Investigators have found the remains of four people presumed to be among 21 gold miners missing more than a week in Venezuela’s southern jungle, the nation’s chief prosecutor said on Monday. The prosecutor, Luisa Ortega, told a local television station that four bodies had been exhumed so far. “We’re convinced, after a technically and scientifically rigorous investigation, that in total 21 people disappeared,” she said. “We are still determining the motive” of the “massacre,” she added. She was the first official to use that word. The killings took place near Tumerero, in Bolivar State, with some witnesses cited by local media, relatives and politicians as saying that a gang fatally shot the miners on March 4. The case has shaken Venezuela, already plagued by soaring crime and one of the world’s highest murder rates.
