Twelve bodies were found Thursday in a town in central Mexico where four people had been murdered the day before, according to authorities who attribute the violence to rivalry between two armed mafias.
The bodies of three women and nine men were found in Salamanca in the state of Guanajuato, said the regional prosecutor’s office in charge of the investigation.
“Narco-messages” were found near the bodies in which one of the cartels claimed responsibility for the assassinations and threatened the rival gang, according to the same source. The victims showed gunshot wounds and signs of torture, according to the prosecution. They were found in five different places (roads, bridges, avenues).
The day before, four people were killed and five others injured during the attack on a drug center in Salamanca. “This month of October started with very high crime rates here. That’s 16 people (murdered) at the moment,” the mayor of Salamanca, César Prieto, declared on Milenio TV. He confirmed that it was “apparently a settling of scores between criminal gangs”: “The population “civil law has nothing to do with it.”
Two cartels clash in the state of Guanajuato, Santa Rosa de Lima and Jalisco Nueva Generation. A local leader in Santa Rosa de Lima has been arrested, Mexican media reported Wednesday.
Guanajuato sums up all the contrasts of Mexico. The state is both an industrial corridor and a tourist and cultural destination, with a theater festival set to begin this October.
It is also the state which records the most homicides among the 32 in Mexico. New President Claudia Sheinbaum is due to present her national security plan on Tuesday.
