Mexican authorities said they have recovered a total of 31 bodies from wells in a southeastern state plagued by cartel violence since they began excavating the makeshift graves this weekend.
Chiapas state Governor Eduardo Ramirez announced an operation this weekend to restore stability in Frailesca, an agricultural region near Guatemala where rival drug cartels are involved in a turf war.
“As of today (Monday), we have found a total of 25 clandestine graves, 31 bodies found, of which 29 are men and two are women,” Jorge Luis Llaven, the public prosecutor of Chiapas, said in a statement.
The Chiapas state government initially said yes discovered 15 bodies on Saturday. Two more were found on Sunday and another fourteen on Monday. Gov. Ramirez posted images of the scene on social media last weekend.
The prosecutor said his office and the State Security Secretariat will continue the investigation until they “find each of the bodies of the people reported missing.”
Collectives in search of missing persons say drug cartels and other organized crime gangs sometimes use ovens to burn their victims without leaving a trace.
Mexican cartel-related violence is concentrated along drug trafficking routes, borders and ports of entry.
The state of Chiapas, on Mexico's southern border, is described by the think tank InSight Crime as “a major smuggling center for both drugs and migrants.”
In October, Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez confessed was shot and killed in Chiapas. Pérez had often received threats and human rights activists said he was not receiving the government protection he needed.
The violence coincided with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel raid on areas that were once strongholds of the Sinaloa Cartelone of Mexico's largest drug trafficking organizations, the report said.
Since Mexico launched its controversial anti-drug operation in 2006, more than 450,000 murders have been committed and tens of thousands of people have gone missing, according to official figures.
Last week, Mexican authorities discovered 12 bodies buried in clandestine graves in the northern state of Chihuahua. Authorities discovered 11 graves containing 12 skeletons in the community of Ascension, near the U.S. border, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
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