Five women were found dead cremated in central Mexico, authorities said Friday, March 17, confirming one of the worst episodes of gender-based violence from which the country suffers.
Six women, aged between 19 and 48, disappeared on March 7 in Celaya in Guanajuato, a state in central Mexico where industry, tourism and the violence of organized crime coexist.
The cremated remains of five of them have been found, state prosecutor Carlos Zamarripa told reporters.
"We were able to establish five genetic profiles among the six young women who disappeared
," he said.
Six people were arrested, he added.
All said they belonged to a criminal group in the state of Tamaulipas in the northeast of the country.
Forensic pathologists continue to search for
"evidence"
on the spot, the prosecutor said.
The investigation is trying to determine the motives for the crime.
Ten women are killed every day in Mexico
As big as Belgium, Guanajuato is home to colonial cities (its capital of the same name and San Miguel de Allende) and hosts several car factories (Mazda, Toyota, Honda and General Motors).
Guanajuato (6.1 million inhabitants in 2020) was the most violent of Mexico's 32 states in 2022, with 3,260 homicides.
This state is a battleground between two criminal gangs, Santa Rosa de Lima and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which compete for drug trafficking and fuel theft.
Ten women are killed every day in Mexico (128 million inhabitants), according to the UN.
In 2022, 3,754 women were murdered, according to official figures.
A total of 947 of these murders were qualified as feminicides.
The war between cartels, and the intervention of security forces have caused tens of thousands of deaths and missing in Mexico since 2006.
