Catholicism reported in decline in Nicaragua

A survey carried out in Nicaragua in December 2012 showed the relentless decline of Roman Catholicism in that country between 1991 and 2012 and rise of Protestant Christianity, even if Catholics remained the largest religious community, El Nuevo Diario reported on 16 January. The Nicaraguan firm M & R Consultores carried out the survey for the Public Opinion Monitoring System (Sistema de Monitoreo de Opinión Pública, Sismo), interviewing 1,600 Nicaraguans between 17 and 28 December; the results were said to have a 95-per-cent confidence level and a margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent. Just over 52 per cent of respondents described themselves as Catholics, compared to the 90 per cent figure for 1991. The survey indicated 30 per cent of Nicaraguans to be Evangelical, while 14.1 per cent said simply that they were "believers" and 0.3 per cent, atheists. A comparative table of the figures obtained in 1991, 1995 and 2005 indicated that the four per cent of Nicaraguans who said they were Protestant Evangelicals in 1991 increased to 15.1 per cent in 1995, a year when Catholics had declined to just under 80 per cent of the population. The latest survey indicated there were more Catholics in cities and in the western part of Nicaragua, El Nuevo Diario reported.

Tourism, trade growing between Cuba and Peru

Cuba's ambassador in Peru put at 19,000 the number of Peruvians who visited her country in 2012, 34 per cent more she said than in 2011, Peru's official paper El Peruano reported on 16 January. Juana Martínez said she hoped some 25,000 Peruvians would visit in 2013. Bilateral trade however remained "reduced" she said, worth 16 million USD that year and consisting mostly of trade in pharmaceutical products, unspecified services and rhum. She added that the legal framework for increased exchanges and cooperation now existed within documents signed in Cuba during an undated but "recent" visit by President Ollanta Humala. She blamed the limited bilateral trade on sanctions the United States has imposed on Cuba. Peru's growing economy was increasingly creating a prosperous middle class with potentially the spending and travel habits of Europeans or North Americans. The economy was reportedly growing at a rate of six per cent or more; the investment firm BlackRock recently termed it the second Latin American country in terms of investment security, after Chile, El Peruano reported on 16 January.

Venezuela has a new foreign minister

Venezuela's bed-ridden President Hugo Chávez Frías appointed the former vice-president Elías Jaua Milano foreign minister on 15 January; the appointment was announced in parliament by the outgoing minister and acting president Nicolás Maduro, the state news agency AVN reported. Jaua who was also made vice-president for political affairs, told Venezuelan television that his "fundamental task" would be to defend and maintain Venezuela's "political stability and unity as well as Venezuela's independence, both on the internal front and the international front," AVN reported. The foreign ministers of Ecuador and Brazil were the first to congratulate him by telephone. The foreign ministry thanked them in a statement also confirming scheduled meeting in coming days between Jaua and the foreign ministers of Colombia and Ecuador, El Universal reported. The nomination was said to have been made by Chávez himself, whose signature was shown on the appointment published in the official gazette the next day, El Nacional reported. This seemed to corroborate declarations that his health was improving; the daily cited the Information Minister Ernesto Villegas as saying that he was "climbing back up the hill." The president underwent surgery for cancer the previous December.

General suspects Colombia's FARC arming amid talks

While negotiating peace with the Colombian government in Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were thought to have "increased" arms purchases "since the peace process began," Spain's EFE reported on 13 January, citing remarks by the Ecuadorean general commanding troops on the frontier with Colombia. Brigadier-General Fernando Proaño Daza, commander of some 12,000 troops in northern Ecuador, told EFE by telephone that a makeshift "arms workshop" was found in a house on 9 January in the Salado district in the northern province of Imbabura, yielding handguns, ammunition, pieces and related fabrication tools. Proaño said that "since the peace process began, trafficking has increased. We have caught a large quantity of ammunition, armaments and what we can determine is that they made use of this situation to strengthen their situation anticipating what could happen in the future." The FARC declared a two-month ceasefire due to end on 20 January, and Colombian officials were expecting a resurgence of attacks after that. The arms found on 9 January were described as destined for illegal groups, which could include drug traffickers. Separately a former provincial legislator was cited on 10 January as saying that Colombia seemed to be negotiating with no more than 30 per cent of the FARC and that judging by recent clashes, certain FARC military "blocks" were absent at the talks. Sigifredo López, a former hostage of the FARC, said the "so-called south-western blocks" formerly led by the late FARC chiefs dubbed Alfonso Cano and Mono Jojoy were not participating "and the proof is that every day there are clashes in south-eastern and south-western Colombia," El Espectador reported. He did not elaborate. The FARC and government negotiators resumed peace talks in Havana on 14 January.

