Violent Uptick in Opposite Parts of Mexico: 22 Dead in Nuevo Leon, 21 Dead in Guerrero

Twenty-two people were killed or found dead last weekend in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, raising concerns over another uptick of violence in the wealthy northern state and posing an early challenge to its independent governor-elect, Jaime "El Bronco" Rodriguez. On the other side of the country, in the troubled southern state of Guerrero, 21 people were killed or found in clandestine graves between Friday and Monday, centered mostly around the coastal resort city of Acapulco. The violent weekend in Nuevo Leon began on June 19, when gunmen stormed a beer depot in the suburb of Garcia, near the state capital of Monterrey, leaving 10 people dead. State prosecutor Javier Flores Saldivar called the shooting a dispute between organized crime groups for drug-selling territory, since the depot is thought to be a distribution center for former members of the Zeta drug cartel. Weapons and 15 pounds of marijuana were found inside.  In Guerrero, most of the violence was centered in Acapulco, where shootouts and executions claimed five lives on Saturday, six on Sunday, and five more on Monday. In addition, five people were found in separate unmarked graves across the city. One of the victims, according to reports from the scene, was female. The violence in the Monterrey area alarmed residents and officials. On Friday, two dead bodies were found near a road in the municipality of Apodaca, within the Monterrey urban area. The corpses, presumably belonging to a couple, received gunshot wounds to the head. Authorities said the victims were likely abducted from their home, murdered, and then left off the road. That same day, a shootout between police and a group of armed men in the Vallecillo municipality, in northern Nuevo Leon, left one dead man. Another attack took place on June 20, when four people were murdered inside a house located in the southern Independencia district of Monterrey. The victims, three women, one of them pregnant, and one man, died of gunshot wounds.  Adding to the violence, five men were found dead in the metropolitan area on Sunday. Three of the corpses, all of them with bruises and gunshot wounds, were found in Del Valle, an exclusive area located inside the upscale San Pedro municipality. One of the corpses appeared outside the house of Marcial Herrera, the recently appointed chief of security for San Pedro...more