Five Burned Bodies Found in Southern Mexico

Police received a call around 8:40 p.m. Saturday that an SUV was on fire about three kilometers (1.8 miles) from Chilapa de Alvarez, Cuenca told Efe.

Officers found five bodies that had been set on fire with straw in the vehicle, the police chief said.

The bodies may be those of five businessmen who disappeared last week, security officials said.

Last Thursday, police found the headless bodies of 11 young men on the road between Chilapa de Alvarez and Ayahualulco, the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office said.

The bodies were dumped in the road after a shootout Wednesday night between rival gangs, Guerrero AG’s office spokesmen told Efe.

The Los Rojos and Los Ardillos gangs have been fighting for control of the illegal drug trade and other criminal activities in a section of Guerrero.

Two clandestine graves containing 13 bodies were found nearly a month ago in Chilapa de Alvarez.

On Sept. 26, 43 students were detained by police in Iguala, a city in Guerrero, and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, which allegedly killed and burned them to cover their tracks.

Former Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca Velazquez has been linked to the disappearance of the 43 education students.

Abarca was arrested on organized crime, kidnapping and murder charges.

The politician and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, were arrested by the Federal Police on Nov. 4 in Mexico City.

Pineda is being held in preventive detention so prosecutors can gather more evidence in the case.

The couple fled from their house on Sept. 30, four days after Iguala municipal police officers opened fire on students from a rural teachers college.

Six people died, 25 were wounded and 43 students disappeared in the incident.

The search for the missing students has turned up numerous clandestine graves in the state.