8 severed heads found in northern Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Officials say the severed heads of eight men were found left in pairs along highways in the northern Mexico state of Durango.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that the bodies haven't been located, but officials say the victims appear to have been between ages 25 and 30.
In the border state of Chihuahua, prosecutors say a cousin of Gov.-elect Cesar Duarte was shot dead by attackers in the city of Parral. Lawyer Alberto Porras Duarte died while waiting in a vehicle outside his office.
One of Duarte's nephews was killed earlier this month in the Chihuahua state capital in what appeared to be a failed kidnapping attempt.
In the border state of Tamaulipas, the army reported Monday that they had captured nine Guatemalan citizens during patrols against drug trafficking organizations and seized seven grenades and two guns from them. the day before, troops in Tamaulipas detained 11 people believed to work for the Zetas drug gang and seized five rifles.
Journalists missing
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission called on the government Tuesday to find four Mexican journalists reported missing in or near the violence-wracked northern state of Durango.
The journalists include two cameramen from the Televisa network, a reporter for Multimedios television and a reporter for the newspaper El Vespertino.
"The lack of investigation into attacks on journalists has made them more vulnerable in doing their work," the government's rights commission said in a statement.
The four disappeared Monday in the Laguna region, which includes Durango and areas of the neighboring state of Coahuila.
The commission said three of them were "picked up" — a tactic frequently used by drug gangs in which victims are forced into waiting vehicles — around noon Monday, and the fourth was snatched that night.
The area has been wracked by drug gang violence. Prosecutors say officials at a prison in Gomez Palacio — the Durango city where some of the journalists are based — allowed drug cartel gunmen to leave the penitentiary temporarily and provided them guns and vehicles to carry out executions.
At least seven journalists have been killed in Mexico so far in 2010. Many more Mexican reporters have received threats from drug gangs.
