Mass graves in Mexico reveal savagery

At the largest mass grave site ever found in Mexico, where 177 bodies have been discovered, authorities say they have little evidence that the dead were killed with a gun.

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Along the highway in northern Mexico, missing person fliers are taped outside the offices of state investigators.

Nick Miroff / The Washington Post

A forensic worker peeks from behind plastic sheets covering the entrance of La Piedad embalming building where another 50 bodies that were found in mass graves in northern Mexico had arrived in Mexico City. Mexico's attorney general blamed the atrocity on the brutal Zetas drug cartel.

Carlos Jasso / Reuters

Federal forces stand guard as members of a forensic team work at a clandestine grave in La Huasteca park in the municipality of Santa Catarina. Federal police found at least five clandestine graves in an area of La Huasteca park, according to local media.

Tomas Bravo / Reuters

Omar Estrada Luna, a.k.a. "El Kilo," of Los Zetas drug cartel, is presented to the press at the Mexican Navy headquarters in Mexico City. Estrada Luna is accused of having planned and ordered the killing of 72 migrants in August 2010 and having ordered the slaughter of more than 170 people found in mass graves in San Fernando. The battles between drug lords have claimed more than 35,000 dead across the country during the past three years, according to official figures.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Police stand guard outside a Mexico City morgue, as forensic personnel stand by to receive the bodies of some of the 76 people murdered in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, Mexico.

Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images

Morgue workers remove a body, which was found in a mass grave, from a refrigerated truck at the entrance of a funeral home in Mexico City.

Marco Ugarte / AP

A forensic worker takes photographs next to a bus covering a truck (hidden), containing 76 bodies found in mass graves in northern Mexico, outside the La Piedad's embalming building in Mexico City.

Jorge Dan Lopez / Reuters

Forensic workers talk next to a truck containing 76 bodies found in mass graves in northern Mexico.

Jorge Dan Lopez / Reuters

Morgue employees take a body, found in a mass grave, from a refrigerated truck into the local morgue in Matamoros, northern Mexico.

Alexandre Meneghini / AP

Forensic personnel dig out the body of one of the 76 people murdered in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, Mexico.

/ AFP/Getty Images

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