Police may have clues about 35 bodies found in Mexican roadway

By the CNN Wire Staff

September 21, 2011 -- Updated 2155 GMT (0555 HKT)

35 bodies dumped on street in Mexico

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• New: Mexicans must not become desensitized to violence, an activist leader says
• The attorney general says investigators have a video of the scene
• 95% of the bodies have been identified, he says
• The bodies were found near a shopping mall in Veracruz state

Mexico City (CNN) -- Investigators say they have a video that may hold clues to how unidentified men managed to drive two open-back trucks filled with 35 bodies through rush-hour traffic and then abandon them, blocking traffic and leaving bodies on the highway.

Police in the east coast state of Veracruz found the abandoned trucks and the bodies near a shopping mall in the municipality of Boca del Rio on Tuesday.

Photos of the scene showed the two trucks -- with tall, open-slat sides, like for carrying produce or animals -- with their back gates open, the bodies literally falling out onto the street. People on a nearby overpass looked down on shirtless bodies piled on top of each other.

Drug violence is not unheard of in Veracruz, a Zetas cartel stronghold, but a killing of this magnitude shocked even the hardened Mexicans.

At a university peace conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, an activist leader said the bodies found in Veracruz are a reminder that Mexicans must not become desensitized to violence, even if authorities say the victims had criminal histories.

"The value of a human life does not decrease because it has a criminal background or not," said Edgardo Buscaglia, president of the Institute of Citizen Action for Justice and Democracy. "They were left like trash in the street."

The dead included 12 women and 23 men.

The video may show that the two trucks were guarded by other cars that could have doubled as getaway vehicles, Veracruz Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez said Wednesday in a radio interview. He did not say where the video came from.

Investigators also are looking into whether police colluded with the people who discarded the bodies, he told W Radio.

As of Wednesday, morning, 95% of the bodies had been identified through databases, Escobar Perez said.

Most of them had criminal records, he said. One of them was identified as a local policeman who disappeared about 15 days ago, he said.

In another interview, the attorney general said that the victims died of suffocation. Only one had a bullet wound, he said. The state of the bodies led investigators to deduce they died shortly before being abandoned, Escobar Perez said.

The attorney general on Tuesday described the grisly discovery as "unprecedented."

"It hasn't happened before in the state of Veracruz," he said.

The two trucks were abandoned in the middle of the highway, witnesses said. Their gates were open and bodies had fallen out.

Hours later, bloodstains remained on the road as troops stood guard.

Boca del Rio is in Veracruz state's most populated area. It has become a frequent site of clashes between armed groups as drug-related violence grows.

Earlier Tuesday, 32 inmates escaped from three prisons in Veracruz, authorities said. At least 14 of them had been apprehended by Tuesday night.

Escobar Perez said none of the bodies that had been identified by Tuesday night appeared connected with the prison breaks.

comment: Well to bad for these peoples families who are probably sufering right now because of this. I just stop and thimk what type of world are we living. Is this is what i want for the future when i have kids.