EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Narco violence is again picking up in Mexico after a three-week lull that coincided with the start of presidential election campaigns.
Police in the border state of Nuevo Leon are investigating the deaths of between 10 and 13 individuals found near a burning vehicle in the town of Pesqueria northeast of Monterrey on Wednesday.
Mexican television reported state police and the Mexican army found three calcinated bodies inside the vehicle and eight additional deceased individuals with burns and other signs of violence in a nearby vacant lot. The site is a few miles from a highway leading to the border city of Miguel Aleman, which has experienced a rash of drug-related murders in previous months, the Mexican news reports said.
Ruling party presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum was scheduled to hold a campaign appearance Thursday in Nuevo Leon. In a news conference shared on social media, Sheinbaum said she regretted the violence but “we don’t believe it has absolutely anything to do with our campaign.”
Opposition party candidate Xochitl Galvez said Mexico’s narco-violence is the result of the ruling party’s “Hugs, not bullets” approach to transnational criminal organizations.
“In a few hours, when you arrive to Nuevo Leon, you will find the reality of what you offer: At least 10 calcinated bodies,” Galvez tweeted on Thursday. “Stop lying that Mexico is better off than ever and face the consequences of embracing criminals.”
Meantime, in the western state of Michoacan, authorities are trying to find the individuals who decapitated a police chief and murdered her two assistants earlier this week.
The bodies were found on a road near the city of Patzcuaro. The state government identified the victims as Regional Police Commander Cristal Garcia Hurtado and police officers Itzel Madero Larrea and David de Jesus Espinoza Valdez.
The Michoacan Attorney General’s Office said the bodies showed bullet wounds and their patrol car had been set on fire on the Patzcuaro-Uruapan highway.
The Mexican government has surged troops to Michoacan on various occasions in the past four years due to increased fighting between drug cartels and local criminal groups.
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