Ciudad Juarez, Mexico ? Mexican federal investigators are expected to state in an upcoming report that domestic violence and crimes of passion were primary motives in some of the killings of women in this border city over the last decade.

The attorney general’s office is due to publish the report this month, but some Mexican lawmakers and international human rights activists are already dismissing the anticipated findings.

Such critics say they fear that the federal government may attempt to gloss over more sinister possibilities — including a serial killer, violent drug traffickers or corrupt police officials — that reflect poorly on Juarez and Chihuahua state.

The report is based on a federal examination of investigative files and evidence in 24 cases. It is part of a systematic and gradual review of state and local police handling of the Juarez homicide investigations.

Federal special prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina in Chihuahua did not respond to interview requests. Written questions to federal prosecutors in Mexico City went unanswered.

Guadalupe Morfin, the special commissioner assigned to coordinate federal anti-crime and victims’ support efforts in Juarez, questioned the anticipated conclusions.

She said the attorney general’s office, known by its Spanish acronym PGR, needed to do a better job of explaining how investigators are selecting cases for review, and “what methodology is used to come to such conclusions.”

Ahead of the report’s release, some federal and state officials have started downplaying theories of organized crime and serial killers in the slayings, which total 350 since 1993.

These are “cases of domestic violence, not some serial killer or killers,” said a Mexican diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Former Chihuahua Gov. Patricio Martinez, in an interview with the Mexico City newspaper Reforma before leaving office Oct. 3, asked, “Where are serial crimes?

“Yes we have had incidents” Martinez said. “They’re crimes of passion, lovers’ squabbles.”

Such talk has outraged critics.

“There is the sense that the federal government is more concerned about improving Mexico’s image by managing the problem instead of solving it,” said a report filed by the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group closely monitoring the violence in Ciudad Juarez.

Forensics experts have based serial-killer theories on coincidences in the manner and location that many of the Juarez women were buried, and recurring evidence of mutilation and rape.