Bodies of 12 slain men, 8 partially burned, found in fields outside western Mexican town

Mexico: 12 found dead in Pacific coast state

MEXICO CITY — The bodies of 12 murder victims, eight of them partially burned, were found in a Pacific coast state, authorities said Wednesday.

The Nayarit state Attorney General’s Office said the corpses were discovered in fields outside the town of Xalisco late Tuesday.

It said police found the eight burned bodies in the bed of a pickup truck abandoned on a dirt road after receiving reports of several shootings. Four more bodies were found nearby.

Police also found at least 10 abandoned cars with weapons inside.

The killings are believed to be associated with drug trafficking, but there are no suspects, the agency said in a statement.

On Wednesday, police in the border state of Nuevo Leon found the bodies of a police chief and two police officers who had been kidnapped Tuesday, state security chief Luis Carlos Trevino said.

Gunmen kidnapped Oliver Garcia, police chief of the town of Los Aldamas, from his home and the two officers from police headquarters, Trevino said.

Nuevo Leon state has seen a surge of violence in recent weeks that authorities blame on a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas.

In the central state of Morelos, gunmen attacked the offices of federal prosecutors in the city of Cuernavaca late Wednesday, killing a guard, city officials said in a statement.

The attack came hours after Morelos state Gov. Marco Adame and local lawmakers agreed to ask President Felipe Calderon to send soldiers and federal police to the state, where a wave of drug violence has killed 24 people in less than a month.

In another attack on federal officials, a bystander was killed during a shootout between gunmen and federal police in the town of Frontera Comalapa on the Guatemalan border, Chiapas state police said Wednesday.

Gunmen opened fire on the federal government offices in Frontera Comalapa late Tuesday and the officers inside fired back. An electrician working on the building was killed in the crossfire, police said.

Drug violence has claimed more than 18,000 lives across Mexico since December 2006 when President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on organized crime.