More Than 100 Bodies Discovered in Mass Grave in Mexico

Mexican authorities found at least 113 bodies after discovering a mass grave in the western state of Jalisco.

Mexico news reported that the mass grave was uncovered in the city of El Salto, which is located southeast of Guadalajara, last month.

Two skulls and four bags were identified and analyzed by forensic experts, said Newsweek.

There's another mass grave in Mexico which can be found at Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, south of El Salto by road. In that mass grave, authorities found at least 25 more bodies along with a skeleton, five skulls, and 14 bone segments.

Another state in Mexico also reported a mass grave in the neighboring state of Guanajuato at the end of October. There were at least 60 bodies found there.

Authorities found this discovery an unusual one since the grave was found in the town proper and not in some deserted part of the countryside.

New York Daily News said there had been a record number of secret mass graves being found in the region of Jalisco than any other place in the country.

The region was also home to the New Generation Cartel, which has been known to be the most brutal and powerful crime group in Mexico.

Authorities believe the rise of mass graves and missing individuals the nation had seen in recent years was fueled by this group's violence.

Jalisco is known to be a very active drug cartel battleground in the country.

Many Bodies from Mass Grave Remain Unidentified

Not all bodies in El Salto's mass grave were identified by relatives, Jalisco state attorney Gerardo Octavio Solís said Sunday.

Solís noted that only 30 of the victims had been identified. Two of the identified bodies were women, while experts are still trying to identify the rest of the buried, reported Andalou Agency.

The other victims were with the Forensic Medical Service and remained "unidentified deceased persons." Solís did not provide additional details about the mass graves.

A report from the National Search Commission of the Mexican Ministry of Interior earlier said that Jalisco had seen the highest number of exhumed bodies from secret graves over the past 14 years.

Since 2006, more than 75,000 people have gone missing as per the federal government's data. Last year proved to be a very brutal year for the country as more than 8,300 people were reported missing, marking the nation's highest total yet.

Over the last two years, Jalisco also recorded many missing people with 3,568 cases. Since 2006, Jalisco unearthed 897 bodies found in secret mass graves during excavations, according to the country's Interior Ministry.

A majority of 605 bodies found in Jalisco were recovered during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration, who took office in December 2018.

Across Mexico, a total of 6,900 corpses were found from over 4,000 clandestine graves.

What could possibly be one of the worst cases of this was in March 2017, when more than 250 human skulls were found at a mass grave in the central Mexican state of Veracruz, reported CNN.

Jorge Winckler, state attorney general, said it might be the largest one in the country.