At least 49 more mutilated bodies found dumped in Mexico

The latest atrocity in the Mexico drug wars is the remains of at least 43 men and six women found in plastic garbage bags near the town of Cadereyta Jimenez, on the side of a highway that runs between Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border. Most of the victims had been decapitated and their hands and feet cut off. The condition of the bodies makes it difficult to determine exactly how many people are there. They appear based on tattoos and evidence at the scene to be members of a drug cartel and likely were killed by a rival cartel.

It follows by a week or so the discovery of nine bodies hanging from a highway overpass near Nuevo Laredo and 14 others decapitated and stuffed in bags. Earlier this month, 15 more bodies were discovered on the road to Chapala, a popular retirement community for Americans.

From Tracy Wilkinson, the LA Times bureau chief in Mexico:

The fight among drug cartels has boiled down largely to a battle between the Zetas, known for their viciousness, and the Sinaloa group, the oldest and largest trafficking network in Mexico. The Zetas once controlled much of northeastern Mexico, but Sinaloa loyalists have steadily moved into the region and allied themselves with the Gulf cartel, a formerly dominant group that created the Zetas but has since turned on them.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led assault on powerful drug cartels in December 2006.

50,000.

Photo: The bodies of nine men and women were found hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo earlier this month