MEXICO CITY.- Las Labradas, Sinaloa is an archaeological site where more than 300 petroglyphs have been found to present, and maintenance and cleaning work to retire graffiti stains are about to be finished.

Work is part of Temporary Employment Program (PET), promoted by Secretariat of Social Development (SEDESOL) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which also attends maintenance labors at Cerro de la Mascara, another petroglyph site, and the former Jesuit College in Sinaloa, located in El Fuerte and Sinaloa de Leyva municipalities. Investment has been 500,000 MXP.

Located at Meseta de Cacaxtla Protected Natural Area, in San Ignacio municipality, Las Labradas Conservation and Minor Maintenance Project registers a 90 per cent advance in the first stage, which consists on cleaning and maintenance of the petroglyph area and access road.

Maria de los Angeles Heredia Zavala, director of Sinaloa INAH Center, remarked that during the second stage, petroglyphs will be attended, applying a protective layer on the geometric and anthropomorphic figures that were damaged with graffiti.

Other tasks include cleaning 4 kilometers of beach, whitening stones by the side of the road, weeding archaeological monticules, installing a security hut and signalizing the road that connects with Mazatlan-Culiacan highway.

The Sinaloa INAH Center director informed that La Mascara Archaeological Site has benefited also by PET. Stone staircase rebuilding, rehabilitation of the access road, route signalization, ecologic sanitary facilities and protective mesh installation, as well as cleaning tasks, continue at the El Fuerte municipality site, where petroglyphs that represent animals and plants are located.

The 18th century building that used to be a Jesuit College, Antiguo Colegio Jesuita de Sinaloa de Leyva, is the third monument in Sinaloa benefited with PET. Conservation and maintenance work is being conducted at the mission, such as cleaning and consolidation of bricks at the bell tower and installation of a fence.

Temporary workers are inhabitants of the nearby municipalities. This way INAH and SEDESOL reactivate employment in several states in Mexico and continue preserving archaeological and historic heritage.