15 bodies found in southeastern Mexican region plagued by drug cartel violence

The bodies of 15 people were recovered from pits in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas which has been plagued by drug cartel violence.

In a post on X, Chiapas State Gov. Eduardo Ramirez detailed an operation to restore stability to Frailesca, an agricultural region near Guatemala where rival cartels have been involved in a turf war.

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

He added that weapons, vehicles and drugs were also seized and four people had been arrested, though he did not say if they were alleged to have been involved in the deaths of the 15 people.

Mexico’s cartel-related violence is concentrated in or along drug trafficking routes, borders and ports of entry. 

Chiapas state has been described by the InSight Crime think tank as “a major smuggling hub of both drugs and migrants.”

For the last two years, the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels have been engaged in bloody turf battles in Chiapas that have involved killing whole families and forcing villages to take sides in the dispute. Hundreds of Chiapas residents have had to flee to neighboring Guatemala for their safety.

Since Mexico launched its controversial anti-drug operation in 2006, it has recorded more than 450,000 murders and tens of thousands of people have gone missing, according to official figures.

In October, a well-known Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, who was an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers, was gunned down and killed in Chiapas.

Pérez, 50, had often received threats but nonetheless continued to work as a peace activist. Human rights advocates said Pérez did not receive the government protection he needed.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, has pledged to follow the policy of her predecessor and mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of not confronting the drug cartels. The policy has failed to significantly reduce violence.

On Thursday, Mexican authorities discovered 12 bodies buried in clandestine graves in the northern Chihuahua state.

Authorities discovered 11 graves containing 12 skeletons in Ascension municipality near the U.S. border, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.