A state government in Mexico has fired a prosecutor over a case in which a fetid-smelling tractor trailer carrying 273 bodies was driven around aimlessly due to lack of room in the morgue.The bodies were apparently in the refrigerated truck because the morgue in Mexico’s second-largest city was full.
“I am not willing to tolerate this kind of mistake, which shocks and horrifies public opinion,” said the governor of western Jalisco state, Aristoteles Sandoval, as he fired prosecutor Raul Sanchez.
The state’s chief coroner was fired earlier in the week over the sad drama in the state capital, Guadalajara. The bodies were apparently in the refrigerated truck because the morgue in Mexico’s second-largest city was full. The initial number of bodies was 157 but on Wednesday they raised it to 273.
The truck had been parked for two weeks until residents complained of the stench and the flies it attracted. Authorities then moved the truck to an empty lot in another poor neighborhood far from the city center, until residents there protested as well. The truck has since been moved to a prosecution storage facility in the city center, where it remains parked for now.
News outlets broadcast footage Wednesday of the open trailer of the truck, with piles of bodies in black bags and a man in white boots stepping on the bags.
Officials said the bodies were of victims of violent crime, so under Mexican law they cannot be cremated.