Thread: Mexico finds 116 bodies, new mass graves UPDATED

28 more bodies recovered in Mexican pit

Officials: 116 bodies found in total

Updated: Tuesday, 12 Apr 2011, 5:26 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 12 Apr 2011, 5:25 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican investigators have found a total of 116 bodies in pits near the U.S. border, 28 more than previously reported, Attorney General Marisela Morales said Tuesday.

Morales said a total of 17 suspects have been detained in relation to the killings in the northern state of Tamaulipas, some of whom have purportedly confessed to abducting passengers from buses and killing them.

Interior Secretary Francisco Blake Mora pledged to step up the presence of troops in the area where the killings occurred and not leave the area until the killers and drug gang members there have been caught.

The graves were found earlier this month in the township of San Fernando, the same area of Tamaulipas where investigators found the bodies of 72 migrants massacred by suspected drug cartel gunmen last August. Most of the 72 migrants were Central Americans, who frequently travel through the area to reach the United States.

Police say witnesses in the latest killing case have told them that gunmen pulled the victims, mostly young men, off passenger buses traveling through the San Fernando area in late March. Authorities blame the abductions on the Zetas drug gang, the same group accused in the migrant killings.

The motive for the bus abductions remains unclear, though prosecutors have suggested the gang may have been forcefully recruiting people to work for it.

San Fernando is a town about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas, on a well-traveled stretch of highway that runs near the Gulf Coast. It is an area regularly patrolled by the Mexican military.

The Zetas and rival Gulf Cartel are fighting in Tamaulipas over lucrative drug transit routes to the U.S.

Authorities are working to identify the bodies, one of which may belong to a U.S. citizen, through DNA samples and other techniques.

One of the bodies is a Guatemalan man, the government of that Central American nation said.

The victim has been identified as Feliciano Tagual Ovalle, 44, the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Monday. The statement did not say whether the man was a migrant passing through or a resident of Mexico. It said the Guatemalan government planned to bring the body home.

Mexican authorities confirmed one victim was Guatemalan and said another was a man from central Mexico. Mexican prosecutors had previously said most of the bodies were probably Mexican citizens.

http://www.wlfi.com/dpps/news/internati ... e-_3772590

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1212078.html#1212078

Brownsville Hearld now says the total is 128.

Mexican Authorities Promising Vigilance on Tamaulipas Highways

Last Update: 8:55 am

MEXICO CITY - Officials in Mexico are promising more vigilance on Tamaulipas highways. The promise comes after the number of bodies found in a San Fernando grave rose to more than 100.

The Mexican attorney general's office confirmed 28 bodies were discovered Tuesday, bringing the total to 116.

The bodies are in a makeshift Matamoros morgue waiting to be identified. Officials are taking DNA from the bodies and comparing them to people who've been reported relatives missing from the area.

During a press conference, Mexico's interior secretary said federal officials will keeping an eye on highways in Tamaulipas.

"The federal government will maintain and reinforce and permanently operate in the highways of this region of the country," said Francisco Blake Mora.

Officials are asking anyone who's loved one went missing in Mexico, particularly between March 19th and March 31st, to call them at 1-800-831-3169 or email them at denunciapgr@pgr.gob.mx.

http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Me ... vG4FQ.cspx

12 bodies found in pits in northwestern Mexico

The Associated Press
Posted: 04/13/2011 10:13:52 AM MDT

CULIACAN, Sinaloa—Investigators have found at least a dozen sets of skeletal remains in a series of pits in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa.

The discovery comes just hours after authorities confirmed that 116 bodies had been pulled from pits in the northern state of Tamaulipas, at the eastern end of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Sinaloa state prosecutors' office says the pits were discovered by a farmer who reported unusual odors coming from a field.

Prosecution spokesman Martin Gastelum said seven pits were found late Tuesday and excavations continued Wednesday.

Two sets of remains appeared to belong to women who had been reported missing in October.

Sinaloa is home to Mexico's most powerful drug cartel.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_17835096

Mexico is the most dangerous country on earth right now, if it were up to me,i'd deploy 2 infantry divisions to the arizona border. (MOD edit-imblest)

Mexico finds 6 more bodies in border pits
9 mins ago


MEXICO CITY – Mexican investigators found a clandestine grave with six bodies in Tamaulipas state, bringing to 122 the number of bodies found in pits in a region near the U.S. border that is wracked by battling drug cartels, authorities said Wednesday.

Tamaulipas state Interior Secretary Morelos Canseco said investigators are searching for more bodies at the pit found late Tuesday. The bodies were taken to a morgue in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

Hours earlier, investigators in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa found at least a dozen skeletal remains in a series of pits, while officials in neighboring Sonora pulled four bodies from two pits, authorities said Wednesday.

The graves in Sinaloa were discovered by a farmer who reported unusual odors coming from a field in the township of Ahome, near the state line with Sonora, state prosecutors' spokesman Martin Gastelum said.

He said that seven pits were found late Tuesday and excavations continued Wednesday. Two sets of remains appeared to belong to women who had been reported missing in October.

The state is the home base of Mexico's most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa cartel.

The Sonora pits were discovered Wednesday in Nogales, a city across the U.S. border from Nogales, Arizona, Sonora state police said in a statement. One pit contained the body of a man and the second held the corpses of three men.

All the victims appeared to be about 30 to 35 years old, and the bodies appeared to have been buried between 10 and 15 days ago, the statement said. Mexican drug cartels have been blamed for a number of such mass graves, in which gangs deposit the bodies of kidnap victims or executed rivals.

In Tamaulipas, federal authorities say 17 suspects tied to the brutal Zetas gang have been detained in relation to the killings, some of whom have purportedly confessed to abducting passengers from buses and killing them.

The graves have been found in the township of San Fernando, the same area of Tamaulipas where investigators found the bodies of 72 mostly Central American migrants massacred by suspected drug cartel gunmen last August.

Police say witnesses in the latest killings have told them that gunmen pulled the victims, mostly young men, off passenger buses traveling through the San Fernando area in late March. The motive for the abductions remains unclear, though prosecutors suggest the gang may have been forcefully seeking recruits.

San Fernando is a town about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas, on a well-traveled stretch of highway. The Zetas and rival Gulf Cartel are fighting in Tamaulipas over lucrative drug transit routes to the U.S.

In the northern industrial hub of Monterrey, a spokesman for state police said Wednesday that five suspected drug cartel members and a female motorist were killed in a shootout between soldiers and the suspects late Tuesday.

The spokesman, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said the five suspects — including one woman — were traveling in a sport utility vehicle on an expressway and ignored an order to stop. In their bid to escape, they opened fire on soldiers and apparently tossed a hand grenade that hit a van, which exploded but whose driver was able to escape without major injuries.

However, a woman traveling in another SUV was hit by crossfire in the running gunbattle and died. Her 8-year-old daughter suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and is in stable condition.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110414/ap_ ... war_mexico