MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Suspected gang members abducted and murdered six women in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato this month, then burned their bodies, though the remains of only five have so far been identified, state prosecutors said on Friday.
The women went missing on March 7 in the city of Celaya, an area convulsed by drug violence in Guanajuato, which over the past few years has gone from being one of the least troubled regions of the country to one of the most gang-ridden.
Guanajuato’s attorney general, Carlos Zamarripa, said suspected members of a criminal gang abducted the women and killed them in the town of Juventino Rosas northwest of Celaya.
“They were the ones who moved the six young women to Juventino Rosas to a place where they later took their lives,” Zamarripa told a news conference.
Forensic teams were still working at the site to identify the dead, because the bodies had been almost completely incinerated, Zamarripa said. Five of the missing women had so far been identified from the remains, he said.
Several suspects had been arrested over the case, he said.
(Reporting by Mexico City Newsroom; Editing by Dave Graham and Alistair Bell)