Gunmen torture and kill nine people in Mexican state of Michoacán

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Authorities in the western Mexican state of Michoacán discovered on Tuesday the bodies of a woman and eight men, who were allegedly killed by hitmen in the municipality of Zitácuaro.

The Michoacán State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) revealed that the bodies were in the box of a cargo van, which was abandoned in the center of Zitácuaro, a municipality bordering the State of Mexico.

Personnel from the Specialized Crime Scene Unit of the FGE reported that the bodies showed severe signs of torture and bullet wounds.

The bodies were taken to the Forensic Medical Service, waiting to be identified and claimed by their relatives.

The Prosecutor’s Office indicated that it has opened an investigation file in which the main hypothesis is revenge between drug cartels.

The Michoacan Public Security Secretariat (SSP) has identified that in Zitacuaro, located in the east of Michoacan, several rival cartels operate: Los Caballeros Templarios; La Familia Michoacana (with its armed wing Los Viagras); La Nueva Familia Michoacana (a split of the former criminal organization); Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG); and Cartel of Los Correa.

The SSP announced that personnel from the State Center of Command, Communications, Computing, Control, Coordination and Intelligence (C5-i) are analyzing video recordings from a dozen public security cameras in different areas of Zitácuaro in an attempt to identify and locate the perpetrators.

Read also: Mexico’s Michoacan state plunged into deep crisis by narcos

The Government of Michoacán expects the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to reinforce the deployment of agents of the National Guard and the Mexican Army in view of the electoral process that will conclude with the vote on June 6.