11 bodies found in truck in Mexico belonged to missing group: prosecutors

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The 11 people, including two minors, found dead in a pickup truck in southern Mexico were part of a group reported missing last month, authorities in Guerrero state said Friday.

The victims, aged between 13 and 53, were part of a group of 17 people reported missing days ago in the city of Chilapa.

It was reported that they were traveling merchants.

Their bodies were found Wednesday evening in a pickup truck on an avenue in Guerrero’s capital, Chilpancingo, whose mayor was beheaded last month less than a week after taking office.

Two women, four minors and five adult men from the community of Chautipan, an hour’s drive west of Chilpancingo, “who were sought by this agency have been identified,” state prosecutors said in a statement.

General Pedro Nieto, head of the region’s armed forces, said they were believed to have been kidnapped by the Los Ardillos drug cartel.

The army had been deployed to search for them.

The vehicle was found on a highway to Acapulco, the former beachside playground of the rich and famous that is now plagued by criminal violence.

The bodies were dismembered, making their identification difficult.

On October 22, ten of the victims disappeared, while the remaining seven went missing four days later while searching for their loved ones.

Guerrero has endured years of bloodshed due to wars between drug cartels, with residents often intervening.

Criminal gangs in Mexico often use so-called “hawks” who identify and pursue strangers in the area they control.

Last week, three other dismembered bodies were found in a vehicle in Chilpancingo.

Increasing violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has killed more than 450,000 people in Mexico since 2006.

The victims include Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos, whose gruesome murder in early October caused shock and anger.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in Guerrero, home to drug production and smuggling routes, including through Pacific seaports.

On October 24, armed clashes between suspected criminals and security forces in the southern state killed 19 people, including two police officers.

And this Monday, gunmen killed five members of the same family in a suburb of Acapulco.

The northwestern cartel stronghold of Sinaloa has also seen a spike in violence since the July arrest of drug lord Ismael Zambada in the United States sparked a wave of gang warfare.

Tackling the criminal violence that makes murder and kidnapping an everyday occurrence in Mexico is one of the biggest challenges facing President Claudia Sheinbaum.

The former mayor of Mexico City, who became the country’s first female president on October 1, has ruled out declaring war on drug cartels.

Instead, she has pledged to continue her predecessor’s strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots, while making better use of intelligence.