Sunday 28 April 2013

Over 35 shot, found dead, in pieces around Mexico, locals try to lynch thieves

Over 22 people were found or shot dead around Mexico on 25-26 April in presumed criminal incidents and executions, while 13 inmates were killed in a prison brawl in north-central Mexico early on 27 April. The review Proceso counted 11 killings for 25 April and at least 12 for Friday 26 April. The victims on the first day included four criminal suspects shot dead by police in a gun fight in the western district of Yurécaro in Michoacán, and five bodies found outside the Pacific resort of Acapulco, in or near a river in the locality of Los Órganos. Police identified these as manual workers, said to have been shot on the spot by unidentified gunmen, Proceso reported. Victims the next day included: two young men whose dismembered bodies were found by a motorway linking Mexico City and Guadalajara near the locality of Vista Hermosa, three killed very late on 25 April or early the next day in shooting between gangs on the border between the western states of Michoacán and Jalisco, four members of a family found dead in a house in Ziracuaretiro in Michoacán, and two men shot dead while driving early on 26 April in Iztapalapa in Mexico City, Proceso reported on 26 April. Additionally, 13 inmates were killed and 65 injured when a fight broke out early on 27 April in the La Pila prison, outside the north-central city of San Luis Potosí, Milenio reported. Federal forces reportedly took control of the prison and the governor of the state of San Luis Potosí ordered the incident investigated "in depth." Also on 27 April, residents of Temoac in the south-central state of Morelos almost lynched two thieves and were reportedly enraged when local police refused to hand them over. Police had earlier arrested the two and two collaborators as they sought to rob a fuel lorry; they then sent two of the detained to the nearby district of Cuautla and kept two in Temoac's police station, Milenio reported. Local residents informed of the detainees' presence effectively besieged the police station as they sought to drag them out; the two, aged 19 and 22 and suspected by locals as also involved in kidnappings, were apparently injured by projectiles before being rescued by state police and taken to hospital in Cuautla.