The bodies of 15 men were discovered in 11 hidden graves in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, an area shaken by ongoing violence between two notorious drug cartels, local authorities said on Sunday.
The secret tombs were found during a city raid across two properties in the city of La Concordia, just northeast of Mexico’s border with Guatemala, Chiapas Gov. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar wrote on social media.
Four people were arrested in connection with the case, and multiple weapons, vehicles, and drugs were confiscated, the governor added.
“We will continue with the operation. For now, we are restoring tranquility and social peace in the region. We will not take a single step back! In Chiapas, calm hours will return! Peace is everyone’s task,” Ramírez Aguilar wrote.
The first of the two raided sites had three bodies in three graves, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The majority of the dead were at the second property where authorities unearthed 12 bodies in only eight graves.
Just last week, another hidden gravesite with bodies that had been burnt to a crisp was found in Emiliano Zapata, which is just outside of La Concordia, Chiapas Prosecutor General Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca said last week. He could not give specifics because of the terrible condition the bodies were found in, making it difficult if not impossible to identify the deceased.
The ongoing cartel disputes over drug routes, and migrant and weapons trafficking have displaced more than 10,000 people over the last few years, according to reports from humanitarian organizations.
The turf war between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels has led to the slaughter of entire families and forced villages to pick a side in the dispute. Many Chiapas residents have fled to Guatemala to escape the seemingly unending violence.
At the same time, Chiapas has recently seen an influx of thousands of migrants from Central America, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela while en route to the United States.
Mexico’s recently elected President Claudia Sheinbaum promised to follow the policy established by her predecessor and mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of not confronting the drug cartels.
With Post wires.
