RELATIVES OF SLAIN ACTIVIST FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO

Mexican authorities on Friday found the bodies of three relatives of
an anti-violence activist killed last year in the village of
Guadalupe in the Juarez valley.

The deaths are the latest in killings eliminating members of the
family of slain human-rights activist Josefina Reyes Salazar.

The bodies were of a sister and brother and sister-in-law of Reyes
Salazar, who was shot in January 2010 after hunger strikes and
protests against the violence and disappearances in Juarez.

Carlos Gonzalez, spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's
office, said the bodies of Maria Magdalena Reyes Salazar, Elias Reyes
Salazar and his wife, Luisa Ornelas, were found with messages
alluding to organized crime.

The three were kidnapped Feb. 7 in the Valley of Juarez and had been
missing despite searches by 60 state investigators, a helicopter,
search dogs and agents on horseback.

The bodies were found near Guadalupe, across the border from Tornillo.

Murders, disappearances and the burning of homes have become common
in the valley east of Juarez. The area is a key smuggling corridor
and a battleground in the narco war.

The grim discovery came a week after Juarez residents had a protest
to bring attention to recent attacks against activists. There have
been other protests.

Marisela and Olga Reyes-Salazar, sisters of Josefina and Ruben Reyes,
were among more than 700 people at the binational Peace and Justice
Without Borders rally on Jan. 29 that took place on both sides of the
border in Sunland Park-Anapra.

"They were my brother and sister," Marisela Reyes-Salazar told the El
Paso Times.

"Josefina was a strong advocate against injustice and the violence.
And to silence her, the cartel killed her son -- my nephew. But she
didn't give up and continued to fight alongside my brother, Ruben.
They were both killed in 2010."

Both Marisela and Olga Reyes-Salazar, who used to live in Juarez,
fled the violence and now live elsewhere in Mexico. They began to
fear for their lives in 2008 when a drug cartel war erupted.

"We're tired of the killings and the violence," Marisela
Reyes-Salazar said at the rally. "We want them to stop, and we want
our family's killers to be brought to justice."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.