Body count rises in Mexican drug wars as more mass graves uncovered

Eight victims dug up in Durango bring that state’s total to 188 in a month, exceeding that of Tamaulipas last month Mexican soldiers searching for victims of the country’s drug wars have found eight more bodies in mass graves in the northern state of Durango, bringing the total number of victims there to 188. The body count in Durango makes it the largest discovery yet of secretly buried corpses in the inter-cartel conflict , surpassing the 183 bodies found in pits last month in the state of Tamaulipas, on the United States border. Troops discovered the latest victims on Tuesday. Digging continues at five graves discovered last month in the state capital, Durango city, said Fernando Rios, a state public safety department spokesman. State authorities said some of the victims have been dead for up to four years, while others were buried as recently as three months ago. Although investigators in Durango have refused to speculate on a motive for the killings, authorities have blamed drug cartels for other such mass graves discovered over the past year in Mexico . Drug violence has killed more than 34,000 people in Mexico since the president, Felipe Calderón, launched a military-led crackdown on the cartels in December 2006. The murder rate in Durangohas has more than doubled over the past two years. At least 1,025 homicides were reported in 2010, compared to 930 in 2009 and 430 in 2008, according to government figures. Authorities suspect some of the most-wanted drug kingpins may be hiding in the mountainous state, which has been a battleground between the Sinaloa, Zetas and Beltran Leyva cartels. Families of people who have disappeared in Durango have come forward to ask whether their relatives may have been buried in the mass graves, according to Juan Rosales, the deputy state public safety secretary. But he said the identification process has overwhelmed the state government, prompting it to seek help from central government. Many of the victims unearthed in Tamaulipas may have been captured by the Zeta drug cartel , which controls much of the state and has been kidnapping Mexicans and foreign migrants to demand extortion money or forcibly recruit them as gunmen or drug mules . Human rights groups calculate that 10,000 mostly Central American migrants were kidnapped as they crossed Mexico on their way to the United States during a recent six month period, mostly to demand ransoms from their families, with Tamaulipas the most dangerous part of their traditional routes. There is no estimate for the number killed. Mexico Drugs trade David Batty guardian.co.uk

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