Mexico: 14 dismembered bodies found outside city hall

Fourteen dismembered bodies were found on Thursday in a truck parked outside city hall in the Mexican town of Ciudad Mante.

The bodies of 11 men and three women were found in the sugar-cane farming town of Ciudad Mante, in Tamaulipas state, which borders with Texas, according to Reuters. State attorney general officials could not immediately confirm the report.

A message was left with the bodies, but the contents have not been revealed, reported EFE.

Security has been stepped up in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon states since November 2010, according to CNN. Government statistics said that both states are among the most violent in Mexico, where turf battles between rival drug cartels are common.

The Guardian reported that more than 55,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and sent in the army to fight drug cartels.

The government has blamed fighting between the Zetas gang, founded by army deserters, and the Sinaloa cartel — the gang of Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman — for the high rate of killings in recent weeks, according to Reuters.

More from GlobalPost: Mexico police find 49 mutilated bodies on highway

EFE reported that police found 23 bodies on May 4 in Nuevo Laredo, which is across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. Fourteen of the victims were mutilated and nine were hanging from a bridge.

According to CNN, cartel turf fights were also blamed for the 49 decapitated and dismembered bodies found along a highway in Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, last month.