Some 53 bags of human remains have been discovered since late October in a makeshift grave in the Mexican city of Irapuato, an excavation that began after locals reported seeing a dog walking around with a human hand in its mouth.
Irapuato is in Guanajuato, which has the highest murder rate of any of Mexico’s 32 states. The violence stems primarily from a years-long war between the Jalisco cartel and the Sinaloa cartel.
Bibiana Mendoza, 32, told Agence France-Presse that she came to Irapuato looking for her brother after hearing reports about the dog carrying a human hand.
“While people from all over the world were celebrating the Cervantino party, we were digging up bodies, and at the same time I thought it was pointless because they were burying more people in other places,” Mendoza told the news outlet.
Members of the “Hasta Encontrarte” (“Until we find you”) collective search for missing relatives in a clandestine grave in the Santa Fe de Irapuato neighborhood, Guanajuato state, Mexico, on November 10, 2022.
((Photo by CLAUDIO CRUZ/AFP via Getty Images)
The collective discovered 53 bags of human remains in the grave.
(CLAUDIO CRUZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Mendoza, who founded a women’s organization that searches for missing persons, is working with forensic experts to identify the human remains that were found in 53 bags.
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The state of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico, has witnessed violent clashes between cartels and law enforcement in recent months. On Sunday, several members of a cartel were killed after they attacked a police station in Celaya, a city about 40 miles east of Irapuato, where the human remains were found.
Police protect members of the “Hasta Encontrarte” collective during the search for missing relatives in a clandestine grave in the Santa Fe de Irapuato neighborhood, Guanajuato state, Mexico, on November 10, 2022.
(CLAUDIO CRUZ/AFP via Getty Images)
On November 9, a shootout at a bar in Apaseo el Alto, Guanajuato, left nine dead.
In addition to the violence stemming from drug trafficking, the cartels are also at war with each other over fuel theft.
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“Gang violence, often associated with the theft of oil and natural gas from the state oil company and other suppliers, occurs in Guanajuato, primarily in the southern and central areas of the state,” the US State Department wrote. USA in a travel advisory last year. month. “Of particular concern is the large number of murders in the southern region of the state associated with cartel-related violence.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
