Crime kills 40, officials said kidnapped in Mexico

About 40 were killed or found dead through 15-18 February across Mexico in shootouts or suspected executions by gangsters; one shooting death occurred unusually at midday in a Mexico City district frequented by tourists. A man was shot in that incident on 15 February as he left a bookshop in the Zona Rosa, a district of bars, eateries and offices popular with youth and tourists, Proceso reported. He was one of at least 16 the review reported as killed or found dead around Mexico on 14-15 February. These also included two whose bones were unearthed outside Acapulco in the west-coast state of Guerrero and two decapitated corpses found late that day, hanging from a bridge in the north-western state of Sinaloa. Proceso counted seven suspected crime victims in the states of Jalisco and Estado de México on 16 February. On 17 February a student was found shot dead in the western district of Chilpancingo. Three students were reported injured in Cuernavaca on the night of 16-17 as a gang of 15 broke in a robbed a student house party. Proceso counted 15 or more suspected victims of crime found on 17-18 February. These included a federal prosecutor and a man identified as his brother, found shot dead at the back of a car in the district of Ciénaga de Flores north of Monterrey. Another brother - the police chief of the district of Nuevo Laredo - was apparently missing on 18 February, Proceso reported. On 19 February, a senior detective from the northern state of Nuevo León was shot dead in the district of Apodaca, Excelsior reported. Two municipal officials and a former state official were also suspected to have been kidnapped in western and central Mexico. The mayor of Huitzuco de los Figueroa in Guerrero, his municipal finance officer and their driver were missing as of late 17 February and may have been kidnapped while driving betweeen Huitzuco and nearby Iguala, Milenio reported on 19 February. The former finance chief of the state of Morelos, Alfredo Jaime de la Torre, was in turn thought kidnapped on 18 February at his office in the district of Temixco, Proceso reported.