A stray dog carrying a severed hand in its mouth led to the gruesome discovery of 53 bags of human remains in Mexico's Guanajuato state plagued by Mexican drug cartels.

Residents reported seeing the dog to authorities, and this led to the discovery of a clandestine grave site, where the 53 bags full of human remains were found. 

According to Agence French-Presse, the bags of human remains were discovered in late October in Irapuato as the town celebrates a massive arts festival called El Cervantino.

After seeing the dog carrying the human hand, people searching for their missing loved ones rushed to the burial site. A group comprising mothers and relatives of missing people started looking for signs of their lost loved ones at the clandestine grave site.

Bibiana Mendoza, one of the searchers told AFP that while the Cervantino festival was being celebrated, they were digging up bodies even as music from the nearby event could be heard in the background.

She admitted that she thought their efforts were useless "because they were burying more people elsewhere." Mendoza's brother was among the people missing amid widespread cartel violence in the state.

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Stray Dogs Carrying Human Remains Not New in Mexico

Stray dogs can be found all over Mexico. With warring cartels dumping bodies in various clandestine grave sites, these dogs may have gotten a taste of some human remains.

Earlier this month, police in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca found a dismembered human body after receiving a call about a black dog carrying a human arm in its mouth. 

State prosecutors noted that this has led them to investigate and find other parts of the dismembered body in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the state capital, Oaxaca city.

The black dog was found carrying the arm on the corner of Pino Suarez Street and Insurgentes Avenue in the Emilio Zapata neighborhood of Martin Mexicapan.

Mexican authorities believed the dog found the arm on the Atoyac River's bank. So, they cordoned off the area and found several more body parts, which they believed were abandoned and dumped on the river's bank.

In late October, a stray dog with a human head hanging out of its mouth was seen on video running down a street in Mexico's Zacatecas state.

Shocking videos shared on social media show the dog holding the human head by the neck and running along a dark street, possibly taking it somewhere to eat it. The corpse's head and other body parts were reportedly left in an ATM booth in Monte Escobedo town.

Officials said a note referring to a Mexican drug cartel was left next to the body parts. The message was likely intended to intimidate or taunt their rivals or authorities.

The stray dog reportedly grabbed the human head and took off before authorities could secure the scene. Police reportedly had to pry the human head out of the hungry dog's mouth.

Guanajuato's Missing Persons Turned Up in Clandestine Graves

Authorities are struggling to resolve the crisis of missing persons in Mexico, with nearly 100,000 people officially registered as missing.

From 1964 to April this year, 98,423 people have disappeared in Mexico based on the National Registry of Disappeared or Non-Located Persons, which updates the figures daily.

The crisis of missing persons in Mexico reportedly started in 2006 when former Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his war on drugs. In April, it was reported that the bodies of at least 400 missing persons have been found in Guanajuato.

The Guanajuato state search commission noted that since its creation in July 2019, it has recovered at least 400 lifeless bodies in different municipalities such as Salvatierra, Acambaro, and Irapuato. 

Hector Alonso Diaz Esquerra, head of the commission, said many of the remains were found in clandestine graves. According to the commissioner, the percentage of disappearances in minors is higher than in adults. 

The number of violent crimes in Guanajuato continues to rise as Mexican drug cartels fight over territory. The New York Post reported that Guanajuato is considered Mexico's most violent state, with some 2,400 people murdered as of September this year, while 3,000 more have vanished. 

According to reports, Guanajuato is the scene of a bloody turf war between the Jalisco cartel and the home-grown Santa Rosa de Lima gang.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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