Forty-nine headless, dismembered bodies were found along a stretch of highway in Mexico on Sunday.
The mutilated bodies--some with their hands and feet "hacked off," according to the Associated Press--were discovered "scattered in a pool of blood" by local authorities on the edge of the town of San Juan on a road that connects Monterrey to the Texas border.
The bodies were thought to have been dumped there by a drug cartel, authorities said. A welcome sign near the killing field was graffitied with the message, "100% Zeta."
Zetas is one the two largest drug cartels in Mexico. The other is the Sinaloa Cartel.
"This continues to be violence between criminal groups," Jorge Domene, a state security spokesman, said a news conference on Sunday. "This is not an attack against the civilian population."
But the escalating violence between the two cartels has resulted in a recent rash of symbolic slayings.
On April 17, the AP noted, of the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in minivan in downtown Nuevo Laredo. On May 5, the bodies of 23 people were found either hanging from a bridge or decapitated and dumped near city hall. On May 9, 18 dismembered bodies were found outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.
Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey are considered Zetas territory, while Guadalajara has been controlled by the Sinaloa cartel.
In September, a Sinaloa drug gang dumped 35 bodies in Veracruz, Mexico. In August, a Zetas attack on a Monterrey casino left 52 dead.
Domene said Sunday's victims--43 men and 6 women--would be hard to identify because of "the lack of heads, hands and feet."
Since 2006, when Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels, more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence.
The mutilated bodies--some with their hands and feet "hacked off," according to the Associated Press--were discovered "scattered in a pool of blood" by local authorities on the edge of the town of San Juan on a road that connects Monterrey to the Texas border.
The bodies were thought to have been dumped there by a drug cartel, authorities said. A welcome sign near the killing field was graffitied with the message, "100% Zeta."
Zetas is one the two largest drug cartels in Mexico. The other is the Sinaloa Cartel.
"This continues to be violence between criminal groups," Jorge Domene, a state security spokesman, said a news conference on Sunday. "This is not an attack against the civilian population."
But the escalating violence between the two cartels has resulted in a recent rash of symbolic slayings.
On April 17, the AP noted, of the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in minivan in downtown Nuevo Laredo. On May 5, the bodies of 23 people were found either hanging from a bridge or decapitated and dumped near city hall. On May 9, 18 dismembered bodies were found outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.
Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey are considered Zetas territory, while Guadalajara has been controlled by the Sinaloa cartel.
In September, a Sinaloa drug gang dumped 35 bodies in Veracruz, Mexico. In August, a Zetas attack on a Monterrey casino left 52 dead.
Domene said Sunday's victims--43 men and 6 women--would be hard to identify because of "the lack of heads, hands and feet."
Since 2006, when Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels, more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence.
