San Fernando: 59 bodies found in Mass Graves, investigation continues

AP

Forensic workers prepare to transfer bodies from a van into a large truck, not seen, in the northern border city of Matamoros, Mexico Wednesday April, 6, 2011. At least fifty-nine bodies were found buried in a series of pits in the northern Mexico state of Tamaulipas, near the site where suspected drug gang members massacred 72 migrants last summer, officials said.(AP Photo/Rubios News)


Mexican security forces searching for abducted bus passengers in Tamaulipas have stumbled on a collection of pits holding a total of 59 bodies. Authorities said the first victims to be identified are Mexicans, not migrants from other countries headed to the U.S.

Investigators made the grisly find early Wednesday near the ranch where drug cartel gunmen less than a year ago massacred 72 migrants from Central and South America.

Tamaulipas state investigators and federal authorities went to the site about 80 miles south of Brownsville to investigate reports that gunmen had begun stopping buses and pulling off some passengers in the area.

The first report came March 25 from a woman in Matamoros whose husband failed to arrive from San Luis Potosi, said Tamaulipas state Interior Secretary Morelos Canseco. There were reports of at least two other buses stopped since then, he said.

The first three bodies identified are those of Mexicans, said Tamaulipas state prosecutor Hernan de la Garza.

There may have been an attempt at forced recruitment by a drug gang, Canseco said. Though two of the dead were women, Canseco said, witnesses told authorities that the bus attackers abducted only young men and allowed the remaining passengers to continue on their way.

State and federal investigators and soldiers conducted the raid, but differed on what exactly happened.

The federal Interior Department said the first pit was discovered Saturday and soldiers detained five suspected kidnappers. Tamaulipas officials said the pits were found Wednesday, and a total of 11 suspected kidnappers were captured and five kidnap victims were freed. The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

But the security forces agreed that a series of eight burial pits had been found, one of which contained 43 bodies and the others 16 corpses.

Many of the victims found in the pits appeared to have died 10 to 15 days ago, dates that would roughly match the bus abductions, Canseco said.

A statement from the Tamaulipas government, which "energetically condemned" the killings, did not say what drug gang, if any, the suspects belonged to.

President Felipe Calderon's office issued a statement saying the find "underlines the cowardliness and total lack of scruples of the criminal organizations that cause violence in our country."

While there was no immediate confirmation that a drug cartel was involved, officials refer to the cartels as "criminal organizations."

The pits were found in the farming community of La Joya in the town of San Fernando, in the same area where the bodies of 72 migrants, most from Central America, were found shot to death Aug. 24 at a ranch.

Authorities blamed that massacre on the Zetas drug gang, which is fighting its one-time allies in the Gulf cartel for control of the region.

The victims in the August massacre were illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. An Ecuadorean and Honduran survived the attack, which Mexican authorities say happened after the migrants refused to work for the cartel.

Mexican drug cartels have taken to recruiting migrants, common criminals and youths, Mexican authorities say.

But drug gunmen also operate kidnapping rings, and erect roadblocks on highways in Tamaulipas and other northern states, where they hijack vehicles and rob and sometimes kill passengers.

San Fernando is on a major highway that leads to the U.S. border, but it wasn't immediately known whether the victims found in the mass grave had been kidnapped from that road.

Drug gangs across Mexico also sometimes use mass graves to dispose of the bodies of executed rivals.

The wave of drug-related killings drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Mexico's capital and several other cities Wednesday in marches against violence.

Many of the protesters said the government offensive has stirred up the violence.

"We need to end this war, because it is a senseless war that the government started," said protester Alma Lilia Roura, 60, an art historian.

Several thousand people joined the demonstration in downtown Mexico City, chanting "No More Blood!" and "Not One More!" A similar number marched through the southern city of Cuernavaca.

The marches were spurred in part by the March 28 killing of Juan Francisco Sicilia, the son of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, and six other people in Cuernavaca.

"We are putting pressure on the government, because this can't go on," said the elder Sicilia. "It seems that we are like animals that can be murdered with impunity."

UPDATE: Several narco blogs are reporting a minimum of 75 bodies recovered yesterday as well as a continuation in search efforts after authorities found clothing of both children thrown in the graves, but no bodies.

It is also being reported on blogs that the bodies found showed no signs of gunshot wounds; the victims are said to have been bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers.

This information has NOT been confirmed by authorities.

UPDATE: 7 Abril 2011 9:30 pm

Authorities found the first bodies around 6:30 pm on 1 of Abril..arrests made at this time (detainee's statements) lead to the location of the bodies in La Joya, San Fernando, Tamps. Some of the bodies are skeletons, which will delay identification. Grupo Reforma

OmniBus de Mexico never reported the kidnapping of their passengers.
http://laprensa.mx/notas.asp?id=57335