Mexicans find 11 bodies

The mutilated corpses of 11 men were found dumped by the roadside in the troubled southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero on Thursday, authorities said. Many of the victims, who appeared to be in their 20s, had been decapitated or burned.

The attorney general's office in Guerrero said the bodies were found in Chilapa, a municipality in the same region as the radical leftist college attended by the 43 trainee teachers who were abducted and apparently massacred in September.

According to a state government official, a note was left near the bodies with a message addressed to the criminal group "Los Ardillos" - meaning The Squirrels - with the words "here's your trash." A Mexican police officer also said the bodies had high-caliber bullet wounds.

Battle against corruption

Thursday's discovery was made on the same day that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced a series of measures to improve law and order in the South American country's struggle against daily drug gang violence.

Speaking Thursday, Pena Nieto said he will push to expedite anti-corruption laws still pending in congress and has ordered a special security in restive southwest Mexico. He also added that he will propose tough sanctions against companies involved in acts of corruption and dissolve local police forces.

"Mexico must change," he said in his televised speech.

National unrest

Public outrage over the 43 missing students has escalated over the last two months, with angry protesters storming a Guerrero state congress building which they set fire to two weeks ago.

The students, who attended a teacher-training college known for its social activism, disappeared on September 26 during a police interception that left six people dead in another Guerrero town, Iguala.

Parents said they would not accept the murder-incineration explanation unless independent Argentine forensic experts delivered DNA confirmation.

Pena Nieto has also come under fire for not staying in the country at the time to address the protests, which have evolved into the biggest crisis of his presidency.

ksb/lw (Reuters, AFP)