More than 30 bodies exhumed from hidden graves in Mexican region wracked by war for drug cartel territory
Mexican authorities have said they have recovered a total of 31 bodies from pits in the southeastern state hit by cartel violence since they began excavating makeshift graves this weekend.
Chiapas state governor Eduardo Ramirez over the weekend announced an operation to restore stability to Frailesco, an agricultural region near Guatemala where rival drug cartels are engaged in a turf war.
“As of today (Monday) we have found a total of 25 secret graves, 31 bodies found, 29 of them men and two women,” Jorge Luis Llaven, the state prosecutor of Chiapas, said in a statement.
The state government of Chiapas initially said it was discovered 15 bodies on Saturday. Two more were found on Sunday, and another 14 on Monday. Governor Ramirez posted pictures of the scene over the weekend on social media.
The prosecutor said his office and the State Security Secretariat will continue the investigation until they find “every one of the bodies of the persons reported missing.”
Collectives looking for missing persons they say drug cartels and other organized crime groups sometimes use ovens to burn their victims without leaving a trace.
Mexico’s cartel-related violence is concentrated along drug trafficking routes, borders and ports of entry.
The state of Chiapas, on Mexico’s southern border, has been described by InSight Crime as a “major center for drug and migrant smuggling.”
In October, the famous Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez was shot and killed in Chiapas. Pérez received frequent threats, and human rights advocates said he did not receive the necessary government protection.
The violence coincided with The new generation Jalisco cartel incursion into areas that were once strongholds Sinaloa cartelone of Mexico’s largest drug-trafficking organizations, it said.
Since Mexico launched its controversial drug crackdown in 2006, more than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands of people have disappeared, according to official figures.
Last week, the Mexican authorities discovered 12 bodies buried in secret graves in the northern state of Chihuahua. Authorities have discovered 11 graves containing 12 skeletons in Ascension County near the US border, the state attorney general said in a statement.
