Caribbean: Mexican authorities have exhumed 32 bodies and nine heads hidden in several graves in Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero. The region where rival drug gangs have been engaged in a wave of extortion, kidnappings and turf battles.
17 pits has been unearthed between Tuesday and Thursday along the hill in the village of Pochahuixco, part of the municipality of Zitla, a region beset by turf wars between drug cartels. The search for any additional hidden graves continued in the region.
Soldiers and police received a tip that people were being held at the site located near a mountain in the municipality of Zitlala. They said they rescued a kidnap victim and discovered 12 bodies and human remains in coolers.
“The discoveries are terrible,” Guerrero state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said.
Residents of the community of Tixtla, Guerrero found nine decapitated bodies on Monday along a highway. Prosecutors are looking into whether the nine heads found in Zitlala correspond to these bodies.
He said in a statement that the remains were taken to the state capital, Chilpancingo, for identifying.