In days, over 70 reported killed around Mexico

Eight were reported killed or found dead on 15 January in separate incidents in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Estado de México and Chihuahua. Three of these were employees of the Mexican transport ministry reported as missing on 14 January in the northern city of Torreón in Coahuila; they were found dead the next day, apparently "tortured" before being killed, Proceso reported. The review reported the deaths of 41 people around Mexico between 11 and 14 January, including 19 killed in the capital in the 12-14 period. These apparently were distinct from 21 reported killed on 13-14 January in the northern states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León and Estado de México in central Mexico. Five of the dead here were suspected criminals shot by the army in the district of Cadereyta in Nuevo León, Proceso reported on 14 January. On 13 January two were gunned down while driving in the Caribbean island resort of Cozumel, in the state of Quintana Roo; the local governor promised an immediate inquiry and "zero tolerance" for crime on the island, Proceso reported. The same day a mother and her daugher of unspecified age were found shot dead in the district of Tlahualilo in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported observing that the incident was amid two days of "extreme" violence in that part of the state. Mexico City's mayor reportedly declared on 13 or 14 January that the 19 killings registered in the capital on 12-14 January were unusual but unrelated to drug cartels, and overall security was "assured" in the city. Miguel Ángel Mancera, speaking in the capital, said authorities were investigating and "the instruction I have given very clearly is that there be no impunity...the important point here is that there will be no impunity." Some of the killings occurred in the districts of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, where authorities have pursued a disarmament programme intended to reduce killings, Proceso observed.

Almost 40 killed, found dead around Mexico

Some 38 people were reported to have been killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico in the 9-11 January period, Proceso reported on 10 and 11 January, describing the 11th as one of the most violent days since Enrique Peña Nieto's presidency began in December 2012. Eight victims were killed in the northern state of Chihuahua on the night of 10-11 January, while five were found in a mine shaft in the north-central district of Noria de Angeles. Two men and a woman were also shot early on 11 January in a house in Mexico City, considered one of the country's less crime-ridden areas. Late on 9 January, four men aged 18 to 25 were killed in and outside a house in the northern city of Monterrey. Three policemen were among the dead: one was shot dead in the northern city of Tijuana as he left work at six in the morning on 10 January and two the same day in Chihuahua, the capital of the northern state of Chihuahua, Proceso reported.

Mexico has new law to compensate crime victims

President Enrique Peña Nieto promulgated on 8 January a law to establish a system of state assistence and compensation for victims of crime in Mexico, agencies reported. The Victims Law or General Victims Law was ratified in April 2012 but blocked by the last president, Felipe Calderón; Peña Nieto promised when elected in 2012 to bring it to fruition. The law, due to enter into force 30 days after its promulgation, required local, state and federal authorities to aid crime victims by various means including with financial assistance for legal action taken by victims. Authorities assisting victims were to adjust their regulations and codes of practice to the law within seven months of its promulgation. The law's provisions would constitute a new National System of Attention to Victims, CNNMéxico reported on 10 January. This it added would likely replace the existing prosecutor's office attending to crime victims created in 2011 by the Calderón government, known as Províctima (Procuraduría Social de Atención a Víctimas de Delito). The broadcaster observed however that the system's challenge was to ensure its provisions were implemented by local authorities Mexicans often distrust when they do not suspect them of conniving with criminals. Jurists speaking to CNN welcomed the law as a first step toward better justice for crime victims.

Ten killed around Mexico, locals arm against criminals

Ten people were reported killed in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 8-9 January, including three gunned down in the northern district of Saltillo and four in the north-western district of Tijuana. Another victim was an employee of the baking firm Bimbo, shot dead while driving a delivery van in the north-western city of Culiacán, Proceso reported on 9 January. On 8 January, police found 10 tonnes of marijuana in a mechanical workshop in Tijuana in the state of Baja California, although stamps on the sealed packets indicated these had previously been confiscated by police or the army. Nobody was arrested and it was not immediately clear why the load was seemingly abandoned or stolen. A police revision that day apparently indicated the load had been confiscated days before in three parts. The drugs formerly owned by the Sinaloa cartel, were handed over to state prosecutors, Proceso reported. The review separately reported that 200 residents of the western district of Ayutla de los Libres have been armed since 5 January and set up road blocks in response to persistent crime. The locals were controlling circulation in and out of Ayutla and declared they would not disarm until criminals had left the area. The governor of Guerrero where Ayutla is located, Ángel Aguirre Rivero reportedly told local media on 8 January that the measure indicated "the citizenry's desperation before organized crime and the lack of response by authorities," Proceso reported. Residents of Ayutla and two nearby districts mobilized on 5 January when a local policeman was kidnapped; the official was rescued and the kidnappers reportedly fled.

Murder rate in Bogotá reported lowest in decades

Bogotá's police revealed on 5 January that there had been 1,281 registered homicides in the Colombian capital in 2012 compared to 1,654 in 2011, and the city now had the lowest homicide rate in decades, RCN La Radio reported. The 23-per-cent reduction corroborated other figures recently given out by authorities. Bogotá's police chief Luis Eduardo Martínez Guzmán said the homicide rate for the city of some seven million residents was now 16.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. This was one of the lowest in Latin America. By comparison Greater Caracas was recently found to have a homicide rate of 122/100,000 inhabitants. Bogotá's security affairs chief Guillermo Asprilla said the "figures show the most successful year" in security terms since 1985, and attributed this to police action and the mayor's policies to curb possession of arms. A measure of the significance of this figure was perhaps in its comparison with Bogotá's homicide rate in 1993 - at a time when communist guerrillas and drug cartels were most active and potent - which was 80.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. Separately President Juan Manuel Santos was to discuss the state of crime in Bogotá with cabinet ministers and members of the Bogotá municipality, at a security council to be held in the north-eastern district of Usaquén. The residential area, described in reports as usually quiet, was recently the setting of gun fights between members of a local drug gang. The security council would examine the homicide figures given by police, and issues including drug trafficking, extortion, and bullying and drug abuse in schools, RCN La Radio reported on 10 January. It was not immediately clear when the council would meet.

Colombian guerrillas say will not renew ceasefire

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared on 9 January that the guerrilla army would not renew a 60-day unilateral ceasefire due to end on 20 January, intended to facilitate ongoing peace talks with the government in Havana. The head of the FARC's negotiating team in Havana, the guerrilla dubbed Iván Márquez, said "there will be no extension of the unilateral ceasefire. So far we have not contemplated the possibility. The only possibility would be to sign a bilateral ceasefire," which the Colombian government has so far ruled out, El Espectador reported. He also expressed hope that Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez would soon recover from the cancer for which he was operated last December, so he could "continue to contribute to this peace process as he has done." Chávez was in hospital in Havana. Márquez said that thanks to the president's help "it was possible for this peace table to be held in Havana." Venezuela is thought to have considerable influence with the FARC.

Venezuelan court allows delayed presidential oath

The Constitutional Hall of the Supreme Court of Venezuela ruled on 9 January that the ailing President Hugo Chávez did not have to take the oath of office for another presidential term on 10 January as required - given his physical incapacity - and this was a formality not affecting the "administrative continuity" in the country. Chávez was re-elected as president last October but remains in hospital in Cuba following surgery for cancer last December; the country was being run by a cabinet headed by his vice-president and foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro. Parliament voted on 8 January to allow his absence during treatment, while opponents urged the Supreme Court to declare whether or not this was legal. The court's President Luisa Estella Morales Lamuño declared that while a new constitutional period began on 10 January, "another swearing-in as President-elect is not necessary as there is no interruption in exercising his office...this is a re-elected president, the...re-election is to do with approval of his management," El Universal reported. She said he was outside Venezuela "for his health," with parliament's permission and in keeping with Article 235 of the constitution; that article stipulates that parliament must authorise a presidential absence in Venezuela if this is for more than five days. She said there could be no date now for when Hugo Chávez would be sworn into office, but this would surely happen once he was cured of cancer.

Group would become Mexico's "real" opposition party

Mexico's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) led by the former presidential aspirant Andrés Manuel López Obrador took formal steps on 7 January toward becoming a party, its members vowing to garner extensive membership and insinuating this would become the main opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Members of Morena (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional) visited the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico City to formally notify it of Morena's intention to become a party. It was not immediately clear if this was a mere formality as Morena members have said or if approval was needed. In any case its members seemingly had scant regard for the IFE, which ratified the PRI's bitterly contested election in 2012 after rejecting all cheating allegations. They reportedly laughed when an IFE official welcomed them to the building as the "home of democracy." Mexico's Leftist parties insist the 2012 elections were fraud-ridden. Later addressing an IFE panel, party president Martí Batres Guadarrama denounced the Pact for Mexico signed between the PRI and the two main opposition parties - to ease reformist legislation - as "the PRI's dream and a reactionary utopia" intended to eliminate dissent, La Jornada reported on 8 January. "The PRI does not like democracy, plurality, discrepancy...that pact symbolises...a system of pseudo-governmental parties where everyone has the same opinion, a uniform...political society...but bad news for the PRI, if there is an opposition it is called Morena." He said Morena rejected the "neo-liberal model" and energy-related privatizations likely to be pursued the PRI government. Morena's impact would become apparent in time, and depend on how many members and ultimately votes it can garner. These were expected to be taken from the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the main Leftist party formerly led by López Obrador. On 8 January López Obrador addressed "hundreds" of supporters in Mexico City's historic central square, where he registered his membership and began a national campaign to win party members. He vowed to defend Mexico's oil as national property and curb tax rises being imposed by the "gang of ruffians" in the government, while affirming Morena's peaceful vocation, La Jornada reported. A post was set up where "dozens" registered their affiliation after López Obrador left. Party president Batres was reported to have said the same day that he expected 1.5 million Mexicans to join the party in 2013, "more than recently registered" for the National Action Party, the main conservative party. He was to present the party's financing plans on 9 January, Excelsior and Notimex reported.

Around 30 reported killed in Mexico

Just under 30 were provisionally reported as gunned down or found dead around Mexico in the period from the evening of 5 to 8 January. Nine including three policemen were reported killed or found dead on 8 December; three of those including a policeman were found in an advanced state of decomposition in the  district of Durango in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported. The policeman, from the district of Mezquital in that state, was reported disappeared in mid-December 2012. Two policemen were separately shot dead in the northern city of Saltillo and in Mexico City, while two charred bodies were found in a car in the north-western city of Culiacán, all on 8 January. Proceso reported 19 killings on 5-6 January, most of these occurring early on 6 January. One of the victims, found in the western city of Guadalajara, was identified as belonging to the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Two of his brothers were reported arrested in September 2012. Separately on 8 January three teenagers or children and an adult were detained in the western resort of Acapulco with over 14.5 tonnes of "green weed" thought to be marijuana. Interrogations indicated the four were a local gang led by the adult, a 28-year-old dubbed El Chapito, Milenio reported. Police also detained on 8 January a gang of six including a mother and her 22-year-old son in the northern district of Escobedo, all suspected of drug trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of a taxi driver, Milenio reported.

Venezuelan parliament postpones president's oath

Parliament voted on 8 December to allow President Hugo Chávez Frías to formally take office before the Supreme Court after the official date of 10 January, given his physical incapacity to attend a ceremony in Venezuela for now. The Speaker of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello Rondón told parliament that the 10 January date was not as opposition members alleged "immovable" and there were precedents for a president's late inauguration. The President he said now had "all the time he needs to recover and return to Venezuela" once cured of his illness, El Universal reported. He said addressing the opposition coalition that the government was functioning and the socialist regime united, "only the opposition is not functioning...the day something happens, [the vice-president] Nicolás [Maduro] and I will be here together. I don't know if you will all be together." Cabello was sworn in as Speaker on 5 January for 2012-13; he expressed satisfaction at the 8 January session that no opposition legislators had been included in the parliamentary presidium, as "there would surely have been a coup." A lawyer and constitutional specialist separately told Globovisión, a broadcaster critical of the regime, that he considered the vote "contrary to the constitution" and inapplicable beyond 10 January when the present constitutional period ended. José Vicente Haro said the acting president Nicolás Maduro and ministers should step down on 10 January, after which date they could be no more than a de facto government, Globovisión reported. Venezuela's Prosecutor-General Luisa Ortega Díaz was however cited as saying that day that a new constitutional period was not to be confused with a presidential mandate. She said "the mandate is one thing and the constitutional period another," and "the President can thus not take office on 10 January," Globovisión reported. She said parliament should however convene that day to start the new constitutional period. Hugo Chávez was elected to a new presidential term on 7 October. Ortega said that in spite of his resurgent illness and temporary absence, there had been no "power vacuum" in Venezuela as the opposition alleged.

Presidential absence fuels tensions in Venezuela

Hugo Chávez Frías was to be sworn into a new presidential term in Caracas on 10 January but it was very unlikely he would, as he reportedly remained under close medical care following surgery for cancer in December. Opposition forces in Caracas have increasingly urged Venezuela''s socialist regime to inform Venezuelans of the president's state but also respect constitutional stipulations in case of the president's unexpected incapacity. The opposition's position was that the current parliamentary speaker,  Diosdado Cabello, was to take over provisionally and prepare for general elections. The Democratic Coalition Table (MUD, Mesa de Unidad Democrática) wrote to the Organization of American States (OAS) to state its concern about the "alteration of the constitutional order" if this did not happen on 10 January, posing it stated a threat to the "democratic order," Agence France-Presse reported on 8 January. Officials have said Chávez could be sworn in later as this was merely a formality; the country was currently administered by the Vice-President and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro. The MUD wrote there is "absolutely no room for the interpretation that would alllow the...act to be postponed to an unspecified time." The governor of the state of Miranda and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles separately told a press conference on 8 January that the Supreme Court must clarify the correct interpretation of who should be president on 10 January and the matter could not be left to the government. He said "I don't know what the magistrates...are waiting for. A conflict is presently being envisaged in Venezuela that is undoubtedly constitutional; institutional bodies must respond to this conflict," Globovisión reported. It was not immediately clear where he was speaking. "The country is expecting a way out...a clear interpretation of what this constitutional text says," he said, holding out a booklet before his audience. He asked American presidents not to come on 10 January and fuel the "political game" inside Venezuela, meaning attend a ceremony where Chávez was absent. Capriles wondered aloud why officials were not telling Venezuelans about the president's condition 48 hours before his inauguration, and implied they were lying in this respect. He could not understand he said why they found it "so difficult to speak truthfully," however "harsh" that truth was.

Over 25 reported killed around Mexico

More than 25 were reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 3-5 January in incidents presumed linked to drugs and cartels; 12 of the victims died on 4-5 January in the northern state of Chihuahua, the review Proceso reported. Of the 12, six were killed in the districts of Valle de Zaragoza and Delicias on 5 January and six, identified as relatives of the mayor of Balleza in Chihuahua, on 4 January. The latter were initially declared to have died in a car crash as all six were found next to a car by a road in Cabeza de Venado south-west of the district of Parral; after relatives insisted this had been a "multiple execution," investigations began, which revealed the six had been "tortured" and beaten to death. Two of them were apparently kidnapped on 3 January and were sought out by four relatives who were killed with them, Proceso reported. The former district police chief of Balleza was in turn arrested on 4 January and was to be prosecuted on kidnapping and murder charges, Proceso reported. He was dismissed in January 2012 after being accused of kidnapping and killing a shopkeeper, but fled; he was arrested after returning to Balleza. Two men were shot dead in a bar late on 4 January in the northern city of Torreón - a day after three were shot in another bar in that city - while four were shot dead in a house in Zapopan in the western state of Jalisco early on 5 January, Proceso reported. It reported five other killings on 3-4 January in the states of Morelos, Durango, Nuevo León and Guanajuato. Also on 5 January authorities in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí publicly presented 13 detainees identified as members of the Gulf Cartel thought to have been active in criminal activities in various districts of the state, Proceso reported, citing the regional daily Pulso. Arms, ammunition and communication items were reportedly taken from them.

Officials see fall in murders, extortion in El Salvador

The office of the Prosecutor-General of El Salvador issued a report on 27 December observing a dramatic fall in reported murders and extortions in 2012, attributed in the former case to a truce between gangs that began in March and to police action. The head of the Anti-homicide Unit at the prosecutor-general's office Oscar Torres told the press that day that there were 2,517 registered homicides in the country from 1 January to 19 December, 1,728 cases less than in the same period in 2011, El Salvador's El Mundo reported the next day. Torres said that 2,573 arrest warrants against murder suspects had led to 1,703 arrests and ultimately, to 922 convictions. The officer dealing with extortions at prosecutor-general's office, Allan Hernández, separately cited a 10 per cent drop in reported cases of extortion, presumably in the same period, and a 40-per-cent increase in related convictions. He said however there were no figures or any "real documented form" to show a direct link between this and the gangs' ceasefire. Salvadorean authorities have in recent months expressed satisfaction at the apparent fall in violent crime in the country even though certain critics intermittently insist many crimes go unreported. The recent homicide figures were deplorable compared to those of Costa Rica, where the local Red Cross reportedly counted 211 killings in 2012. But they were better than those of the most crime-ridden Latin American states like Venezuela or Honduras where 50 or so were reported killed over Christmas. No killings were apparently reported during the 22-30 December period in El Salvador, with police counting 33 deaths in car crashes or drownings.

Venezuelans pray for ailing leader's recovery

At the close of 2012 many Venezuelans prayed for the recovery of President Hugo Chávez Frías, apparently in a fragile state following a recent operation for a recurring cancer, while officials issued messages to dismiss rumours of his deterioration. Venezuela's Science Minister Jorge Arreaza Monserrat wrote on the website Twitter that the president had spent "a quiet and stable day in the company of his children" on 31 December and Venezuelans should disbelieve "malicious rumours" to the contrary. On 30 or 31 December, an oecumenical mass was held at a church in Caracas for Chávez, while residents gathered in the Plaza Bolívar to sing for the president, the state news agency AVN reported. Chávez followed the service on television from Cuba where he was operated, according to the Venezuelan communications minister Ernesto Villegas; on 30 December he urged unspecified critics not to "play" with the president's health by spreading rumours on websites like Twitter. It seemed improbable that Chávez could return to Venezuela to be officially sworn in for another presidential term on 10 January as scheduled; Vice-President Nicolás Maduro most recently described his physical state as "delicate." The Colombian broadcaster Caracol separately cited a physician José Rafael Marquina as saying that the recent surgery had been an "absolute failure" and that "Cuba does not have enough experience to treat" the president's "unusual cancer;" he said he believed Chávez was "very probably" living his "last days." It was not immediately clear if Marquina's assertions were based on reliable information, but Caracol described him as "known" to have previously revealed "privileged information" on the president's health. He told Caracol on 31 December that he did not believe rumours of Venezuelan officials concealing the president's death while preparing opinion for the news, observing that already "the country and the world are prepared for the death of Chávez."

Over 530 were killed in Caracas in December 2012

The Bello Monte forensic facility in Caracas was reported to have received 15 bodies - of presumed victims of criminal incidents in the capital - in the 12 hours from six in the evening on 30 December to six in the morning the next day, the broadcaster Globovisión reported on 31 December. It qualified the figures given by the morgue as unofficial but the movement of bodies into the morgue is reported in Venezuelan media and apparently considered a daily gauge of the state of violence in Caracas, which has the highest homicide rate in Venezuela. Citing the morgue's figures, Globovisión gave 532 as the number of violent deaths in Caracas in December 2012.

Killings reported across Mexico end of year

The review Proceso reported 15 or more criminal executions across the country on 30-31 December observing that "the last day of the year ended like the preceding 364 days: drenched in blood." Six of the fatalities were in the central Estado de México, with two people shot to death and four found decapitated. Five were found dead on 30 December in the district of Balleza in the northern state of Chihuahua, while two men were shot dead on 30 or 31 December in the district of Gómez Palacio in the state of Durango, Proceso reported. The website reported gun attacks on police and judiciary installations in Durango on 29-30 December, without casualties. Two gunmen were shot dead by police in the Mesa del Seri locality outside the north-western city of Hermosillo, on 30 or 31 December. In the district of Buenaventura in Chihuahua, members of The Zetas drug cartel recently murdered four women they had kidnapped, throwing their bodies into a ditch, Proceso reported on 31 December, citing declarations by the Chihuahua prosecutor's office. The ditch was found after marines arrested on 30 December four purported Zetas in the northern city of Monclova who also revealed a safe house holding three or four more hostages and an arsenal including assault rifles, hand grenades and ammunition. The hostages told police they too were to be murdered.