Since 2006, Mexico has deployed the military to the country to tackle organized crime. But this “war on drugs” has also sparked an unprecedented wave of violence in the country, with around 290,000 homicides since that date.
Fourteen corpses were discovered this Friday on a road in northern Mexico, where gangs linked to organized crime operate, local authorities said.
“The prosecution has confirmed that the bodies discovered this morning are 14 in number,” the state government of Zacatecas said in a statement. Rolled up in blankets, the bodies were spotted at dawn by motorists on a road in the town of Fresnillo.
According to local prosecutor Francisco Murillo, four bodies have already been identified. They are four men from a locality located 150 km from Fresnillo and “reported missing a few days ago”.
The state of Zacatecas is located on one of the main drug transport routes to the United States. Experts say at least three local criminal groups, with ties to the powerful Sinaloa and “New Generation Jalisco” cartels, are vying for control of the land.
Rival gang clashes
Despite the progression of the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico, the violence has not abated. On Wednesday, sixteen people were killed in clashes between rival gangs of drug traffickers in Tepuche, a rural community in the Mexican state of Sinaloa (northeast).
Mexico City security chief Omar Garcia Harfuch was gunshot wounded on Friday in a narcotrafficker attack that left three people dead. He pointed to the cartel of “new generation Jalisco”.
Since 2006, Mexico has deployed the military to the country to tackle organized crime. But this “war on drugs” has also sparked an unprecedented wave of violence in the country, with around 290,000 homicides since that date. Experts believe that this strategy has fragmented the cartels into smaller and more violent cells.
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