Tuesday 4 December 2012

Twenty reported killed in Mexico over weekend

About 20 people were reported to have been killed or found dead in Mexico over 1-3 December, suspected victims of criminal executions, Milenio and Proceso reported on 3 December. Eight of them were killed in different districts of the northern city of Monterrey, and eight on 3 December in several districts of the north-central state of Zacatecas. One of two men shot dead on 2 or 3 December in the north-western town of Cosalá, north of the resort of Mazatlán, was provisionally identified as the mayor's nephew, Milenio reported. More than 25 suspected criminals were also arrested in recent days. Navy personnel were reported to have caught six presumed members of The Zetas cartel in the northern district of Saltillo, one being one of 131 prisoners who escaped from the northern Piedras Negras prison last SeptemberMilenio reported on 3 December. The daily noted that 32 of the escapees had been caught and eight shot dead so far; assault rifles, ammunition and 900 grammes of marijuna were confiscated from this group. The chief prosecutor of the western state of Colima announced on 3 December the arrests of seven members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, some suspected of killing policemen in the state in 2011. Yolanda Verduzgo Guzmán told the press arms, cash and bags of a synthetic drug called "ice" were confiscated, Proceso reported. The same day authorities in the state of Guerrero presented 14 presumed members of a kidnapping gang active in and around the west-coast district of Acapulco and thought responsible for at least one killing. They were detained on 28 November by the Navy and police, Milenio reported.