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Merida, located in Yucatan, Mexico, where 11 bodies were found decapitated

In a quick scan of the stories published in the “Mexico” section of the San Diego Union-Tribune we found this headline which could have been lifted from the violent 1992 Mexican film, El Mariachi, about an innocent mariachi musician mistaken by a drug cartel as a killer: “Gunmen Kill 11 in Northern Mexican bar”. Yet the story contained even more details of the ongoing rash of horrific homocides perpetrated by drug cartels across the country just below our southern border, some at popular destinations of American tourists:

*”Hundreds of murders this year in the Chihuahua State related to “drug cartels”.

* August 16th, 13 people murdered by gunmen in Creel , a popular tourist town, one of them a 1-yr-old baby.

*Gunmen open fire in a bar in northern Mexico, killing eleven.

*The owner and editor of the La Noticia periodico from the western state of Michoacan was found shot dead near a highway in the nearby state of Guerrero.

*Since 2006, two journalists have been murdered in Michoacan while three others have “disappeared”.

*91 people have been murdered by drug gangs in the border town of Tijuana since September 26. Fifty-two of the victims died of gunshot wounds, 19 from strangulation, 9 were beaten, 6 suffocated, and 5 were decapitated.

DBKP wondered: how many Americans who plan to travel south of the border have any idea of the blantant drug war battles being waged on the streets across Mexico which have resulted in thousands of homocides just this year?

In another story a senior Columbian defense official claimed during a two-day meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Mexico City that Columbia’s rebel group FARC, or the 48th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is selling drugs “directly” to the Mexican drug cartels. Colombia’s deputy defense minister Sergio Jaramillo said that FARC “controls most of Columbia’s cocaine trade” while the leader of OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza,
stated that organized crime and drug trafficking were “among the greatest threats to the region’s stability” that “killed more people than AIDS”:

“It is an epidemic, a plague on our continent that kills more people than AIDS or any other known epidemic,” he said. “It destroys more homes than any economic crisis.”

Mexican President Felipe Calderon blamed the United States for being the “main market” for illegal drugs as well as “contraband” weapons which flow into Mexico from the United States.

It was reported in the story that “drug men allegedly threw grenades into a crowd of Independence Day revelers in the western city of Morelia, killing eight people and injuring more than 100″ on September 15.

In yet more news from Mexico, five state police officers were murdered in the western state of Jalisco in the town of Lagos de Moreno outside the western city of Guadalajara by “grenade-lobbing gunmen” and that more than “800 bullets were fired in the attack”. It was reported that the policemen had stopped a car for a search when “an unknown number of assailants” arrived in “two pickup trucks” and opened fire. Two innocent bystanders were also wounded. Two more state police were murdered in Cuidad Juarez, the Mexican border town across from El Paso, Texas. The article also stated that so far this year over 3,000 people in Mexico have died violent deaths due to drug wars.

The beautiful Merida was founded in 1542 by the Spaniard Francisco de Montejo over the ruins of the Mayan city Tho. It received its name to evoke the conqueror’s natal city (Merida, Spain). The Cathedral of San Ildelfonso was founded with stones dismantled from the pyramids. Merida is known as the White City, one of the most tranquil and safest cities in Mexico. Her remote Mayan roots, superb colonial monuments and the splendor of her XIX century architecture, has made Merida a captivating mixture of cultural influences. There is a great variety of good restaurants with regional cuisine and excellent dishes such as cochinita pibil and deer meat. Meriden people are known for their hospitality and pride on their strong traditions and cultural roots.
-Centro Nacional De Metrologia

The New York Times reported on August 29 where eleven “bodies” had been found decapitated in the state of Yucatan near the town of Merida. The Times also mentioned the rather gruesome fact that “Mexican drug cartels have regularly chopped the heads off their victims to send a message to rivals”.

Mexican police decapitated in Acapulco

The UK paper, the Telegraph, gave even more details: there were 11 victims, all were found naked and branded with the letter “Z”. They had been been decapitated while alive and their bodies dumped into a field on the outskirts of Merida. It was reported that none of the victim’s heads had been found.

One of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico are the Zetas who are rivals of Joaquin Guzman, a drug lord who escaped from jail in 2001.

The United States Homeland Security issued a warning about the escalation of violence in Mexico on August 29th, citing the 11 decapitated men, as well as a 12th victim who was found later, 120 miles to the south of the city of Merida. Merida is a popular destination of tourists visiting the famed Maya ruins at Chichen Itza.

Homeland Security warned that “warring drug gangs have routinely decapitated rivals during the last two years” in “battles” over “coveted drug routes” while four more headless bodies were discovered in Tijuana.

On October 5, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that five state police officers were arrested in the Mexico state of Chiapas while 295 other police were “being held for questioning” after a deadly raid on villagers who “had occupied the entrance to the Chinkultic ruins for nearly a month”. Chinkultic, a 1,200-year-old Mayan archaeological site, is located near the Guatemalan border.

The villagers, upset over “excessive entrance fees” for tourists at the site and a “failure to reinvest in the local infrastructure” had occupied the entrance to the ruins for neary a month when the hundreds of police raided the site. The protestors allegedly fought back with “sticks, rocks, and machetes” and “wrested 75 guns” from the police and also “poured gasoline on others”.

Authorities said 4 villagers were killed, two are missing, with two dozen injuried, including 16 police officers.

On October 1, 2006, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported “Mexican drug cartels now using decapitation to scare enemies” and that this year “26 people have been decapitated in Mexico” with “heads stuck on fences”, “dumped in trash piles” and “tossed on a dance floor”.

Two more drug cartels are mentioned in the article, the “infamous” Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, who are “fighting for control over smuggling routes” that stretch from the southern border of Mexico at Guatemala to the city of Nuevo Laredo, located across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Mexican police point to the Zetas, a group of “highly trained Mexican army deserters” as well as “central America gangsters”, the Maras, who display “extravagant facial tattoos”, known for their brutality and who are employed by the drug cartels as hit men.

In April of 2006, in the popular tourist destination of Acapulco, two police officers were murdered, their heads stuck in plastic bags, then stuck on fence that surrounds the government building.

By LBG

Image - Maras
Image - Acapulco police victims
Image - Merida