PULSE NEWS MEXICO

Authorities in the Mexican Caribbean state of Quintana Roo reported Tuesday, April 25, that they had discovered the remains of eight people dumped just outside the resort city of Cancun, one of the nation’s most popular tourism destinations.

The bodies were apparently found over the weekend in a wooded area about 16 kilometers away from Cancun’s beach and hotel zone.

Quintana Roo Prosecutor Oscar Montes de Oca, the head prosecutor of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, said five of the bodies were discovered inside an abandoned construction site and three were later identified as previously reported missing persons.

The remaining skeletons were found at a separate site just outside Cancun, close to the airport.

Quintana Roo authorities said that the bodies had been left there between one week and two months ago.

According to Mexican government statistics, about 112,000 people are currently missing nationwide, over 40,000 of them having disappeared since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) took office in December 2018.

Crime in Quintana Roo, Mexico’s Caribbean Riviera, have increased over the last few years — including in tourist destinations like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum — as warring drug cartels fight over turf rights.