Investigators in Mexico stated they’ve largely confirmed the contents of a grisly drug cartel video displaying gunmen taking pictures, kicking and burning the corpses of their enemies. In a rustic the place movies of decapitations and executions have appeared on social media earlier than, the video launched Tuesday was nonetheless chilling.
A squad of whooping, cursing gunmen might be seen on a wooded mountainside, standing over the bullet-ridden our bodies of their rivals. They then kick and abuse the corpses, shoot them repeatedly, strip some and drag them to an improvised pyre and set them on fireplace.
A few of the useless gunmen appeared to have made a final stand inside a low, round pile of stones. Drug cartels in Mexico continuously make movies of useless or captured gang members to intimidate or threaten rivals.
Prosecutors within the Pacific coast state of Guerrero stated late Tuesday that they had reached the distant scene of the crime within the mountain township of Totolapan and discovered 5 charred our bodies. It stated the our bodies had been transferred to the state forensic medical service.
Nonetheless, a minimum of 15 our bodies might be seen within the video. Earlier than they’re set alight, one gunmen gleefully sits atop the tangled pile, laughing and stomping on the useless.
Many of the useless – just like the residing cartel gunmen seen within the video – had been sporting military-style inexperienced or camouflage shirts with ammunition belts.
It was not clear why investigators solely discovered 5 our bodies. The others could have been eliminated or utterly destroyed.
Prosecutors didn’t determine the gangs concerned within the confrontation, however native media stated the useless males could have belonged to the hyper violent Familia Michoacana cartel, whereas the victors had been apparently members of a gang often known as the Tlacos, after the close by city of Tlacotepec.
The 2 gangs have been combating for years to manage the distant mountain cities in Guerrero, the place mining, logging and opium poppy manufacturing are the principle industries.
In October 2020 an assault by a prison group in the identical space on the native metropolis corridor left 20 useless, together with the mayor and his father.
Guerrero, one of the crucial violent and impoverished states within the nation, has not too long ago seen a number of clashes between prison cells concerned in drug trafficking and manufacturing, kidnapping and extortion. Final month, an alleged cartel assault in Guerrero killed a minimum of six folks and injured 13 others.
It isn’t uncommon for drug cartels to hold off their very own useless, and destroy the our bodies of their rivals, by burying them in shallow graves, burning or dissolving them in caustic substances.
Within the neighboring state of Michoacan, prosecutors reported that they had discovered the our bodies of seven males and 4 ladies in shallow, clandestine burial pits close to the state capital, Morelia. The our bodies had been badly decomposed and had been taken for laboratory exams to find out their identities.
Mexico has recorded greater than 420,000 murders and tens of 1000’s of lacking individuals for the reason that finish of 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderon launched a controversial anti-drug army marketing campaign.