MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Suspected drug gang hitmen murdered more than 20 people and dumped their bodies in the centre of Mexico’s second city of Guadalajara yesterday.
Local media reported the bodies were found in several vans abandoned around the western city’s iconic Millennium Arches monument, together with a message from drug cartels. The state attorney-general’s office said there could be up to 23 dead.
Guadalajara is the capital of the state of Jalisco, home to mariachi music and tequila, and was long spared the beheadings and drive-by shootings that have marked Mexico’s war against drugs in other regions.
Known as a stronghold of the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Mexico’s most-wanted trafficker Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, Guadalajara saw a spike in killings as other gangs, including the Zetas, started to contest their dominance of the region.
