MONTERREY, Mexico – Police found 49 mutilated bodies scattered in a pool of blood nearthe border with the U.S., a region where Mexico's two dominant drugcartels are trying to outdo each other in bloodshed while warringover smuggling routes. The bodies of 43 men and six women with their heads, hands and feetchopped off were dumped at the entrance to the town of San Juan, ona highway that connects the industrial city of Monterrey withReynosa, across from McAllen, Texas. At the spot where authorities discovered the bodies before dawnSunday, a white stone arch that normally welcomes visitors to thetown was spray-painted with "100% Zeta" in black letters — anapparent reference to the fearsome Zetas drug cartel that wasfounded by deserters from the Mexican army's special forces. The bodies, some of them in plastic garbage bags, were most likelybrought to the spot and dropped from the back of a dump truck,Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said.
Domene said the dead would be hard to identify because of the lackof heads, hands and feet. The remains were taken to a Monterreyauditorium for DNA tests. The victims could have been killed as long as two days ago atanother location, then transported to San Juan, a town in themunicipality of Cadereyta, about 105 miles (175 kilometers)west-southwest of McAllen, Texas, and 75 miles (125 kilometers)southwest of the Roma, Texas, border crossing, state AttorneyGeneral Adrian de la Garza said. Only one couple looking for their missing daughter visited themorgue in Monterrey where autopsies were being performed Sunday, astate police investigator said. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was notauthorized to discuss the case, said none of the six female bodiesmatched the missing daughter's description.
He said some of thebodies were badly decomposed and some had their whole arms or lowerlegs missing. De la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that thevictims were U.S.-bound migrants. But it seemed more likely that the killings were the latest salvoin a gruesome game of tit-for-tat in fighting between the Zetas andthe powerful Sinaloa Cartel. Mass body dumpings have increased around Mexico in the last sixmonths of escalating fighting between the Zetas and Sinaloa, whichis led by fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and itsallies, the federal Attorney General's Office said in statementlate Sunday. The two cartels have committed "irrational acts of inhumane andinadmissible violence in their dispute," the office said,reiterating it is offering $2 million rewards for informationleading to the arrests of Guzman, Ismael Zambada, another Sinaloacartel leader, and Zetas' leaders Heriberto Lazacano Lazcano andMiguel Trevino.
Under President Felipe Calderon's nearly six-year offensive againstorganized crime, the two cartels have emerged as Mexico's two mostpowerful gangs and are battling over strategic transport routes andterritory, including along the northern border with the U.S. and inthe Gulf coast state of Veracruz. In less than a month, the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in avan in downtown Nuevo Laredo, 23 people were found hanged ordecapitated in the same border city and 18 dismembered bodied wereleft near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara. Nuevo Laredo,like Monterrey, is considered Zeta territory, while Guadalajara haslong been controlled by gangs loyal to Sinaloa.
"This is the most definitive of all the cartel wars," said RaulBenitez Manaut, a security expert at Mexico's National AutonomousUniversity. The Zetas are a transient gang without real territory or a securestream of income, unlike Sinaloa with its lucrative cocaine tradeand control of smuggling routes and territory, Benitez said. Butthe Zetas are heavily armed while Sinaloa has a weak enforcementarm, he said. The government's success in killing or arresting cartel leaders hasfractured other once big cartels into weaker, quarreling bands thatin many cases are lining up with either the Zetas or Sinaloa.
Atleast one of those two cartels is present in nearly all of Mexico's32 states. A year ago this month, more than two dozen people — most ofthem Zetas — were killed when they tried to infiltrate theSinaloa's territory in the Pacific Coast state of Nayarit. But their war started in earnest last fall in Veracruz, a strategicsmuggling state with a giant Gulf port. A drug gang allied with Sinaloa left 35 bodies on a main boulevardin the city of Veracruz in September, and police found 32 otherbodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days after that.The goal apparently was to take over territory that had beendominated by the Zetas.
Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, anotherterritory being disputed by the Zetas and Sinaloa. Drug violence has killed more than 47,500 people since Calderonlaunched a stepped-up offensive when he took office in December2006. Mexico is now in the midst of presidential race to replaceCalderon, who by law can't run for re-election. Drug violence seemsto be escalating, but none of the major candidates has referreddirectly to mass killings.
All say they will stop the violence andmake Mexico a more secure place, but offer few details on how theirplans would differ from Calderon's. Benitez said the wave of violence has nothing to do with thepresidential election. "It has the dynamic of a war between cartels," he said. ___ Associated Press writer Porfirio Ibarra Ramirez in Monterrey,Mexico contributed to this report. I am a professional writer from Personal Care, which contains a great deal of information about teeth whitening kit , eye lifting gel, welcome to visit!
Related Articles -
teeth whitening kit, eye lifting gel,
|
