<p class="title">Families searching for their disappeared relatives in Mexico have found 13 bodies in a mass grave, authorities said, the latest such discovery in a country with nearly 50,000 missing persons.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Authorities said the bodies were found in a hole in the town of Puerto Penasco, in the northwestern state of Sonora, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the US border.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Forensic analysis will be carried out to determine the cause of death and identify the 13 bodies," the state prosecutor's office said on Twitter.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The grim find was made by a collective of families with missing relatives.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Such groups have grown common in Mexico, which is racked by soaring violence fueled by turf wars between drug cartels fighting over lucrative trafficking routes to the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Victims of cartel hitmen or corrupt authorities often disappear without a trace. Currently, 49,180 people are reported as missing in Mexico.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the same time, more than 37,000 unidentified bodies are sitting in the country's overflowing morgues, according to activists.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Reining in violent crime has emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office last year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He has launched a new security strategy based around the creation of a National Guard to take back the civilian police duties the government gave to the military in 2006. But there has been little visible impact so far.</p>
<p class="title">Families searching for their disappeared relatives in Mexico have found 13 bodies in a mass grave, authorities said, the latest such discovery in a country with nearly 50,000 missing persons.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Authorities said the bodies were found in a hole in the town of Puerto Penasco, in the northwestern state of Sonora, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the US border.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Forensic analysis will be carried out to determine the cause of death and identify the 13 bodies," the state prosecutor's office said on Twitter.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The grim find was made by a collective of families with missing relatives.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Such groups have grown common in Mexico, which is racked by soaring violence fueled by turf wars between drug cartels fighting over lucrative trafficking routes to the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Victims of cartel hitmen or corrupt authorities often disappear without a trace. Currently, 49,180 people are reported as missing in Mexico.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the same time, more than 37,000 unidentified bodies are sitting in the country's overflowing morgues, according to activists.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Reining in violent crime has emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office last year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He has launched a new security strategy based around the creation of a National Guard to take back the civilian police duties the government gave to the military in 2006. But there has been little visible impact so far.</p>