Another mass grave unearthed in Mexico

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More bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Mexico, bringing the current toll to 116. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Julian Miglierini of BBC Mundo about the drug cartel believed to be behind the murders. Download MP3

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. The drug war in Mexico provides gruesome headlines almost every day. But even so, the discovery of mass graves in the Northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas stands out. Authorities in Mexico say at least 116 bodies have been recovered from those graves and officials blame a criminal known as the Zetas for the killings. The BBC’s Julian Miglierini is following the story from Mexico City. Julian, tell us first how the authorities found these mass graves.

Julian Miglierini:  What the authorities have said is that through a work of intelligence over the past few weeks in the area of Tamaulipas, this state in the northeast of Mexico on the border with Texas, they discovered that there had been a series of kidnappings of passengers of long distance buses that were traveling through a route heading towards the U.S. border. When they started discovering this they found out the town of San Fernando had been used literally as a giant mass grave where all victims of these kidnappings had been killed and illegally buried there. It is not known yet why these people were killed. I mean, the fact that the Zetas, the criminal gang that the government has pointed as responsible for these massacres, they seem to have not only indulged in business of drug trafficking but also in extortion and kidnapping but we still don’t know why these people were killed. If it was because they refused to pay an extortion fee, if they refused to join their ranks, this issue combines two of Mexico’s most urgent issues which is drug trafficking and the drug conflict and on the other hand the issue of migration. So it is a concern that these two very serious conflicts that Mexico is facing are becoming enmeshed by these criminal gangs that abuse the weakness of these migrants. Many of them come from Central or South America. They’re here in Mexico already illegally and there is a concern that they are being targeted by these criminal gangs.

Werman: Right, and one criminal gang in particular, the Zetas we’ve spoken of, I’d like to ask you in a second how they might have been involved but remind us who the Zetas are in the first place.

Miglierini:  Well the Zetas is actually a group that started quite small. It’s a group of Mexican army deserters that in the late 1990s moved on to the criminal side of things and created this criminal gang with a strong presence in some parts of Mexico. Over the years, in 12 years, 13 years, they have be come one of the most powerful and feared cartels. The fact that they seem to be very brave in that; that’s what analysts say they are very willing to snatch trafficking routes to other rival cartels. Some of them are their former allies. In the case of Tamaulipas, where these mass graves were discovered, they are fighting with the Gulf Cartel they used to be allies until a little more than a year ago and now they are fighting over the routes.

Werman: What are Mexican authorities to stop this violence?

Miglierini:  Well President Felipe Calderon has a very military approach to the issue and that’s what he did as soon as he came into power in December 2006. He deployed the army in the streets of many Mexican cities in order to counter the process of these drug cartels. The Mexican government obviously claims that they have arrested lots of drug barons that are very important. The critics say that as soon as they kill the head of a cartel there’s two or three more others wanting to fight for it so there is a whole new episode of violence happening there. There is a concern about the image of the country. It is a country that relies heavily on foreign tourists and obviously coming most of it from the United States and many areas that were once known foreign tourists are being rubbished. In the case of Acapulco, I was there a couple of weeks ago and there is a huge concern about the damage that all this violence is doing to the image of Mexico as a safe destination. We have to say that there’s lots of areas of Mexico which are very safe. I live in Mexico City and it’s a relatively safe city. Like any other Latin American capital, the Yucatan Peninsula where Cancun is a very safe area, even safer than some areas in Europe. But the city of Monterrey for example, which used to be known as one of the safest cities in the whole of Latin America has been engulfed in this violence that officials there admit that the situation is relatively out of control. It is being fought over by rival gangs who will use it as a route to transport narcotics northwards.

Werman: The BBC’s Julian Miglierini in Mexico City.

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