Prosecutors said they found the bound, blindfolded and tortured bodies of at least a dozen people on Monday on a roadside in the western state of Michoacan, which has become a flash point in Mexico’s war on drugs.
Initial reports indicated that 11 men and one woman were likely killed elsewhere at least a day earlier and dumped near the town of La Huacana, officials in the state attorney general’s office said.
It was one of the largest execution-style slayings since the killing of 24 men whose bodies were found bound with duct tape and shot in the head in September in a rural area west of Mexico City.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Last August, the decapitated bodies of 12 men were found outside the southern city of Merida.
The officials, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the number of victims could increase as police continue investigating the scene.
Also in Michoacan on Monday, the bodies of two men who had been tortured and executed were found near an airport in the state capital, Morelia.
In both cases, the methods used by the killers were those often used by drug cartels to eliminate rival traffickers.
In the Michoacan port of Lazaro Cardenas on Monday, gunmen attacked a hotel where federal police stay, wounding at least one officer, the officials said.
Michoacan, President Felipe Calderon’s home state, is at the center of his drug war and has been wracked by a wave of killings and arrests in recent weeks.
In May, federal authorities arrested local Michoacan mayors in an unprecedented sweep against politicians accused of protecting cartels, specifically La Familia cartel. Eight mayors remain jailed on organized-crime charges.
On Saturday, authorities arrested Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a reputed important La Familia operative.
Since then, gunmen have repeatedly ambushed federal forces and opened fire on police patrols and stations. Attacks across western Michoacan state over the weekend left five police officers and two soldiers dead.
Calderon has sent more than 45,000 troops to drug hot spots across Mexico, including Michoacan, since taking office. Cartels have responded with a vengeance. More than 11,000 people have been killed by drug violence nationwide since 2006, when the federal offensive began.
Drug violence has also plagued Mexico’s northern border region.
Gunmen in Tijuana opened fire on a police patrol car on Sunday, killing one officer and wounding three others amid drug violence that has seen at least 18 policemen slain so far this year in the border city.
The attack happened less than a day after another drive-by shooting targeting police left two bystanders injured, according to a Tijuana police statement. Tijuana, located in Baja California state, is located across the border from San Diego, California.
State Attorney General Rommel Moreno announced on Monday that he was creating a special investigative group to stem the attacks on police, which he said are part of an intimidation campaign by organized crime gangs.
“Today, unfortunately, the criminals are trying to pressure authorities by killing police officers,” Moreno said.
Also on Monday, authorities reported the abduction of the police chief of the rough northern border city of Piedras Negras, in the state of Coahuila.
Rogelio Ramos was pulled from his patrol car and kidnapped on Monday morning, state Public Safety Director Jose Castillo said.
Officials said the kidnapping could be related to efforts to curb corruption by militarizing the police force in Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
Castillo’s predecessor, Arturo Navarro, was shot and killed in April — less than three weeks after he took over the local force with the aim of purging corruption.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese