Nineteen or more reported killed in Mexico

At least 19 people were reported shot or found dead around Mexico on 13-14 December in incidents mostly thought related to organized crime and cartels, Proceso reported. These included: two bodies found in the northern city of Coahuila, covered by blankets and with an unspecified message by them signed by Z-40 the head of The Zetas cartel, a policeman shot dead in the north-western district of Otáez in the state of Durango, and three people killed in a shootout in a residential building in the north-central city of Celaya. Nine of the dead were from the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, five of these being shot dead in and at the entrance of a house in the city of Monterrey, Proceso reported. A convict was stabbed to death on 14 December in a prison in the district of Iztapalapa outside Mexico City. This occurred hours before Mexico's Primate Archbishop Cardinal Norberto Rivera was to hold mass at the prison, but apparently did not interrupt preparations for the service held annually in this prison, Milenio reported. A man arrested for killing his wife on 13 December told police he shot her during a row after she would not let him sleep; it was not immediately clear if the shooting had been accidental, Proceso reported on 14 December. Neighbours in the Tláhuac district in Mexico City said the couple were drug users; both apparently had been prosecuted for violent thefts and the victim was on prison leave, the Mexico City chief prosecutor was reported as saying. They argued after returning from a party, when she "turned up the music" and prevented him from going to bed. After her death he fired shots into the air and took a woman and her three children hostage for an unspecified time, before being arrested.