Mass Graves in Mexico Linked to Cartel

Via the BBC:  Mexico: Zetas cartel blamed over Tamaulipas mass graves

The number of bodies found in mass graves in north-eastern Mexico over the past week has risen to 116, after 28 more corpses were discovered.

[…]

Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales said the 116 had died "as a result of criminal actions apparently caused by actions by the Zetas criminal group".

So far, only two of the bodies have been identified. One is a Mexican from the city of Matamoros, another is believed to be a migrant from Guatemala.

As the piece notes:  Mexican drug gangs in that region have a history of violent clashes with one another over control of territory (or, more specifically, transit routes).  The likelihood is that these killing are linked to inter-cartel conflicts.

FILED UNDER: Latin America, World Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. tom p says:

    The likelihood is that these killing are linked to inter-cartel conflicts.

    Linked, yes, but not quite in the way that sentence might imply. The 72 found last August were mostly CenAm migrants kidnapped for ransom and then killed when the money was not forth coming, “Survivors said that massacre followed an attempt to recruit the migrants as gunmen or drug mules.”The Gaurdian has a slightly different take on these latest killings too:
    “The first bodies in the latest mass grave were discovered last week, after reports armed groups were pulling young male passengers off buses passing through the municipality of San Fernando.”

    In other words it is the cartels (in this latest, the Zetas) committing the violence, but these mass killings are not cartel on cartel. These people are being killed for the sin of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    It is truly a shame. I know the area well and really enjoy the people there. Needless to say, my Mexican traveling has been sharply curtailed.

  2. tom p says:

    there should have been an “or” between forthcoming and “Survivors”. Proofreading is for pussies and people who want to get it right the first time. Not proofreading is for….___________.

  3. Jay Tea says:

    But not to worry. Janet Napolitano says our southern border has never been safer or more secure.

    J.

  4. Southern Hoosier says:

    Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, mass graves, as the number of illegal immigrants soars.

  5. tom p says:

    Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, mass graves, as the number of illegal immigrants soars.

    SH…. let me get this right…. they die in #s we can not imagine,,,,, But they are coming?????

    Mass graves? Sounds like 1864 to me.

  6. tom p says:

    and no, that did not come out quite right because I am tired…. my bed beckons.

  7. matt says:

    But not to worry. Janet Napolitano says our southern border has never been safer or more secure.

    The border itself is quite safe but I wouldn’t dare go south of it. Then again what do I know I only live there…

  8. Southern Hoosier says:

    Texas Sheriff Tomas Herrera said he does not agree with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s assessment of security at the U.S.-Mexico border as being “better than it has ever been.”

    http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2011/04/not_a_mile_of_b.php

    In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone. But local authorities say Washington, DC is too obsessed with al Qaeda terrorists to care about what is happening in their own backyard right now.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6848672&page=1
    http://www.ice.gov/community-shield/

    Police: U.S. teens were hit men for Mexican cartel

    http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-12/justice/cartel.teens_1_drug-cartels-los-zetas-mexican-gulf-cartel?_s=PM:CRIME
    Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, mass graves, as the number of illegal immigrants soars.

  9. matt says:

    Thanks that’s nice to know.. Did you know El Paso still ranks as one of the least violent cities and safest cities in America? Tell me where you live and I can post scary news articles of people being killed raped and kidnapped too 😛

    Like I said I live near the Mexico border and I visit it occasionally. While it serves your partisan purposes to pretend that my fellow citizens and I are living in fear everyday it’s just simply not true (well except for the paranoid conservatives but they are almost as worried about the federal government as they are the drug gangs). Some of the people in my classes are actually Mexican and go back to see family across the border frequently to semi frequently. Occasionally they’ll tell me a story of hearing gunfire but it seems the war on civilians is fairly slow right now in the Texas border area.

  10. matt says:

    I forgot to mention in my post that I also have family in Pheonix and my fiancee is planning to visit her mother there at the end of the month.