6 Women Who Went Missing in Mexico Were Killed, Burned
Associated Press
March 17, 2023
The six missing women from Central Mexico
Prosecutors
in Mexico confirmed Friday that six women who went missing on March 7
were killed and their bodies burned by a gang of armed men.
It was one of the largest collective killings of a group of women in recent years in Mexico.
The
women disappeared earlier this month on a road near the city of Celaya
in the farming and industrial state of Guanajuato. Relatives had held
out hope they might be found alive.
But
state prosecutor Carlos Zamarripa said Friday that experts had found
skeletal remains “almostly completely burned” in raids on several
properties Thursday. The amount of bone fragments found — Zamarripa said
they were “hundreds” — suggests the women's bodies were burned and the
bones were ground up and scattered, a common drug cartel tactic.
“They
took the six women to Juventino Rosas, where they later killed them,”
Zamarripa said. He said the motive for the killings was still under
investigation.
DNA tests matched five of the missing women, and more tests were being conducted.
Nearly
two dozen guns, explosives, and thousands of doses of drugs were also
found at the properties, he said. The plastic-wrapped body of a male
kidnapped victim was also found at one of the properties.
Zamarripa
said 14 men arrested in connection with that and other killings. At
least five of the suspects were from the northern border state of
Tamaulipas, and one of them was a Honduran man.
Tamaulipas
is split between the Gulf cartel and the Northeast Cartel. It was not
clear what either group would be doing in Guanajuato, which is hundreds
of miles to the south.
Authorities
had posted search bulletins for the six women on March 9, and had said
for more than a week, they hoped to find them alive.
For
years, the industrial and farming hub of Guanajuato has been Mexico’s
most violent state, with the Jalisco cartel waging a turf war there
against local gangs, including the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, which is
apparently being supported by the much larger Sinaloa cartel.
No comments:
Post a Comment