(MONTERREY, MEX) - The mutilated corpses of two bodyguards for the governor of Mexico's Nuevo Leon state were found Wednesday in plastic bags outside a supermarket, officials said.
Police in the northern town of Guadalupe recovered the remains of the men who had been working for Governor Rodrigo Medina.
The bags contained a message addressed to Medina, allegedly from the Gulf Cartel, which has been fighting turf battles with the rival Los Zetas Cartel in northeastern areas near the US border for more than 18 months.
"Two members of government security assigned to me were killed in a cowardly way," Medina told journalists after a public event Wednesday.
"No threat will stop us from making Nuevo Leon safe," he added.
Guadalupe is adjoined to Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon state which was until recent years seen as one of the safest cities in Mexico.
Authorities found another five bodies in and around Monterrey early Wednesday, including one of a woman who had been beheaded.
The toll in suspected drug-related violence nationwide has surpassed 37,000 since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.
