Thread: 72 bodies found at Mexico ranch

72 bodies found at Mexico ranch

Troops have uncovered at least 72 bodies, including those of 14 women, on a ranch in north-eastern Mexico after a clash with gunmen, the Mexican military said.

The gruesome find came after a shootout between troops and suspected drug traffickers near the town of San Fernando in Tamaulipas state, which borders the southern US state of Texas.

One member of the military and three gunmen were killed in the shootout, the Mexican Navy said.

It said "the lifeless bodies of 72 people were found" after the navy went to the ranch when a man suffering from gunshot wounds approached a nearby military checkpoint and said he had been attacked on the ranch by suspected drug traffickers.

The operation, which included military air support, netted one "underage suspect", but the rest of the gunmen who were not killed managed to escape.

The military seized 21 rifles, about 6,600 rounds of ammunition, and four trucks including one bearing Ministry of Defence markings, the navy said.

Mass graves have been turning up with increasing frequency in Mexico's drug war, which has claimed the lives of an estimated 28,000 people since 2006 despite a military show of force in Mexican cities by the government of president Felipe Calderon.

Tamaulipas is among Mexico's most violent states and is currently riding a wave of deadly attacks blamed on drug cartels.

On June 7, 55 bodies were uncovered in a mass grave outside a mine in the southern state of Guerrero.

On July 23, 51 bodies were found in a residential area on the outskirts of Monterrey, the capital of the northern state of Nuevo Leon.


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/24 ... -acapulco/

Mass graves have been turning up with increasing frequency in Mexico's drug war, which has claimed the lives of an estimated 28,000 people since 2006 despite a military show of force in Mexican cities by the government of president Felipe Calderon.

[b]
This while the Mexican government has determined that patrolling the streets of New York searching out “biasesâ€

Official: 72 found dead in Mexico may be migrants
By MARK STEVENSON and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
Aug. 25, 2010, 11:20AM


MEXICO CITY — A survivor has told police that 72 people found dead at a ranch near the Mexican border with Texas were migrants kidnapped by an armed group, a federal official said Wednesday.

The bodies of 58 men and 14 women were discovered Tuesday when Marines manning a checkpoint on a highway in the northern state of Tamaulipas were approached by a wounded man who said he had been attacked by gang gunmen at a nearby ranch.

A federal official said that man had identified himself an illegal migrant. The man said he and other migrants had been kidnapped by an armed group and taken to the ranch in San Fernando, a town about 100 miles south of Brownsville, Texas, according to the federal official, who had access to the investigation. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The official said police believe the migrants were mostly from Central America.

It was unclear if all 72 were killed at the same time — or why. Another federal official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators believe the victims were killed within recent days.

The newspaper Reforma, citing a police report, reported that that the migrants had refused to pay extortion fees demanded by the armed group. The federal officials could not immediately confirm that.

Investigators had not determined who was behind the massacre. But one of the federal officials noted that the area is controlled by the Zetas drug cartel, which has diversified into trafficking of migrants trying to reach the United States.

Drug gangs often demand payment from migrants trying to cross the border and sometimes kidnap them, holding them hostage while demanding money from relatives in the United States or their home countries.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 70823.html

This AP article is now on the USA TODAY site.
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Sickening. Some of these murderers are the ones traveling in the United States, along trails covered with signs that our government put up to warn American citizens that the trails are used by these people.

Jeremiah 29:11, it is written, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

But Michelle Obama says it is completely safe to vacation in Mexico ..

Victims of Massacre in Mexico Said to Be Migrants
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: August 25, 2010


MEXICO CITY — The bullet-pocked bodies of 72 people, believed to be migrants heading to the United States who resisted demands for money, have been found in a large room on a ranch in an area of northeast Mexico with surging violence, the authorities said Wednesday.

Initial reports after the victims were found Tuesday suggested that the mass of bodies was the largest of several dumping grounds, often with dozens of dead, discovered in recent months and attributed to the violence of the drug business.

But if the victims, found after a raid on a ranch in Tamaulipas State by Mexican naval units, are confirmed as migrants, their killings would provide a sharp reminder of the violence in human smuggling as well.

It was not clear if the victims, from Central and South America, were shot all at once. The police were relying on a harrowing but sketchy account from a wounded survivor, published by the newspaper Reforma and confirmed by government officials, who said several people were killed in short order after the migrants refused to pay or cooperate with the gunmen.

A law enforcement official said all were found in a large room, some sitting, some piled atop one another.

Alejandro Poiré, the government’s spokesman for security issues, said that though the investigation was just beginning, the killings seemed to be an outgrowth of pressure on drug gangs by a government crackdown.

“This act confirms that criminal organizations are looking to kidnapping and extortion because they are going through a difficult time obtaining resources and recruiting people willingly,â€

Survivor of Mexico slaughter details immigrants' final moments
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 25, 2010, 10:46PM

MEXICO CITY — The one known survivor of a massacre on a Mexico ranch 85 miles south of Brownsville trudged into a Navy checkpoint Monday -- a bullet wound in his neck -- with a tale almost too gruesome even for a country locked in the throes of a vicious and bloody drug war.

He and fellow migrants from Central and South America, he told authorities, were headed to the Texas border with the hope of making it into the United States. Instead, everyone had been shot dead, slaughtered by gangsters even as they pleaded for their lives.

Mexican Marines discovered the 72 bodies - 58 men and 14 women - on Tuesday afternoon after a skirmish with gangsters outside the town of San Fernando. The migrants were massacred by the ruthless Zetas gang, Mexican officials said Wednesday.

The survivor, an Ecuadorean, also was shot but managed to escape, said Adm. Jose Luis Vergara, a naval spokesman.

