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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

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.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• BBC Mundo story (en español)

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. A lot of what happens in Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez is described as socialist. Chavez himself says he’s leading a socialist revolution to benefit the people. His critics of course say Chavez is more like a socialist tyrant. Politics aside we were still surprised to hear that socialist toy fair opened in Venezuela this week. The BBC’s Anahi Aradas went to the fair to take a peek. She joins us from downtown Caracas. Anahi tell us first off what the Venezuelan government means by socialist toy fair. They’re not selling toy hammers and sickles right?

ANAHI ARADAS: Okay it’s no such thing as socialist toys. They are toys as sold in a socialist fair. A socialist fair is any kind of special shop that the Venezuelan government sets to sell food, to sell different kind of objects. It’s not the first time that the Venezuelan government does that in Christmas. Last year it was about all the necessary ingredients to do Christmas dishes. And this year has been toys mainly because of [INDISCERNIBLE] so high, especially high because of inflation as well. That’s why there were so many people in these two fairs set in Caracas.

WERMAN: Right I mean people are buying these toys at cost, 70% off the retail prices. How did this come about? I mean here in the US it’s regular Americans who donate toys for Christmas to disadvantaged children. How can the Venezuelan government have no problem investing one and a half million dollars in toys?

ARADAS: That’s quite strange but it’s true that Venezuela has a lot of deals with China. They can go over the big companies in Venezuela that are trying to sell toys to inflated rates.

WERMAN: Anahi you may not know this but here in the United States we’ve got this shopping day, the day after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday when stores sell items below regular price and people start their Christmas shopping you know as early as midnight. Now I’m wondering if this socialist toy fair, once it started, I mean was it also kind of like a rush on Black Friday here? Did people have to stand in line for hours or even days?

ARADAS: Oh yes. That day when I was there on Wednesday there were 5000 people according to the government in this fair. When I got there there were dads, moms, grandpas, all waiting in a long cue in the center of Caracas.

WERMAN: How long were they waiting in line?

ARADAS: How long? I asked the first people in the cue and they were waiting since 3:00 in the morning. So they slept there.

WERMAN: And what time did you happen to speak with them?

ARADAS: I spoke with them about midday and they had been there for nine, 10 hours waiting. And some of them had been there also the day before.

WERMAN: Is that line still there today?

ARADAS: Yes, yes. The fair will be open until the 15^th of December.

WERMAN: Have they run out of toys yet?

ARADAS: Yes mainly of Barbies.

WERMAN: Mainly Barbies.

ARADAS: Because when I went there, no no Barbies.

WERMAN: I mean it seems hard to argue with the idea of making toys more readily available to underprivileged kids this time of year regardless of where the toys come from. Are there any critics though in Venezuela of this program?

ARADAS: Critics are saying why a socialist country is selling American toys or Chinese toys instead of Venezuelan toys.

WERMAN: Give me a couple of examples of like national products. What the most popular toy made in Venezuela?

ARADAS: There was an idea to sell Bolivar dolls.

WERMAN: Like Simon Bolivar dolls?

ARADAS: Simon Bolivar dolls. Yes.

WERMAN: That sounds cool.

ARADAS: Yeah but I didn’t see any.

WERMAN: Anahi Aradas with the BBC in Caracas, Venezuela. Thank you very much.

ARADAS: You’re welcome.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• BBC Mundo (en español)