Jalisco’s wave of violence is showing no sign of letting up, as evidenced by the gruesome discovery last week of 20 bodies stuffed into plastic bags in the municipality of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos.
The corpses – 19 men and one woman – had been dumped in a wastewater canal leading into the Santiago River.
As of press time, seven of the victims had been identified, two of them reportedly Ixtlahuacan natives.
Families members of several of the deceased said they were not aware their relatives were missing, as they frequently “disappeared” for long periods.
State Government General Secretary Enrique Ibarra Pedroza insisted the slayings are “a reflection of the violence that is occurring across the entire nation” and that the incident is not simply a local problem.
State authorities said the bodies may not have been dumped at the same time, since they were in different stages of decomposition, from two to 21 days, approximately. All were fully clothed, and the bags were secured with metal wire.