U.S. warns against bus travel in northern Mexico

The United States Consulate General in Matamoros, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, warns its citizens about the potential dangers of inter-city bus travel in that region.

The Consulate says there are potential hazards of highway travel in private vehicles, and it says that between late March and early April, it received three reports from American citizens or their families regarding inter-city buses being boarded by criminals.

The warning issued on Friday was the third one by the Consulate regarding highway travel to Tamaulipas in the last five months, and it follows a tough week in which investigators uncovered 72 bodies in mass graves around the city of San Fernando, where the same number of migrants were massacred last August.

While many of the migrants slaughtered last year were from other parts of Central and South America, preliminary findings indicate that many bodies in the mass graves were Mexicans, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The mass graves, as well as frequent travel warnings, indicate that this notorious drug- and migrant-smuggling corridor has largely slipped out of the control of Mexican authorities, the Times reports.

Security forces originally found the mass graves while responding to reports that drug cartels had been boarding buses in the region, possibly trying to force migrants into working for them, reports The Guardian.

More than 35,000 have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels in 2006.