Bodies Of 11 People, Including 2 Children, Found In Pickup Truck In Mexico

The bodies of 11 people, including two women and two minors, were found abandoned in a pickup truck in a southern Mexican city plagued by criminal violence, authorities said Thursday.

The state prosecutor’s office said it had opened a murder investigation after the grisly discovery in Chilpancingo, whose mayor was beheaded last month less than a week after taking office.

The city is the capital of the southern state of Guerrero, which has endured years of bloodshed linked to turf wars between drug cartels.

Authorities said last week that they were investigating the disappearance of 17 people, including five minors, in the same region, but it was not immediately clear if the two cases were linked.

The truck containing the bodies was found on a highway to Acapulco, the former beachside playground of the rich and famous now blighted by criminal violence.

It comes days after gunmen killed five members of the same family in a suburb of Acapulco.

Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006.