June 14, 2011
One Week's Headlines in Mexico's Drug War
Monday, June 13
Monterrey: Man hung from a busy overpass and burned
Guadalupe: Butchered man in taxi left at Police Headquarters
Guerrero: 4 gunmen killed in firefight with army
Tabasco: Police confuse famers with gunman, two dead
Chihuahua: Pregnant woman killed by gunman
Acapulco: Man tortured and beheaded
Nayarit: Pregnant woman found badly tortured
Morelia: Executed man discovered
Sunday, June 12
Generan Teran: 3 skinned heads discovered in bags on busy street
Monterrey: beheaded man found in park
Sinaloa: Man tortured and executed in Sinaloa
Canatlan: Father and 2 sons executed
Montemorelos: Armed men open fire in front of Police Station
Excobedo: Violent gun battle, 3 dead
Campesina: 3 men executed at a rehab center
Saturday, June 11
Guerreo: Men killed and skinned, left on highway
Tijuana: Human head discovered
Monterrey: Two men hung from overpass
Monterrey: Man tortured, beheaded
Sinola: Man executed
Nuevo Leon: Butchered man dumped by school
Chihuahua: 3 men gunned down
Guerrero: Warning to Police. Two men skinned. One videotaped before death
Friday, June 10
Sinaloa: Man gunned down in restaurant
Hualahuises: Heads of 3 policeman found
Monterrey: Grenade thrown at State Investigation Agency
Acapulco: Six unmarked graves discovered
Acapulco: Young woman executed
Michoacan: 21 executed
Monterrey: Handcuffed man chased and killed
Vera Cruz: Tortured body of navy man discovered
Thursday, June 9
Guanajuato: Scores of trash bags found with human body parts
Cadereyta: Dismembered woman found
Monterrey: Prison break after grenades are thrown
Monterrey: Police kill two gunman
Chihuahua: Gunman kill three men
Sinaloa: Two young men executed in stolen car
Coahuila: Arsenal discovered
Durango: Police ambushed and executed
Monterrey: Rotting corpse discovered under a bridge
Guerrero: Young Man tortured and burned
Michoacan: 21 bodies found
Santiago: Army attacked by assassins, several dead
Monterrey: Young man executed on busy street
Wednesday, June 8
Monterrey: Woman's Head left at popular restaurant
Victoria: Remains of 30 people found in fuel drums
Chihuahua: Hitmen attack police
Monterrey: Two men hung in broad daylight
Guerrero: Armed group ambush police
Monterrey: Gunbattle in Monterrey
Sinaloa: Armed group attacks and kills three
Guerrero: Two people chased and gunned down
Coahuila: Homemade tank discovered buried in a cave
Tuesday, June 7
Torreon: 11 dead by gunfire.
Guerrero: Body of brutally tortured man found
Tamaulipas: Grenade thrown
Mochicahui: Bullet riddled body of man found
Cadereyta: Bodies of dead men found being eaten by animals
Guadalupe: Two men executed
Monterrey: Beheaded man foudn on street.
Chihuahua: Bodies of two beheaded women discovered
Monterrey: Young man executed in his bedroom
Sinaloa: Policeman and son killed.
Nuevo Leon: Three headless bodies found on the highway
Nuevo Leon: Three heads discovered
Michoacan: Man quartered fond on side of road
Morelos: Running run battle. At least two killed.
Juarez: At least 7 found dead in shallow grave
Monterrey: Officer surrounded and attacked
It's estimated that since 2006 when this drug war ramped up between 30,000 and 40,000 people have died in narco related violence. This is roughly double the total number of estimated deaths (civilian and military) in Afghanistan since 2001.
These headlines were taken from a single blog that covers narco violence. If I were to include accounts from major newspapers and other blogs this list would have been many times longer.
Update: Two days after this was posted between 33-39 people were killed in drug violence in Monterrey. This went largely unreported in American media. To give this context on an average day in New York City which is more than double the size on Monterrey, 1.4 people are murdered.
If you want more background on the drug war in Monterrey, Nik Steinberg's piece The Monster and Monterrey in the Nation is excellent.
to this site
06/14/11 03:56 PM
Vanessa said...
Last year my 14yr old cousin and his friends where kidnapped as the bus dropped them off, my aunt watched from down the street as her son was taken and hasn't been seen since. The other children have been found dead. This is a daily occurrence in Mexico, my 60 year old mom hasn't gone back in years for fear that she will be kidnapped.
06/14/11 11:43 PM
raul said...
Things have spiraled out of control... and in the middle of it you have normal people trying to lead their lives. It's a profound tragedy and one fueled by us. I see very little coverage of this huge story here and wonder how bad things have to get before we start paying attention. Because so much of the violence is centered around Monterrey where my family has deep roots, the news hits especially close and many of the gruesome images of heads and torsos in the street are of places I know well... A year ago everyone thought things could not get worse, that those levels of violence couldn't be maintained, but the current power vacuum only intensifies the forces of chaos...
06/16/11 01:18 AM
Anonymous said...
I knew things were bad but not THAT bad. I'm scared to even leave my name here after clicking through to that site. I read Spanish and todays headlines were just as horrible. Do you think this this the height of the violence and things will go back to normal, is it just anarchy? Is Mexico a failed state? How can normal people function when bodies are being left on the street like that so regularly?
06/24/11 05:02 PM
Tammy said...
a lesson in perspective. I had a small idea, but dang. makes you wonder how much worse things w/b if some of these drugs were legalized . . . think of the tax money the country (U.S.) - oh, let's make that a state choice, since so many are in such financial crisis. I know there's the moral issue of legalizing something like this, but really, illegal-izing is not working. Wondering if there's been articles out there that parallels prohibition era & its violence vs. non-prohibition erasl, and a cost-benefit analysis of that, to the drug 'industry'. Now wondering if that last sentence made sense. Anyhow, thanks for posting. Interesting. Disturbing.