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Mexico Finds 59 in Mass Grave

Latest scene of drug war carnage in Tamaulipas

By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 7, 2011 6:23 AM CDT

(Newser) – A series of mass graves in northern Mexico have yielded at least 59 bodies in a particularly grim finding in a bloody region. Police arrested 11 men on the scene and freed five people still being held hostage, reports the Wall Street Journal; the dead are thought to include a group kidnapped on a Mexican highway earlier this year, likely for ransom. Police found eight graves on the rural ranch, the largest of which contained 43 people.

President Felipe Calderon, whose drug war has claimed a numbing 35,000 lives in five years, blasted the slayings as an act of "cowardice" that points to the "total lack of conscience with which criminal organizations operate." The town of San Fernando was also the scene of the murder of 72 immigrants last August, and has increasingly skidded, along with Tamaulipas state, into lawlessness as drug gangs run rampant. State government is "completely paralyzed," says one expert.

Forensic workers prepare to transfer bodies from a van into a large truck in the northern border city of Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday April, 6, 2011.
Forensic workers prepare to transfer bodies from a van into a large truck in the northern border city of Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday April, 6, 2011.   (AP Photo/Rubios News)
Forensic workers transfer bodies to a large truck in Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday April, 6, 2011. At least 59 bodies were found in a series of pits in Tamaulipas, near where gangs massacred 72 migrants last summer.
Forensic workers transfer bodies to a large truck in Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday April, 6, 2011. At least 59 bodies were found in a series of pits in Tamaulipas, near where gangs massacred 72 migrants...   (AP Photo/Rubios News)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 6 comments
MustangSally
Apr 8, 2011 5:45 AM CDT
The private citizens who are guarding our U.S./ Mexican border, could make lots of money, doing random raids in Mexico, on the drug lords.
MustangSally
Apr 8, 2011 5:41 AM CDT
I bet there are some American mercenaries that are getting rich down there
MustangSally
Apr 8, 2011 5:40 AM CDT
Alot of tourists will not be going to Mexico for vacation

 
Mexico • Mexican border • Mexican drug war • mass graves • Mexican drug cartel • Mexico killings • Mexico murders • Mexico drug war • Mexican drug gangs • Mexico drug cartels

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