At least 31 bodies, some mutilated, have been recovered from a mass grave Monday in Veracruz, an eastern Mexican state plagued by attacks on migrants and drug cartel violence, officials said Wednesday. The motive of the killings is not known.
The corpses of 24 men and seven women were found on a ranch known as El Diamante outside the town of Tres Valles, Mexico. It is known to be a stronghold of the Zetas, one of Mexico's most bloodthirsty cartels, a military official said.
Although an earlier toll estimated a total of 28 bodies, it was later raised to 31, with some of the victims having been there for more than a month, said Arturo Herrera, a prosecutor in Veracruz.
The mass grave was discovered at an abandoned ranch by members of an army patrol after they spotted vultures circling the area, Agence France-Presse reported.
All the bodies were exhumed by Mexico police officials over the course of the past two days, Herrera said on Wednesday.
Eleven of the bodies had been decapitated, several were missing hands or feet and investigators also found ears and fingers, said a state police official who oversaw the exhumations.
The area was being guarded by federal and state police forces, while people with missing relatives or friends began arriving at the offices of state authorities in Tres Valles to see if their loved ones were among the victims.
Since the Mexican government launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006, there have been numerous mass graves found all across the country.
"One of the largest single mass graves found in Mexico in recent years was discovered in 2010 in Tamaulipas state," UK MailOnline reported. "It contained the bodies of 72 migrants, whom authorities said were slain by members of the Zetas angry that the victims declined to work for the cartel."
After President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012, the government said it had a database of 26,000 missing people, although it has since said that that figure might be revised downward, according to AFP.
Another 80,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, the government said.
