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Army Troops Rescue 16 Kidnapped in Mexico
 EFE
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December 08, 2010
Mexico City – Soldiers rescued 16 people being held hostage in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas and killed two suspected kidnappers in a shootout, the army said this week.
An army patrol was attacked Saturday near the highway that links Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, and Mante, the 8th Military Zone said.
The soldiers “repelled the attack, killing two of the suspected assailants,” the army said.
The hostages – three women and 13 men – being held by the suspects were rescued, the 8th Military Zone said, without providing further details about the group.
Army troops seized a rifle, three ammunition clips and a vehicle that had been reported stolen.
In August, 72 Latin American migrants were massacred at a ranch in Tamaulipas.
The bodies of the 58 men and 14 women were discovered by marines on Aug. 24 after a shootout with gunmen at a ranch near San Fernando that left a marine and three criminals dead.
The massacre victims came from Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Brazil, but the majority were Hondurans.
Two migrants – one from Ecuador and another from Honduras – survived the massacre.
Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent drug cartel, is suspected of murdering the migrants.
More than 8,000 kidnappings have been reported in Mexico since January, security firm Multisistemas de Seguridad Industrial said in a recent report.
Soldiers, meanwhile, found a decomposing body in an unmarked grave at the Los Angelinos ranch in Tamaulipas.
An armored vehicle packed with about 200 kilos of marijuana, 13 rifles, a grenade and other gear was seized at the ranch.
Tamaulipas has been the scene in recent months of a war between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas.
After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.
Mexico has been plagued for years by a wave of violence unleashed by drug cartels and other organized crime groups involved in kidnappings and narcotics, arms and people trafficking.
Some 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.
The Mexico City daily Reforma reported recently that gangland killings have topped 10,000 this year.
Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.
The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.
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