12 tortured bodies in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – PROSECUTORS said they found the bound, blindfolded and tortured bodies of at least a dozen people on Monday on a roadside in the western state of Michoacan, which has become a flash point in Mexico’s war on drugs.

ln-world-12 Initial reports indicated that 11 men and one woman were likely killed elsewhere at least a day earlier and dumped near the town of La Huacana, officials in the state attorney general’s office said.

It was one of the largest execution-style slayings since the killing of 24 men whose bodies were found bound with duct tape and shot in the head in September in a rural area west of Mexico City.

In August 2008, the decapitated bodies of 12 men were found outside the southern city of Merida.

The officials, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the number of victims could increase as police continue investigating the scene.

Also in Michoacan on Monday, the bodies of two men who had been tortured and executed were found near an airport in the state capital, Morelia.

In both cases, the methods used by the killers were those often used by drug cartels to eliminate rival traffickers.

Michoacan, President Felipe Calderon’s home state, is at the centre of his drug war and has been wracked by a wave of killings and arrests in recent weeks.

In May, federal authorities arrested local Michoacan mayors in an unprecedented sweep against politicians accused of protecting cartels, specifically the La Familia cartel. Eight mayors remain jailed on organised-crime charges.

On Saturday, authorities arrested Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a reputedly important La Familia operative.

Since then, gunmen have repeatedly ambushed federal forces and opened fire on police patrols and stations. Attacks across western Michoacan state over the weekend left five police officers and two soldiers dead. — AP

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