MEXICO CITY ? More than 20 bodies were discovered early Thursday in vehicles abandoned in the heart of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city and the site of the recent Pan American Games, an official said.
that the bodies were found early Thursday in three vehicles left near the Milennium Arches, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the western city, an official with the prosecutor's office in the state of Jalisco, where Guadalajara is located, told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information.
The arches stand less than a 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Expo Guadalajara events center, the site of both Pan Am Games events and the Guadalajara International Book Fair, which opens Saturday and describes itself as the world's most important Spanish-language book fair. The fair's website said it was expecting more than 600,000 visitors from around the world.
Guadalajara was flooded with police and soldiers during the Pan American Games and was spared significant violence.
Security officials have feared in recent months, however, that Guadalajara could become the next takeover target of the Zetas drug cartel, which has been using paramilitary-style tactics and headline-grabbing atrocities in a national push to seize territory from older organized crime groups.
Guadalajara was long the home of the methamphetamine-trafficking arm run by Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, a high-ranking commander in the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, named for its Pacific Coast home state north of Guadalajara.
Less than 24 hours before the bodies were found in Guadalajara, 17 bodies were found burned in two pickup trucks in a strikingly similar attack in Sinaloa. Twelve of the bodies were in the back of one truck, some of them handcuffed and wearing bulletproof vests.
Luis Carlos Najera, public security secretary for the state of Jalisco, told reporters Thursday morning that a message had been found in one of the vehicles. He did not describe it further. Mexican drug cartels frequently leave threatening messages with the bodies of their victims as a way of sowing fear and taking credit for their actions.
Responding to a reporter's question, Carlos Najera told the Televisa television network that he believed the recent calm in Guadalajara was the result of the increase in security, not that drug cartels had struck a truce during the games.
In Guadalajara, factions of Coronel's operation have been fighting for control since he was killed in a shootout with federal police in July 2010. The factions include the New Generation and another group known as the Resistance.
The Zetas have taken over neighboring Zacatecas state in their push west, and are eyeing Guadalajara both for the meth trade and for extortion potential.
Analysts have said there are rumors that some factions fighting the New Generation are ready to join with the Zetas, a coalition that would form a potent threat to Sinaloa's methamphetamine operations.
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