15 bodies found in southeast Mexican region wracked by drug cartel violence

The bodies of 15 people have been pulled from pits in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, which was hit by drug cartel violence.

In a message on X, Chiapas state governor Eduardo Ramírez detailed the operation to restore stability in Frailesco, an agricultural region near Guatemala where rival cartels have been engaged in a turf war.

“Unfortunately, 15 bodies (have been found) so far in secret graves in two facilities,” Ramirez wrote on social media on Saturday.

He added that weapons, vehicles and drugs were also seized and four people were arrested, although he did not say whether they were allegedly involved in the 15 deaths.

Mexico cartel-related violence concentrates on or along drug trafficking routes, borders and points of entry.

The InSight Crime Research Center called the state of Chiapas “a major hub for both drug and migrant smuggling.”

In the last two years of Art Sinaloa and Jalisco's new generation of cartels engaged in bloody battles in Chiapas that killed entire families and forced villages to take sides in the dispute. Hundreds of residents of Chiapas had to flee to neighboring Guatemala for their safety.

More than 450,000 murders and tens of thousands of people have gone missing since Mexico's controversial anti-drug operation began in 2006, according to official figures.

In October, the famous Catholic priest Marcelo Perezwho was an activist for indigenous peoples and agricultural workers, was shot and killed in Chiapas.

50-year-old Peres often received threats, but nevertheless continued to work as a peace activist. Human rights activists said that Peres did not receive the necessary state protection.

President Claudia Scheinbaum, who took office on October 1, has vowed to follow the policies of her predecessor and mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, not to confront drug cartels. The policy failed to significantly reduce violence.

Mexican authorities on Thursday discovered 12 bodies buried in underground graves in the northern state of Chihuahua.

Authorities discovered 11 graves containing 12 skeletons in Ascension County near the U.S. border, the state attorney's office said in a statement.