Dozens of migrants massacred in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A wounded migrant stumbled into a military checkpoint and led marines to a gruesome scene, what may be the biggest massacre so far in Mexico’s bloody drug war: a room strewn with the bodies of 72 fellow travelers, some piled on top of each other, just 100 miles from their goal, the U.S. border.

The 58 men and 14 women were killed by the Zetas gang, the migrant told investigators Wednesday. The gang, started by former Mexican army special forces soldiers, is known to extort money from migrants who pass through its territory.

If authorities corroborate the story, it would be the most horrifying example yet of the plight of migrants trying to cross a country where drug cartels are increasingly scouting shelters and highways, hoping to extort cash or even recruit vulnerable immigrants.

“It’s absolutely terrible and it demands the condemnation of all of our society,” said government security spokesman Alejandro Poire.

The Ecuadorean migrant staggered to the checkpoint on Tuesday with a bullet wound in his neck. He told the marines he had just escaped from gunmen at a ranch in San Fernando, a town in the northern state of Tamaulipas about 100 miles from Brownsville, Texas.

The marines scrambled helicopters to raid the ranch, drawing gunfire from cartel gunmen. One marine and three gunmen died in a gunbattle. Then the marines discovered the bodies, some slumped in the chairs where they had been shot, one federal official said.

The migrant told authorities that his captors identified themselves as Zetas and that the migrants were from Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and Honduras.

Poire said the government was in contact with those countries to corroborate the identities of the migrants. The Ecuadorean Embassy in Mexico said it was in contact with the surviving migrant, Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, and was trying to find out if any of its citizens were among the dead.

Authorities said they were trying to determine whether the victims were killed at the same time – and why. Poire noted migrants are frequently kidnapped by cartel gunmen demanding money, sometimes contacting relatives in the U.S. to demand ransoms.

Poire also said the government believes cartels are increasingly trying to recruit migrants as foot soldiers – a concern that has also been expressed by U.S. politicians demanding more security at the border.

The government has confirmed at least seven cases of cartels kidnapping groups of migrants so far this year.

But other groups say migrant kidnappings are much more rampant. In its most recent study, the National Human Rights Commission said some 1,600 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico each month.