The state of Guanajuato has become a region with a strong presence of organized crime, which is why acts of violence and deaths due to disputes between cartels are increasingly frequent.

In that entity there are between 7,000 and 8,000 abandoned water wells, many of them in agricultural areas, and some are used by criminal groups to hide bodies and human remains.

The president of the Agricultural Confederation of Mexico, Mauricio Pérez Cabrera, pointed out that in Guanajuato there are between 26,000 and 28,000 wells related to agricultural activities, although he estimated that around 30 percent are no longer in operation.

According to the leader, part of these spaces have become a security problem because they remain open and unsupervised, according to the newspaper Milenio.

Pérez Cabrera explained that agricultural producers have already begun to seal some disused wells to prevent them from continuing to be used for criminal purposes. He indicated that historically this procedure was carried out with earth, stones and branches, without the need for specialized machinery.

The problem has become relevant after various discoveries made in municipalities such as Juventino Rosas, Villagrán, Cortázar and Apaseo el Grande, where search groups and authorities have located human remains inside abandoned agricultural wells.

Reports from the Attorney General's Office of the State of Guanajuato consulted by Milenio, detail that remains corresponding to at least five people were located in wells in Juventino Rosas, while in Villagrán the discovery of 19 more victims was reported at different points.

Search groups assure that the figure could be much higher. So far in 2026 alone, civil organizations report at least 84 bodies located in disused wells in different regions of the state.

Given this situation, the Secretary of the Government of Guanajuato, Jorge Jiménez Lona, recently confirmed that actions are already being implemented to close these spaces.

Until April of this year, at least five wells located in Villagrán and Juventino Rosas had been sealed to prevent them from continuing to be reused by organized crime. Collectives and residents of rural communities have also requested a state strategy to intervene in abandoned wells.

In the community of Duarte, in León, auxiliary authorities recognized that there are between 15 and 20 disused waterwheel wells and some have been linked to the discovery of bodies.