Police in a southern Mexico region rife with drug cartel violence have found 11 bodies, including two of minors, dumped by a highway, prosecutors in the state of Guerrero said Thursday.

The bodies were found late Wednesday after police received a tip about an abandoned pickup truck on the main thoroughfare of the city of Chilpancingo, the state capital, prosecutors said in a news release. The city of 300,000 has been the scene of gruesome drug gang violence as two rival cartels fight for control of the area.

. . .

In early October, the city’s mayor was killed and beheaded just a week after he took office. Alejandro Arcos took office on Oct. 1 in Chilpancingo, and his beheaded body was found in a pickup truck a week later, his head placed on the vehicle’s roof. Days later, four mayors asked federal authorities for protection.

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  • breakfastmtnOP
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    4 days ago

    Interesting bit buried in the middle of the article:

    For the last six years, Mexico bragged about its oft-questioned “hugs, not bullets” strategy, in which its leaders avoided confrontations with drug cartels that were gradually taking control of large parts of the country. The thinking was that social programs, not shootouts, would gradually drain the pool of cartel gunmen.

    Now, a month into the term of new President Claudia Sheinbaum, a string of bloody confrontations suggests the government is quietly abandoning the “no bullets” part of that strategy and is much more willing to use the full force of the military and the militarized National Guard.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      All the news up until now has said she intended to continue AMLO’s policies. Is this saying she’s breaking with that?

  • acargitz
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    4 days ago

    Do those cartels want Bukele? Because this is how they get Bukele.