Over 50 reported killed, found dead in Mexico in days

Every day in Mexico yields a steady stream of violent deaths - many related to drugs and cartels - that make corresponding figures in other Latin American countries seem paltry or risible. At least 51 were reported as killed or found dead from late 28 March to 2 April. The review Proceso counted at least 14 killings around the country on or just before 29 March; victims included five shot to death that day in a dispute between unspecified individuals gathered in a house in the north-western district of Sinaloa de Leyva, Proceso reported. At least 13 were killed on 30 March: these included a policeman who was among five shot dead in the state of Morelos, a decapitated body found in the northern frontier city of Juárez, and two men executed and left hanging from a bridge in Atizapán de Zaragoza in central Mexico, Proceso reported. It reported separately the kidnapping of five men described as in their 20s, while driving before dawn on 30 March in the west-coast state of Guerrero. An unnamed individual "who apparently escaped" from the incident was cited as saying that gunmen forced the five into three cars on a road between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, in the district of Atoyac de Álvarez, Proceso reported. Five were shot dead and 16 injured on 31 March in attacks on two bars in the western city of Guadalajara, and nine dismembered bodies were found at the back of a van outside the north-eastern city of Victoria, Proceso reported. The review observed that a surge in violence in Ciudad Victoria was attributed to an intensifying turf war between the Gulf and Zetas cartels. Five presumed members of a family were murdered in a village outside the north-western resort of Mazatlán in Sinaloa early on 2 April, Milenio reported. They were found in the village of Chilacayota, three of them in a house "with torture marks," state prosecutors were cited as saying. These may have been among the 10 Proceso counted as killed on 2 April, as it stated six of them were killed in the state of Sinaloa. In the eastern state of Veracruz, authorities publicly presented on 2 April 10 municipal policemen detained at an unspecified date when they were caught selling drugs. State police and marines caught the policemen of the district of Coatepec selling synthetic drugs by a road outside the state capital Xalapa; firearms and "497 doses of green weed, apparently marijuana" were taken from their cars, Milenio reported on 3 April. The policemen confessed to complementing their policing work with drug dealing, while one admitted collaborating with an unspecified gang or cartel, Proceso reported.