This story is, of course, getting a huge amount of press in Honduras. As horrifically tragic as it is, it also fits into a narrative currently espoused by Nationals and Liberals alike that blames the violence faced by Honduran migrants solely on Mexicans and United Statesians (Arizonans in particular). The problem is that although they are not incorrect in pointing out the atrocious violence faced by migrants in Mexico and the United States, it is the violence of their own neoliberal/golpista policies (in collaboration with many of the same forces violating immigrants once if and when they make it here) that force so many Hondurans to make the decision to migrate in the first place.

Car Blast Near Mexico Site of Mass Grave
Friday, Aug. 27, 2010
By AP/ E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

(SAN FERNANDO, Mexico) — Two cars exploded early Friday, in front of the offices of a major Mexican television station and a transit police station, in a northern state where officials are investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants.

There were no injuries in either explosion, though both caused some damage to buildings and knocked out the signal of the Televisa network for several hours in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the drug gang-plagued state of Tamaulipas. The explosion outside Televisa was felt for several blocks. See pictures of Mexico's drug wars.

Soldiers were blocking access to the building, Televisa said.

The network described the explosion as a car bomb, but an official with the state attorney general's office couldn't confirm the type of explosions, just that two cars caught fire and blew up. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the incidents.

If confirmed, it would mean a total of four car bombs in Mexico this year — a new and frightening tactic in the country's escalating drug war.

The first exploded July 5 in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing a federal police officer and two other people. The second, which caused no injuries, happened just two weeks ago in front of police headquarters in Ciudad Victoria. See pictures of Culiacán, the home of Mexico's drug-trafficking industry.

Authorities are investigating the disappearance of two law-enforcement officials in San Fernando, where the bodies were found: a prosecutor and a transit police supervisor, the state official said. Neither was involved in the massacre investigation, the official said, adding that it is still unclear how long they have been missing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the case.

Just north of Ciudad Victoria, heavily guarded investigators worked to identify 72 migrants massacred near the U.S. border, while human rights advocates demanded Mexico do more to stop the exploitation and abuse of migrants that they say led to the heinous crime.

Marines are protecting the pink, one-story funeral home where the bodies were taken after being discovered on a ranch Tuesday, bound, blindfolded and slumped against a wall.

Tamaulipas state Assistant Attorney General Jesus de la Garza said Thursday that 15 bodies had been identified: eight from Honduras, four from El Salvador, two from Guatemala and one from Brazil. Diplomats from several of those nations traveled to Mexico to help identify them, and Mexico's National Human Rights Commission sent investigators to monitor the process.

The government's chief security spokesman said the migrants were apparently slain because they refused to help a gang smuggle drugs. "The information we have at this moment is that it was an attempt at forced recruitment," Alejandro Poire told W radio. "It wasn't a kidnapping with the intent to get money, but the intention was to hold these people, force them to participate in organized crime — with the terrible outcome that we know."

Associated Press Writers Alexandra Olson, Isaac Garrido and Katherine Corcoran in Mexico City; Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador; Diego Mendez in San Salvador, El Salvador; and Freddy Cuevas in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, contributed to this report.