Seven bodies were found in fields near Abasolo and Villa de Casas, both cities in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, prosecutors said Thursday.
Several burned vehicles were found Wednesday along with the bodies, an official with the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office told Efe on condition of anonymity.
“The bodies had signs of torture, as well as multiple bullet wounds,” the official said.
Army troops sealed off the area after the bodies were found.
The bodies were found on the same day that officials announced that additional forces would be committed to the security operation in Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon state.
The announcement was made by federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire, Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina and Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez.
Additional army troops, marines and Federal Police officers will be deployed in the two states in an effort to fight drug-related violence.
Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas have been plagued this year by a wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States.
About 350 people, according to official figures, have died in the gang war in Nuevo Leon since March.
The violence has intensified in the two border states since the appearance in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, in February of giant banners heralding an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels against Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned hired guns.
After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.
The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group’s involvement in kidnappings, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting “true drug traffickers” in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans willing to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.
Nearly 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.
The Mexico City daily Reforma reported recently that gangland killings have topped 10,000 this year in the country.
Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.
The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.
A large percentage of Mexicans have lost faith in the federal government’s ability to fight the drug cartels, a poll published Thursday said.
Some 62.7 percent of respondents said the Mexican government was losing the war against the cartels, while 21.2 percent said the government was winning and 16.1 percent said they did not know or did not respond, the Milenio newspaper said.
About 71.8 percent of Mexicans, however, said they approved of Calderon’s strategy of taking on the cartels directly, the poll found.
As a lifelong Monterrey resident, things have definitely deteriorated in the past few years to take us from one of the safest cities in North America to a hotbed of cartel activity.
ReplyDeleteBut for those who blame the President and want a return to "the good old days" of the PRI, they are wanting a return to corrupt government that works hand in hand with the cartels to line their own pockets.
It is the decades of corruption under the PRI that got us here in the first place. And there was plenty of crime before Calderon, it was just less visible.
The cartels are a blight on civil society and crime of any type should never be ignored. That is how the cartels became so strong - they had decades of unfettered activity to organize and gain power.
I agree with the numbers in the article, because I agree we are losing the war, but I also think we have to fight this battle for the future of our country.
A good Cartel member is a dead cartel member.....
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 7:09AM says:
ReplyDelete"But for those who blame the President and want a return to "the good old days" of the PRI, they are wanting a return to corrupt government that works hand in hand with the cartels to line their own pockets."
What exactly do you think is happening right now? You already have a corrupt government that works hand in hand with the cartels to line their pockets.
It seems like a better way to go is to return to the policies of PRI where government policies did not result in the barbaric murders of 30,000 Mexican citizens.
Drug use and corruption have been with us for thousands and thousands of years. Governments who try to wage war on such basic human tendencies always have made the matter much worse. Prohibition does not work. Wars on imaginary enemies are futile. If you need a few examples, look at the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty.
"It seems like a better way to go is to return to the policies of PRI where government policies did not result in the barbaric murders of 30,000 Mexican citizens."
ReplyDeleteIt is always easy to look the other way. So everyone that has died fighting for their country so far will die in vain? Anything that is worth fighting for is not easy. So the answer is to let the cartels take over and everything will be ok? Then all the rich Mexicans that have fled Mexico will return and live happily ever after?
That is the problem with Mexico. They need to fight for what is right like that rancher did. He was fighting for his ranch and the freedom to own a ranch. Fix the problem not run away from it.
It is the corrupt policies of both the PRI and PAN, both who are tied and indebted to the US government, that are responsible for creating the current violence in Mexico. Not just the PRI or the PAN now...
ReplyDeleteGet the US out of Mexican politics!
Ernest1