More bodies reportedly found at grave near Rocky Point

A group of Mexican mothers says they found six more bodies on Sunday when they resumed searching near a mass grave outside Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, where 42 bodies previously had been discovered.

But the mothers group said intimidation by armed men forced them to leave the site and suggested Mexican government authorities were not doing enough to ensure their safety in the ongoing search for additional bodies.

“We left after the armed group arrived and later a team from the state attorney general’s office showed up,” the group Searching Mothers of Sonora posted on Twitter. “If anything happens to us we will hold the attorney general’s office responsible.”

Mexican authorities have not yet offered a motive for the killings, but thousands of similar mass graves in Mexico in the past have been linked to cartel violence and criminal organizations.

More than 10 armed men arrived in two pickup trucks as the mothers group was searching for bodies, Ceci Patricia Flores Armenta, leader of the Searching Mothers of Sonora group, told The Arizona Republic in an interview.

Their faces were covered and they were carrying large caliber rifles, she said.

“They told us they were going to forgive us this time and we could leave, but they didn’t want us to return there again,” Flores Armenta recalled.

She said she did not know if the group would return to continue searching.

“We are scared,” Flores Armenta said. The Sonora Attorney General’s Office verified that an additional four complete skeletal remains were recovered Sunday by federal and state authorities who went to the site after the mothers group called 911.

Authorities planned to resume searching Monday.

The mothers did not inform authorities before resuming the search for bodies on Sunday, state officials said in a written statement.

“It is the priority of the state Attorney General’s Office to guarantee the protection of civil groups that conduct these types of searches and prior coordination is essential to guarantee security protections and also technical support from coroners and experts,” the statement said.

Puerto Peñasco, known in the United States as Rocky Point, is a fishing village and beach resort town about a fourhour drive from Phoenix.