Mexican officials did not explain at a Wednesday press conference why it took so long to discover the bodies or release the information. Nor did they explain why there is still confusion about victims' identities, how they were killed or how long they have been dead.

"We still can't determine, much less give information on, the manner in which they exactly lost their lives," said Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for Mexico's attorney general.

All the victims appeared to be from Ecuador, Brazil, Honduras or El Salvador, officials said, though that information is based largely on the survivor's account.

"It's absolutely outrageous and demands the full condemnation of everyone in our society," said Alejandro Poire, the government's spokesman for security matters.

Confusion about details
Officials seemed uncertain if all the victims had been killed at the same time, exactly why they had been murdered, or if they had been found in a mass grave. Such graves have become common amid ongoing gang violence, with scores of bodies uncovered across northern and central Mexico in recent weeks.

But the witness, who apparently escaped with a gunshot wound to the neck, told prosecutors that he was with a group of 75 people being held at the ranch.

The only known survivor's statement seemed to indicate all the victims were killed together, as he told prosecutors he heard gunfire and pleas for mercy as he fled.

After being alerted, Marines manning a highway checkpoint nearby attacked the ranch with helicopter support. Three alleged mobsters and one Marine were killed in the shootout. The troops seized 21 rifles, 6,500 rounds of ammunition and several vehicles that had been disguised as belonging to police and the army.

Mexico's Gulf Coast is a heavily used corridor for migrants from the rest of Latin America and elsewhere hoping to cross illegally into the United States. Many poorer migrants hop trains from the Guatemalan border to the Rio Grande. Those with more money hire smugglers, paying $3,000 or more for the journey.

The Zetas and other criminal bands have become heavily involved in the human smuggling business. They often hold people hostage until they're paid sums far beyond the agreed-upon fee, migrant advocates say. Gangsters also kidnap even poorer migrants, hoping to collect ransom from relatives in the United States or back home.

"Some organizations are confronting a very difficult situation in maintaining themselves with resources," Poire said in explaining the gangsters' kidnapping and extortions of migrants.

Marines and soldiers have freed hundreds of migrants from gang safe houses in Reynosa, Matamoros and other cities in recent months.

A number of Mexican local, state and federal police officers have been arrested and accused of aiding in the migrant abductions.

"This discovery once again demonstrates the extreme danger and violence that Central Americans face on their treacherous journey north, as well as the Mexican government's abject failure to protect them," said a statement released by the human rights organization Amnesty International.

Explosion of violence
Gangland violence has exploded this year across northeastern Mexico - an area bordered by the Rio Grande and the cities of Monterrey and Tampico - as the Zetas have gone to war with former allies in the so-called Gulf Cartel and other bands.

At least 600 people have been killed in the fighting in recent months, according to some media tallies. An untold number have simply disappeared, sometimes turning up in mass graves.

Known for its bass fishing and dove hunting, the San Fernando area has long been popular with outdoors enthusiasts from Texas and other U.S. states. But a group of Houston dove hunters reported being assaulted and robbed in an area field last fall by heavily armed men.

The bodies of 15 presumed gang members also were dumped recently outside San Fernando, on the highway leading to the Texas border.

Newspapers in Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria, the cities nearest San Fernando, did not carry news of the migrants' massacre on their websites Wednesday. Reporters in the region say they have been scared into silence by threats from the Zetas and other criminal gangs.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 71935.html

Mexicans killed 72 illegal aliens from Central and South America

Updated 7m ago

MEXICO CITY — Mexican smugglers killed 72 migrants from Central and South America and piled the bodies in a ranch house, the Mexican government said Wednesday.

The corpses, 58 men and 14 women, were found Tuesday after an Ecuadorean migrant escaped from the house and came to a highway checkpoint for help near San Fernando, in Tamaulipas state, about 100 miles south of Brownsville, Texas. The man had a bullet wound in his neck.

When Mexican marines went to investigate, they came under fire from several gunmen, the Mexican navy said. One marine and three gunmen were killed in the battle. A minor was arrested.

Marines found 21 rifles and shotguns, 101 magazines, two gun belts with .50-caliber ammunition, bulletproof vests, helmets and four pickups painted to look like army vehicles.

They found the bodies in a nearby ranch house, said Alejandro Poiré, a national security adviser to President Felipe Calderón. The victims were from El Salvador, Brazil, Honduras and other Latin American countries, he said. It was not clear whether they were killed at the same time.

The killings are "an absolute outrage," Poiré said. "It deserves the unanimous condemnation of our entire society."

The Ecuadorean Embassy in Mexico said it was in contact with the surviving migrant, Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, the Associated Press reported. The embassy said it was trying to find out if any of its citizens were among the dead.

Investigators suspect the gunmen were members of the Zetas, a gang that broke from the Gulf Drug Cartel in recent years, Poiré said.

In recent months, Mexican police have found two other sites with dozens of bodies.

On July 23, police discovered 51 corpses in a field near Monterrey. On May 29, they found 55 bodies in an abandoned mine near the central Mexican town of Taxco. Prosecutors have said they believed the victims at those sites were killed over several years by drug hit men.

The motive for the San Fernando killings was unclear, but immigrant smugglers frequently hold migrants captive and force their relatives to pay a ransom, Poiré said. Some migrants are also forced to carry drugs or perform other work for the gangs.

Human rights groups have accused Mexico of not doing enough to protect illegal migrants.

"This gruesome discovery should be a wake-up call to the Mexican authorities," said Wende Gozan, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International USA.

Poiré said the Zetas' involvement in immigrant smuggling shows the government is winning in its nearly 4-year-old crackdown on drug cartels. "The fact that organized crime is turning to the extortion and kidnapping" of migrants as a form of financing indicates "that some groups are confronting a very difficult situation," he said.
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Survivor in Mexican Massacre Details Immigrants Final Moments
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-210491.html