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    A mass COVID grave in Peru has left families bereft — and fighting for reburial

    More than 400 people who died of COVID were secretly interred in a mass grave on the outskirts of the city of Iquitos. Families are demanding a proper burial for their loved ones.
    by Jason Beaubien Dec 04, 2021 5 minutes
    Margarita Ahuanari, left, and Karina Ahuanari look at posters of their mother. The images were placed where they think she was buried at the mass grave that was later renamed the COVID-19 Cemetery in Iquitos.

    When Karina Ahuanari's mother Teresa died of COVID on April 24, 2020, at a hospital in Peru's port city of Iquitos, their family had no idea what happened to her body.

    At the time, the country was in lockdown and people couldn't leave their homes. Despite the COVID restrictions, Ahuanari's brother and sister-in-law went to the hospital to try to find the matriarch of their family.

    The scene at Loreto Regional Hospital was chaotic. Other relatives were seeking information about their loved ones — and harried workers attempted to attend to both the dying and the dead. At first, Teresa was listed as having been cremated, says Ahuanari. Then officials announced that, no, cremations had been suspended. Teresa's name showed up a few days later on a list of the buried, but no one could tell Ahuanari where the body actually

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