CELAYA (Mexico), Aug 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Dismembered human remains found last week in an abandoned house in Mexico’s violence-wracked Guanajuato state corresponded to 32 bodies, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
It said 15 people had been positively identified so far among the remains, which were discovered as part of a search for missing people.
The remains were found “in fragmented and complex conditions,” said the office, adding that this complicated the identification process.
Local media reports said investigators had found body parts in plastic bags.
Guanajuato in central Mexico is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but also the country’s deadliest state due to gang turf wars, according to official homicide statistics.
In June, 11 people were killed and about 20 others injured in a shooting targeting a neighbourhood party in the city of Irapuato.
A month earlier, 17 bodies were found by investigators in an abandoned house in the same city.
Much of the violence in Guanajuato is linked to conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in the Latin American nation.
Guanajuato recorded more than 3,100 murders last year, the most of any Mexican state, accounting for 10.5 per cent of cases nationwide, according to official figures.
It also had about 3,600 missing persons cases, out of more than 120,000 countrywide. — NNN-AGENCIES
