Grijalva River “swallows up” part of a general cemetery in Tabasco

VILLAHERMOSA, TABASCO.- The Grijalva River eroded the community pantheon in the Cedral sector, in the municipality of Centro, Tabasco, and the current carried away between 25 and 30 coffins that were buried there.

During a tour of the cemetery, El Heraldo de Tabasco confirmed that several coffins were in the rushing waters of the tributary and others were about to be swept away, which also caused surprise among the visitors who came these days to clean the graves of their relatives. deceased for the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Antonio Méndez, a cemetery administration worker, pointed out that the problems with the river began a month ago and that the pantheon lost around 50 meters of its surface.

It’s been about a month since the river began to take away part of the pantheon, and there are already about 25 or 30 coffins that have fallen into the river,” commented Antonio Méndez.

He explained that the land on a bank close to the river should not have been sold for tombs, since it ran the risk of being affected by the Grijalva, in addition to the fact that various anomalies were detected that were left by other administrations, such as the sale of occupied vaults and that currently relatives of the deceased request them.

Hilda García, who has two relatives buried in the cemetery, pointed out that a little more than six years ago their graves were more than 50 meters from the river bank, but today they are less than four meters from the riverbed.”The truth is I’m worried.

The river moves very quickly and in one year it has carried away more than 25 coffins. We come often, we realized it and we reported it to the directors of the pantheon, but it seems that they have done something to resolve it,” said Mrs. Hilda, who added that she does not have the financial resources to be able to exhume the bodies of her relatives and take them to another cemetery.

Upon approaching the bank of the tributary and observing a pair of coffins that were at the bottom, the woman pointed out: “The truth is, I don’t want my husband’s body to end up there, something must be done so that the river no longer continues moving.”

Santana López, another woman who has relatives in the pantheon, explained that one of the proposals that was made was to relocate graves to the back of the pantheon.

“It has been proposed to move them to another area of the pantheon and thus prevent the remains from being dragged by the river towards the sea.”

Santana López said that she is already investigating who are the owners of the land where they would relocate the tombs that are at risk of falling into the Grijalva River.

Source: El Heraldo de Tabasco

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