By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Authorities discovered eight dead bodies dumped along the streets of a Mexico City suburb on Thursday.

A police spokesperson said found the bodies in Ecatepec, a poor suburb north of the capital city.  Six of the bodies—five men and one woman—appeared to have been severely beaten.

“They were all naked and showed signs of torture,” police spokesperson said.  “It also appeared their throats had been cut.”

The other two bodies, both men between the ages of 18 and 22, died from gunshot wounds on another street.  So far, police have not identified the bodies or any suspects in what police called two separate crimes.

“Both incidents are being investigated by the homicide prosecutor’s office, which immediately assigned personnel to conduct the corresponding investigation,” the Mexico state Attorney General’s Office said, according to Global Post.

Fox News Latino reported that investigators believe the killings were linked to organized crime because of the way the victims were murdered.  The news organization quoted city officials as saying no messages were left with the bodies.

Fox News Latino also quoted city officials as saying two of the bodies had ropes around their necks, and all of them had “tattoos on different parts of their bodies.”

Since Mexico began cracking down on drug cartels six years ago, more than 60,000 people have died in violence linked to drug trafficking.  The Associated Press reported that Mexico City had been predominantly free of that violence, although it was slowly making its way there.

In September, Mexico deployed troops to Nezahualcoyotl, an eastern suburb, when fighting between two drug cartels spilled into the streets.

Reuters reported that the number of drug war deaths kept by the Mexican newspaper Reforma “is on course to suffer its heaviest death toll this year since [President Felipe] Calderon launched his offensive, at a time when the national count has erased somewhat.”

Ecatepec is home to both incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto and incoming State of Mexico Governor Eruviel Avila.  Both are members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico between 1929 and 2000.  As Reuters reported, “[c]ritics accused the PRI of turning a blind eye to the drug trade while in power.”

But Nieto, who will be sworn in this December, has pledged to continue the national crackdown on organized crime.  Until last year, he governed the State of Mexico, where both Nezahualcoyotl and Ecatepec are located.

For further information, please see:

Global Post — Mexico Violence: 8 Bullet-Ridden Bodies Found on Outskirts of Mexico City — 26 October 2012

Fox News Latino — Police Find 6 Bodies in Central Mexico — 25 October 2012

Reuters — Eight Bodies Found Dumped in Mexico City Suburb — 25 October 2012

Seattlepi.com — 8 Bodies Found on Outskirts of Mexico’s Capital — 25 October 2012