Christmas Day saw no break in Mexico’s plague of drug gang-related violence, as incidents reported across the worst-affected states included the gruesome discovery of six decapitated heads.
In the southern state of Guerrero, seven people were massacred as they gathered to celebrate Christmas in the municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez.
Gunmen entered the house and shot dead five men from the same family - three brothers, their father and their uncle. A married couple who had been invited to lunch with the family were also killed.
State security spokesman Roberto Alvarez Heredia said two of the seven killed were municipal police officers and one a state police officer. The preliminary investigation suggested the gunmen wanted to kill one of the victims in a revenge attack but ended up killing them all.
The six human heads were found in the western state of Michoacan. The state prosecutor’s office said they were found in Jiquilpan, a municipality near the state of Jalisco in a region that has been a battleground between competing drug gangs in recent years.
The six men are yet to be identified and their bodies have not been found. The remains have been sent to a forensics office for analysis.
Though a particularly grim discovery, authorities regularly find dismembered body parts across Mexico’s more violent states, as cartel’s bury their victims in hidden graves.
In Chihuahua state, authorities said nine people were killed during Christmas Day violence, the AFP news agency reported. Five of those were in Ciudad Juarez, including three women who were first tortured.
While much of Mexico’s drug violence goes unreported, official data say more than 170,000 people have been killed and 28,000 reported missing since 2006 alone.
