A Mazda SUV containing ten bruised and beaten bodies was left near a Christmas tree outside a Mexican governor’s office on Thursday.
Zacatecas Gov. David Monreal said in a video address that the people who left the bodies “came to leave them here in front of the palace.”
Hemos logrado la detención de los presuntos responsables vinculados con los hechos ocurridos esta mañana en Zacatecas. No descansaremos hasta que la paz y la seguridad regresen a nuestro estado. pic.twitter.com/8xpSnss6Xt
— David Monreal Ávila (@DavidMonrealA) January 6, 2022
According to a report from The Guardian, “the federal public safety department said a man drove the truck into the plaza, then exited the vehicle and walked away down an alley.”
Two arrests have been made in connection to the vehicle and the bodies, but further details have not been made public at this time.
Zacatecas is one of the most violent regions in the country, with over 1,050 murders recorded last year — many gang-related.
The area has become an important transit hub for drugs that are being moved to the US, especially fentanyl.
The Guardian report adds that, “Once dominated by the defunct Zetas cartel, Zacatecas is being fought over by a dizzying number of cartels. Those jockeying for turf include the Sinaloa, Jalisco, Gulf and North-east cartels as well as remnants of the Zetas who call themselves ‘Talibans.'”
There has been an uptick in fighting between Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.
During his video address, Monreal said that security has been a serious issue in Zacatecas.
“Bit by bit we will recover our peace. What we received was a cursed inheritance,” Monreal said.
Officials report that there were 31,615 murders in the first 11 months of 2021, which is a 3.6 percent drop from the 32,814 reported murders in 2020.
“In November, the bodies of six people were found hanging from a bridge and a tree in the city of Fresnillo, prompting the Mexican government to send security reinforcements,” RTE reports. “Across Mexico, more than 300,000 people have been killed in a wave of bloodshed since the government deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006.”
