Investigators in Mexico made a grisly discovery this year, finding dozens of bodies at a construction site in Mexico.
Yesterday, prosecutors said they have identified at least 17 of the 34 bodies found in Zapopan, in Jalisco, Mexico, after remains were found buried in a mass grave.
169 bags were filled with human remains and found by builders in February, prompting a forensic investigation.
It’s the second time this year Jalisco has been in the spotlight. In March, a group looking for missing people found human remains and clothing items in a ranch used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Known as the ‘Rancho Izaguirre’ case, 15 people have been arrested, including the mayor of a nearby town.
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans have been listed as ‘disappeared’ by the government in the past 20 years, as families desperately search for answers.
Between 2020 and 2022, the number of missing people on the Interior Ministry’s national registry, which dates back to 1964, rose from about 73,000 people to more than 100,000, with most of them being men.
The majority were between 15 and 30 years old, from lower-income families, the National Search Commission (CNB) reported last year.
Police, the military, and cartel groups are believed to be behind many of the incidents.
Earlier this year, nine students who went on holiday in southern Mexico in February were found with their hands severed, left in a deserted car.
The bodies were found in San Jose Miahuatlan, roughly 175 miles from Mexico City, and were feared to be yet another cartel killing.
The nine students had reportedly travelled from Tlaxcala to Oaxaca for holidays when they were targeted – but other local news outlets have claimed they were members of ‘Los Zacapoaxtlas’, another gang.
As of May 2024, cartels controlled about one-third of Mexico’s territory, with the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels responsible for the vast majority of drug trafficking in the United States, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
There are worries that violence could increase further. According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, lethal clashes between gangs have increased 18% since 2023.
In 2014, 43 students from a Rural Teacher’s College were kidnapped in a famous case – there is no indication that the students are alive. Only three of the students’ remains have been found.
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