MEXICO. - The Mexican government investigates the murder of 72 suspected undocumented migrants from Central and South America seeking to reach the United States, presumably at the hands of drug cartel Los Zetas.
A spokesman for federal government security, Alejandro Poire, said Wednesday at a news conference that victims located Wednesday in a municipality of the northern state of Tamaulipas could correspond to migrants from countries like El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador and Brazil, as stated a survivor of the slaughter that was identified as a citizen of Ecuador.
A spokesman for the Department of the Navy, Admiral Jose Luis Vergara, said the survivors told authorities that members of the cartel Los Zetas were behind the deaths of 58 men and 14 women, whose bodies were found on a ranch of the municipality of San Fernando, about 160 miles south of U.S. border city of Brownsville, Texas.
Poire said he has yet to confirm the identity of the victims, but for now Mexico and came into contact with authorities of the nations mentioned by the survivor to collaborate.
He said that the facts, which he described as "extremely serious" and "absolutely outrageous", given in an environment of increasing violence in the northeast of the country by a fracture and a "fierce battle" Los Zetas with their former allies Gulf cartel.
"What we illustrate (the facts) is that organized crime has no boundaries ... no ethical paragon," Poire said.
He said that in recent months the authority has received information that some criminal organizations involved in the kidnapping and extortion of migrants and has even been some attempts to recruit undocumented by the drug cartels.
To Poire, the resort that organized crime in extortion of migrants or recruitment "suggests that some organizations are facing an adverse situation to stock" of both financial resources as new killers.
The coordinator of advisors to the National Migration Institute, Antonio Diaz, said that so far 2010 have been detected around seven hijackings of migrants by organized crime.
Before the discovery, members of Mexico's Navy clashed with suspected drug traffickers, in an action that killed one sailor and three suspects.
Undersecretary for Latin America of the Foreign Ministry, Salvador Beltran del Rio, ruled that ocurride hurt bilateral relations with the nations of origin of victims, for which Mexico is constantly referred to the countries from where migrants face risks undocumented immigrants to cross its territory.
The Secretary of the Navy had said that the confrontation and the subsequent location of the bodies came after a man wounded by gunfire came to ask for help until a checkpoint of the Navy of Mexico.
Navy spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the injured person is a citizen of Ecuador, who is treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds and has begun giving testimony to the authorities.
The authorities arrested a Mexican minor as an alleged member of criminal group that had the alleged migrants.
San Fernando is considered a zone of influence of the cartel Los Zetas, a group blamed for the rising violence in the northeast of the country after a break with his former allies of the Gulf cartel.
Violence attributed to organized crime and drug trafficking has claimed more than 28,000 victims since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on drug cartels.
No comments:
Post a Comment