Authorities have discovered 17 bodies in clandestine graves in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico.

The Chiapas Attorney General’s Office and the state Security Ministry said Sunday that 15 bodies were found in the municipality of La Concordia in recent days, while two additional bodies were located in Palenque. All 17 bodies belonged to men.

La Concordia is located in southern Chiapas near the border region where the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel are engaged in a long-running turf war.

Palenque, a municipality in northeastern Chiapas on the state’s border with Tabasco, is best known for the Palenque archaeological site. It is part of a region that has also been affected by cartel violence.

Chiapas Attorney General Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca told a press conference on Sunday that the 15 bodies discovered in La Concordia were found in 11 clandestine graves on two properties. Ten of the bodies were “mutilated,” he said, explaining that the victims had been “tortured” before they were killed.

“They have cuts in different parts of their bodies. They’re dismembered,” he said.

Chiapas Governor Eduardo Ramírez said on social media on Saturday that in addition to the discovery of 15 bodies in the Frailesca region, of which La Concordia is part, four people were arrested and weapons, vehicles and drugs were seized during a state government security operation.

“We will continue with the operation. … We’re reestablishing tranquility and social peace in the region. We won’t take a backward step!” he wrote.

The two bodies discovered in Palenque were in two clandestine graves in the locality of Nueva Esperanza.

All 17 bodies found in Chiapas were taken to morgues to undergo testing aimed at determining the identities of the deceased, the cause of their deaths and how long they have been dead.

Authorities in southern Mexico are continuing to search for clandestine graves in Chiapas, with the municipality of Catazajá, which borders Palenque, a current focus.

Llaven said that authorities are searching for people who have been forcibly abducted or “disappeared.”

He said that the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office had received 124 reports of cases of enforced disappearance this year but acknowledged that many cases go unreported due to families’ fear of reprisal.

The discovery of the 17 bodies in La Concordia and Palenque came after human remains were found earlier this month in Emiliano Zapata, a municipality near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas. Authorities have not yet determined how many people the charred remains belonged to. They were specifically searching for seven people who were abducted in November, among whom was a 12-year-old boy.

‘Possibly human’ remains found in municipality that borders US

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said last Thursday that “bone remains” of 12 “indeterminate skeletons” had been found in 11 clandestine graves in the municipality of Ascensión, which borders New Mexico.

The discovery of the remains occurred during search operations carried out on Dec. 18, 19 and 20, the FGE said in a statement.

The exhumation of the “possibly human” remains was carried out by forensic anthropologists and other experts, the Attorney General’s Office said. The experts collected spent cartridge cases from the graves, the FGE said.

“The indeterminate skeletons and evidence found were transported to the laboratories of the Forensic Medical Service in Ciudad Juárez for analysis and investigations to determine identities and the cause and time of death,” the FGE said.

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office has not yet announced the results of the testing.

Chihuahua, which borders both New Mexico and Texas, is one of Mexico’s most violent states.

With more than 1,800 homicides between January and November, the northern state ranked fourth among the country’s 32 federal entities for total murders in the first 11 months of 2024.

With reports from El Universal and EFE