Twelve bodies – all bearing signs of torture and left with messages from cartels – were found on Thursday in the central Mexican state of Mexico. GuanajuatoLocal authorities attribute this to disputes between organized crime groups.
Guanajuato, a booming industrial center that is also home to popular tourist destinations, is currently Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics.
The 12 bodies were found within two hours in five locations in the city of Salamanca, according to the public prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the crime.
The victims – three women and nine men – were found on roads, bridges and avenues. Their bodies showed gunshot wounds and signs of torture, while one was dismembered, officials said.
The Public Prosecution Service also says that the perpetrators left messages in which a cartel claimed responsibility.
Messages are often left on the bodies of victims by drug cartels seeking to threaten their rivals or punish behavior they claim violates their rules.
The bodies were found less than 24 hours later Gunmen attacked a residential center for people with addictions in the same municipality: four deaths.
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“This month of October started here with very high crime rates. That means that 16 people have been murdered so far,” Salamanca Mayor Cesar Prieto told reporters.
But he said the violence hitting the city is “a temporary problem” that flares up “when one group decides to attack another group.”
There are two cartels in Guanajuato, the Santa Rosa de Lima and the powerful Jalisco New Generationare currently at war.
Police, politicians and citizens are all targeted in Guanajuato. In June, an infant and a toddler were among six members of the same family murdered in Guanajuato. In April there was a mayoral candidate shot dead in the street in Guanajuato just as she began campaigning.
Last December, 11 people were killed and another ten were injured in an attack on a pre-Christmas party in the state. A few days before, the bodies of five university students were found in a vehicle on a dirt road in Guanajuato.
The US State Department is urging Americans to reconsider their trip to Guanajuato. “Of particular concern is the high number of homicides in the southern region of the state linked to cartel-related violence,” the department said in a travel advisory.
Mexico has been hit by rising violence linked to organized crime and has recorded more than 450,000 murders since December 2006, when a controversial military anti-drug operation was launched.
New president Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that it will present its national security plan next Tuesday.
