Police in the Mexican city of Mexicali have reported the finding of mutilated body parts in a canal next to the city's water plant, local media reported. The coroner of Baja California, the state where Mexicali is located, said he believes the parts belong to the same victim.
"The torso has some scratches, but it's not considered that this could be part of the cause of death. We also discovered the torso had its legs cut off, arms and the rest of the body parts after the victim died in less than 24 hours. We hope to find the rest of the body parts that correspond to the corpse," said César González Vaca, as reported by KYMA.
The body parts were found by the water plant workers while they were engaged in cleaning duty. They were wrapped in a black trash bag and tied to a concrete block. There is no data regarding the body, as the gender has not been identified either.
The finding comes as murders continue running high in Mexico. On Friday, top Mexican official Rosa Icela Rodríguez said there were 88 such crimes on August 1 alone in the country. 78 of them were tied to organized crime, the official said. She added that, if trends continue down this path, the country could finish the year with about 35,000 murders.
One high profile crime that took place this week involved the head of business chambers' federation in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, who was killed just hours after giving television interviews complaining about drug cartel extortion. Julio Almanza was shot to death outside his offices in the city of Matamoros, just across the border city of Brownsville, Texas.
"We are hostages to extortion demands, we are hostages to criminal groups," Almanza said in one of his last interviews. "Charging extortion payments has practically become the national sport in Tamaulipas," he added, in reference to money demanded by criminal groups in exchange for "protection."
Almanza's comments came in response to a recent issue with the Femsa corporation, which operates Mexico's largest chain of convenience stores called Oxxo, who announced late last week that due to gang problems, they would be closing all of its 191 stores and seven gas stations in the city of Nuevo Laredo. Femsa argues that they had long dealt with cartel demands that its gas stations buy their fuel from certain distributors.
Most recently, cartel members abducted two store employees, demanding Oxxo stores to act as lookouts or provide information to the gang. In a statement released on July 29, Femsa said its stores in Nuevo Laredo will remain closed this week "due to acts of violence that put our colleagues' safety at risk."
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