dispossession, even if my life passes away in that way.”

These testimonies are an example of the demands that are formulated from the affections and the need to have a little piece of the loved one to bury. In addition, they show how the verbs, “find”, “exhume” and “identify”, are reparative actions. By excavating the earth and recovering the bodies that were thrown into the anonymity of the underworld, not only is hope removed, but they also take justice into their own hands in the face of the inaction or incompetence of the State institutions.

Discovering the graves breaks the silence of crimes that were tried to be kept quiet, therefore, it is a fight against oblivion and the desacralization of the life that was desecrated. It is also a political message: they challenge the criminal order that, by perpetrating such crimes through excess of cruelty, attempts to erase the existence of the victims. Locating and recovering dead bodies is a balm against the chain of grievances of extreme violence, impunity and institutional violence suffered by those who search. Dead bodies are a field of dispute where affections, symbolisms and agency mobilized by the link between the living and the dead circulate in the face of the political-economic order that decides who lives and who dies.

Given this, forensic processes, from exhumation to restitution, acquire high relevance. Neglecting lifeless bodies under inadequate treatments and protocols, bad practices, negligence and indignity is generating new impacts on their families, instead of paying for processes that are reparative.

An example of bureaucratic violence is the obstruction of carrying out procedures or hindering the beginning of exhumations. A recent case is that of the Reyes Arzate family, originally from Atoyac de Álvarez, Guerrero, whose members since October 1975 have been searching for Roberto Reyes Piedra who disappeared along with his brother Rubén Izazaga Piedra within the framework of the political-military repression of the time.

For five decades, the Reyes family, a member of the AFADEM group, focused on searching for them. Although for more than 30 years the family had a reference to a possible burial site in Coyuquilla, Guerrero, it was not until a few days ago that the exhumation procedure was carried out after various difficulties. The procedure was scheduled for October 21, but, since it was private property, there was no authorization from the person who owned the property or a judicial permit to access the site.

This situation made the scenario more complex and the diligence could not be carried out in a timely manner. The bureaucratic plots and the inter-institutional lack of coordination between the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (FGR), as well as its inability to locate the owner, and the Judiciary to validate the authorization of a search warrant, were delaying the diligence, a situation that generated strong emotional exhaustion and economic concern in the family. After days of tension between the victims, the authorities and the organizations that accompany them, the exhumation work was carried out on October 24.

Another recent case that has shown undignified treatment in the institutions responsible for the protection and identification of dead bodies was what occurred in June of this year at the Institute of Forensic Sciences (INCIFO) in Mexico City. Through a video that circulated on social networks, unspeakable images were observed where workers from said institution, including the deputy director of Thanatology Andrés Oriol Morales, “have fun” playing with the corpses. Far from making a dignified, respectful and careful shelter as is their obligation, they trivialized the bodies waiting, unidentified, to return to their families.

According to investigations by Quinto Elemento Lab, the current number of lifeless bodies that are in different Forensic Medical Services, funeral homes and public cemeteries amounts to more than 72 thousand. The accumulation of bodies, the delay in making identifications and bad practices are a reflection of what should not be implemented as a model of management and administration of death in a national context that is experiencing a serious humanitarian and forensic problem. These violences produce various psycho-emotional, bodily, moral and symbolic damages.

Changing the paradigm towards a model that places the sacred value of those who have died in violent circumstances at the center so that they are not condemned to a “bad death” is, in turn, reassigning said character in defense of those who live. Advancing in this begins by adopting an ethic of care for the dead that is reflected in dignified and respectful practices in forensic processes so that they provide certainty and reliability. Likewise, eradicate violating acts and apply sanctions to authorities and officials who engage in bureaucratic violence or directly in the treatment of dead bodies.

The above must be considered as a dimension in which we understand justice, a justice that favors the processes that are opened even after restitution: facing the materiality of cruel death, readjusting daily, family and community life, as well as activating ways to face the damage in the face of a limit and traumatic experience.

For a worthy return, until we find them.

*Alejandra Ramírez is a researcher in the Human Rights and Fight against Impunity Program at @FundarMexico.