Post date: Mar 11, 2012 7:40:16 PM
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, CHIAPAS, MEXICO (MARCH 10, 2012) (REUTERS) - Authorities are investigating a mass grave in southern Mexico containing the remains of 167 bodies that may have been dumped there at least 50 years ago, a Mexican official said on Saturday (March 10).
Mystery surrounds the discovery of a mass grave in a cave near the drug-ravaged Mexican-Guatemalan border with forensic officials saying the skeletal remains are of pre-Hispanic indigenous groups linked to ancient Mayan rituals.
As investigations try to determine the age and gender of the victims and the cause of death, forensic scientist Cesar Pulido at the Chiapas state attorney general's office said the remains could date back to the region's hispanic era.
"We were at the site of the incident and preliminary investigations have detected that the bones are pre-Hispanic. The characteristics of the site suggest there were rituals and it's a pre-Hispanic cemetery and we have also discovered pottery."
The grave is on a remote ranch near the town of Frontera Comalapa, about 18 kilometres (11 miles) from the Guatemalan border in an area where migrants from Central America often cross on their way to the United States.
There is also speculation that the bones could be from Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which began in 1960 and claimed 250,000 lives and left 45,000 people missing. Some activists suspect the remains are from victims killed by soldiers and secretly buried.
In recent years, drug trafficking gangs have dumped the bodies of hundreds of victims, including scores of Central American migrants, into mass graves.