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8 bodies found dumped in Mexican resort of Cancun as authorities search for missing people

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Authorities in the Mexican resort of Cancun said Tuesday they are trying to identify eight bodies found dumped in the Caribbean resort.

Speaking to families of missing people, Oscar Montes de Oca, the head prosecutor of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo pledged to carry out more searches and identifications.

The bodies were found in searches over the weekend in which police looked in wooded lots and even sinkhole ponds known as cenotes.

After the bodies were found, state authorities issued a statement on Facebook, urging people “not to publish and share on social networks false news that only damages the image of Quintana Roo.”

More than 112,000 people are listed as missing in Mexico, and searches for clandestine grave sites have become common throughout the country. What is unusual is that they are now being carried out in Cancun, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry.

Mexican Marines patrol at Gaviota Azul beach during Holy Week in Cancun
A tourist listens to a Mexican Marine patrolling at Gaviota Azul beach as part of the security measures during Holy Week in Cancun, Mexico April 7, 2023.

PAOLA CHIOMANTE / REUTERS


The clandestine body dumping grounds are often used by drug cartels to dispose of bodies of their victims. Several cartels are fighting for control of the Caribbean coast and its lucrative retail drug trade. The lack of help from officials has left many family members to take up search efforts for their missing loved ones themselves, often forming volunteer search teams known as “colectivos.”

Montes de Oca said five of the bodies were found at a building site that had apparently been abandoned. The bodies had been dumped there between one week and two months ago; three have been identified as people reported missing previously.

At another site in a wooded area on the outskirts of Cancun, authorities found three sets of skeletal remains. They have not yet been identified.

The bodies were found in a poor neighborhood about 10 miles from Cancun’s beach and hotel zone, but relatively closer to the resort’s airport.

Similar searches were also carried out in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a town south of Tulum.

Volunteer searchers, including the relatives of missing people, and specially trained dogs also participated with investigators in the searches.

Feuding drug gangs have caused violence in Cancun and the resort-studded Caribbean coast south of it.

Earlier this month, four men in Cancun were killed in a dispute related to drug gang rivalries. The dead men were found in the city’s hotel zone near the beach.

A U.S. tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos in March. The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert that month warning travelers to “exercise increased caution,” especially after dark, at resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

That warning came in the wake of the kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico earlier this month. The State Department posted a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for Tamaulipas, the Mexican state the Americans were in when they were kidnapped. 

In June 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs. Last January, two other Canadians were killed and one injured in a shooting at a resort near Cancun.

In March 2022, a British resident of Playa del Carmen was shot and killed in broad daylight while traveling with his daughter in his car.

In October 2021, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists – one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German – were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

The following month, two suspected drug dealers were killed in a shooting that sent tourists in swimsuits fleeing in panic from a beach near Cancun.



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11/03/2024: Election Truth; Unintended Consequences; The Land of Novo

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11/03/2024: Election Truth; Unintended Consequences; The Land of Novo – CBS News


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First, how Georgia election officials fight voting misinformation. Then, a look at the consequences of Texas’ strict abortion laws. And, meet the Novo Nordisk scientist behind Ozempic, Wegovy.

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11/3: The Takeout: Data guru Tom Bonier

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11/3: The Takeout: Data guru Tom Bonier – CBS News


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On this edition of ‘The Takeout,” Major Garrett discusses early voting patterns with Democratic data expert Tom Bonier of the analytics firm TargetSmart. They also discuss some breadcrumbs for voters who are eager for hints about how the election results could shape up.

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Israel says it carried out ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen connected to Iran

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The Israeli military said Sunday it has carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced its troops operated in Syrian territory.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria.

The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months,” though it did not say exactly when it occurred. Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement, but a pro-government Syrian radio station, Sham FM, reported Sunday that Israeli forces carried out a “kidnapping operation” over the summer targeting a man in the south of the country.

Israel has waged an escalating campaign of bombardment in Lebanon for the past six weeks, as well as a ground invasion along the countries’ shared border, vowing to cripple Hezbollah. On Saturday, an Israeli military official said naval forces carried out a raid in a northern Lebanese town, seizing a man they called a senior Hezbollah operative.

SYRIA-LEBANON-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT
Lebanese government officials stand on Lebanon’s Qaa side of Syria’s Jousieh border crossing on October 28, 2024.

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images


The army identified the man as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, saying he lives in the southern Syrian region of Saida. It said the man had been under military surveillance for many months and was involved in Iranian initiatives targeting areas of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria.

Body camera video of the raid released by the army showed soldiers seizing a man in a white tank top inside a building. The man was brought to Israel for interrogation, the military said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday, saying his focus was trying to keep Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria. Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and put an end to more than a year of fire by the group into northern Israel.

Israel’s strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,500 people over the past year. In Israel, 69 people have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles.

On the U.S. presidential campaign trail this weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged progressives and members of the state’s significant population of Arab Americans who are angry at the Biden administration for its continuation of the U.S. alliance with Israel as the Netanyahu government presses its war against Hamas in Gaza.

“I have been very clear that the level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” Harris told reporters.

In East Lansing, Michigan, she addressed the issue soon after beginning her remarks. “As president I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination,” she said.

Some students in East Lansing voiced their opposition Sunday with audible calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. At least one attendee was escorted out after the cease-fire calls.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued an offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where the military has said it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped there.

Shell fire hit Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, injuring patients, including children, hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya said in a statement to the media. He said the shells hit the hospital’s nursery, dormitory and water tanks just after a delegation from the World Health Organization ended a visit.

Kamal Adwan and two other nearby hospitals have been hit by Israel several times during the fighting. Earlier this month, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan, detaining a large number of people, including much of the staff, Abu Safiya said at the time of the raid. The military said those detained included members of Hamas, without providing evidence, and said weapons were found in the facility.

But the Israel Defense Forces in a statement denied striking Kamal Adwan on Sunday, blaming “an explosive device planted by the terrorist organizations in Gaza” for the attack.

“Attacks on civilians, including humanitarian workers, and what remains of Gaza’s civilian facilities and infrastructure must stop,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Saturday. “The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and the ongoing bombardments.”

In southern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a group of people gathered outside in an eastern district of Khan Younis, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four children and a woman, the territory’s Health Ministry’s emergency services said. The city’s Nasser Hospital, which received most of the bodies, confirmed the figures.

Palestinian officials said an Israeli drone strike on Saturday hit a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated for polio, wounding six people including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.

Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just a few minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility.

UNICEF and WHO, which are jointly carrying out the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike. Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said the strike occurred when a “humanitarian pause” agreed to by Israel to allow vaccinations was in effect.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said that “contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the (Israeli military) did not strike in the area at the specified time.”

It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly raided hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas uses them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials. Hamas fighters are also operating in the north, battling Israeli forces.

Northern Gaza has been encircled by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year. Israel has been carrying out another offensive there in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.

A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began Saturday in parts of northern Gaza. It had been postponed from Oct. 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombings and mass evacuation orders, and the lack of assurances for humanitarian pauses, a U.N. statement said.

Administration of the first doses was carried out in September across the Gaza Strip, including the north.

At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from areas of north Gaza toward Gaza City in the past few weeks, but around 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which are inaccessible, according to the U.N.

The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of the oral polio vaccine, the agencies said, but “achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints.”

They say 90% of children in every community must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.

The campaign was launched after the first polio case was reported in Gaza in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of a paralysis case indicates there could be hundreds more who have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not say how many were combatants but say more than half were women and children.



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