14 Bodies Found in Mass Grave in Mexican Resort of Los Cabos

The bodies of 11 men and three women were found in a mass grave near the tourist resort of San Jose del Cabo on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, where violence between rival drug gangs has surged.

Authorities were running DNA tests from the bones in an attempt to identify the remains that were discovered Tuesday and Wednesday, the Baja California Sur state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

A forensic team was still looking for more remains Thursday.

The murder rate has surged in Baja California Sur in the past three years, with violence spiking in the municipality of Los Cabos, which includes the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo.

In the first four months of this year, 144 killings have been recorded, five times the figure from the same period a year ago, according to government data.

Mass graves, some with hundreds of bodies, have been discovered around Mexico in the states that have been hardest hit by drug violence, such as Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Morelos and Guerrero.

Some 30,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since drug violence increased sharply around 2007. More than 150,000 have been killed since then, when former President Felipe Calderon sent the army out to battle drug gangs.

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