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Latest update: 22/12/2008
- drugs - Mexico - organised crime
Headless bodies found in Mexico
In a gruesome sign of the mounting brutality of Mexico's drug-related crimes, nine heads in plastic bags were discovered in southern Mexico hours after the bodies were located. Decapitation has become a tactic used by feuding Mexican drug cartels.
AFP - Nine men's heads were found in plastic bags in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, apparent victims of the country's brutal drug war, officials said on Sunday.
A forensic spokesman said that seven of those killed were soldiers, one was a lawyer and the other victim had not been identified.
Residents of the town of Chilpancingo found the heads before dawn, and some three hours later located the bodies elsewhere, local police said in a statement.
"Nine heads were found between 3:00 am and 4:00 am (0900 and 1000 GMT) in plastic bags, and the bodies were found about three hours later in various parts of the city," read the police statement.
"Three of the beheaded bodies were found about five kilometers (two miles) away and the other six were nearby," said the police report, adding that the victims' corpses showed signs of torture.
A local official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the heads were found near a shopping center, and police discovered a message nearby containing an apparent reference to the country's violent drug trade.
"For each one of us they kill, we will kill 10 of them," it said, calling the victims "sons of bitches."
Guerrero is one of the states where feuding drug cartels have engaged in a brutal battle for dominance. In the past two years, decapitated victims were recovered here at least three times. Two of those killed were federal police.
More than 5,300 people have been killed this year across the country in a wave of drug-related attacks, despite a government clampdown on cartels involving the deployment of 36,000 troops across the country.
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Drug wars and the gringos
Right on, Rocky! Refreshing to hear an intelligent gringo (there are many, of course, and we appreciate you). We have endemic corruption in Mexico, an unfortunate economic alliance with USA and Canada called NAFTA which the crooked Salinas (friend and fellow fiend in Bush) bullied throught, etcetera. But for far too long, gringos have taken for granted this very different yet allied nation south of the border (both the current one and the one established after the gringos stole half the country in 1846--1847). ANYWAY, it is pathetic to see how gringos grovel in drugs, rap music, celebration of violence and consumerism and indeed have infected Mexico, hopelessly, with this culture.
Alas, trendy, lefty gringos now cannot even go to Nepal or Brasil or other places...even their beloved Thailand is changing.
So you can run, but you cannot hide: you MUST stop hiding out in drugs and gun-running, self-absorbed pseudo-Asian religiousity, or just damn right-wing racism and ignorance.
We will do our part in Mexico, but you gringos have got to get up off your butts...and quit smoking, snorting and worshipping your lower chakras, navels, or what have you. Hope Obama is more alert--I do believe he is--and will do more than just send guns and appoint crooks like Tony Garza as ambassador...he dicho
Murder in Paraiso
No market, no murder ... we in the US (Hollywood... LA County, etc) and the World need to focus on the market ... if you buy the stuff you are as responsible for these deaths as the thugs that did it ... when any government allows drug traffic or is passive in enforcement, it commits murder ... it is not glamorous .... it is not kool ... it is murder ... close down the market to attack crime and corruption ... what a shame to do this to the wonderful and beautiful people of Mexico ...