"CHILDREN FOUND WITHOUT ORGANS ARE RUMORS," FUELING EVEN MORE SUSPICIONS

By Juan Montoya
The rumors that at least 19 missing children in Matamoros have been found dead, some with organs missing, has whipped the city into hysteria, prompting Matamoros Mayor Alonso Sanchez Garza to deny them on a local television station.
The rumor has apparently spread from the streets of Matamoros to its sister city across the Rio Grande generating inquiries to local media (Channel 4) and on local social media. To date, the Matamoros version is that there had been 17 missing children who had been found with their major organs missing and another two were added who were found in the bed of a pickup truck.
The story has different versions. In one, a truck driver is stopped after a traffic accident and he seems nervous at having the police involved. When the police get there, he climbs into the cab and, pulls out a gun and shoots himself. When the authorities unlock his cargo space and look in, they find the hollowed out bodies of children stacked inside.
In another version, the military comes upon a clandestine gravesite and find several bodies of children without several vital organs.
Several critics of these rumors have said that most human organs cannot possibly survive for more than one or two hours if they have the necessary infrastructure available. This would imply that trained medical personnel, refrigerants, etc., would have to be immediately available and that a recipient would have to be ready to receive the organ transplant.
Another version of the organ harvesting of missing children is that a cartel boss had need for a child's organs for one of his own children and ordered the kidnapping and harvesting of a child.
So far these stories have been discounted by the local authorities, but, given the lack of credibility that  officialdom in Mexico enjoys, those denials have just fueled more suspicions in the population.
"Do you think that they are going to admit that it's happening," said a businessman who has interests in Matamoros. "He would be killed."
Given the lawlessness there, there have been, doubtless, missing children or adults found with organs missing in northern Mexico before. But whether this newest version of the rumor is true is anyone's guess.