Tula massacre

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The Tula Massacre was the title given to an incident near the municipality of Atotonilco de Tula in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, north of Mexico City, where 13 Colombian men were murdered. The incident resulted in a minor political scandal, though no-one was ever convicted of the crime.

[edit] Background

On January 14, 1982 the bodies of 13 men were found on the borders of a drainage canal in the Tula River.

The bodies showed signs of extreme torture and mutilation, some of them with their heads still conserved in plastic bags. Some were decapitated, others slashed with machetes, most with a shot to the head. The facts of what was to be known as the "Tula River massacre" were denounced by J. Gonzales Gonzales, who accused his boss, Arturo Durazo Moreno, the then Mexico City police chief, of being the intellectual author of the ghastly crime. Moreno was the chief of police in Mexico City during the administration of his friend, President José López Portillo.

The dead, apparently all Colombians, formed a band of criminals that was exploited by Moreno, who hid them in jail and released them to rob banks repeatedly. It was said that Durazo decided to keep the loot, and do away with the Colombians and their Mexican taxi driver who also disappeared, last seen in June 1981 by his mother.

It was said that the group were held in secret jails and the La Castaneda psychiatric hospital, tortured and murdered, then dumped into the sewer in Mexico City. Their decomposed remains were later fished out of the Tula river by a Red Cross diving team.

Arturo Durazo was considered one of the most corrupt, incompetent, and criminal chief of police ever. His friend, then President López Portillo, put up with it because they were childhood friends.^{[citation needed]}

The pictures of the 13 died and partially the information of the crime was published by Alarma!, an explicit MExico City publication that deals in images of dead, mutilated and deformed bodies.

Arturo Durazo fled Mexico in 1982 following the election of a new president and investigations into police corruption. He returned some time later and died in August 2001 in Acapulco, Guerrero.