Contrary to early reports, not all victims were decapitated or dismembered, and not all were in black garbage bags, while victims were in bags others were tossed onto the highway without a bag or cover.
Milenio reports that a couple of victims bore tattoos of Santa Muerte , however that has not been confirmed, officially, it is confirmed a few bore tattoos.
There were persistent rumors that the dead included women and children. Since Saturday night it is rumored that 2 of the six women were pregnant.
On Sunday morning I was sent photos that I did nothing with them as the victims were not in bags and although decapitated their limbs were for the most part intact.
This Borderland Beat reporter has long retained the belief that the mass murder displays were constructed, either by majority or entirety, with innocent people unrelated to organized crime. That position was reinforced after the Boca del Rio mass killings of 35.
One story that has been impossible to forget. A mothers account of the last day she saw her 15 year old son, a high school student. He raised chickens and on foot went to purchase feed. Eye witnesses account declared that the child was placed in a municipal poilce car. He was among the carnage in Boca del Rio.
A short time subsequent to the gruesome event, 100% of all the municipal force was fired due to corruption. Many refused to take a polygraph and those who did failed. This is not an isolated circumstance. Cartels control municipalities in the cities and regions they conduct their criminal activities.
On May 14, 2012 a video was uploaded on Youtube by a user with the name of "anim trent" and was immediately removed by Youtube due to its violent content. The video was titled "Comandante Diablo y Rey de Reyes Acabando con los Zetas" or "Commander Diablo and King of Kings finishing with Los Zetas." The video starts with a female decapitating a male while the man is still alive. The man is then dismembered. It is very hard to watch. At one point one of the sicarios carves the letter "Z" on the stomach of the victim.
Two older men are executed. One is shot before being beheaded and dismembered. The other man is beheaded while alive and the head is displayed toward the end of the video. It has not been clearly established who Commander Diablo and Rey de Reyes is, but they have targeted victims that are alleged by this group to have links to Los Zetas.
In the last two weeks a video and several pictures surfaced of members with the same exact name that executed several men, it is not certain if the events are relatad.
Though hard to imagine the cruelty of cartels to gather large groups of innocents for shock and attention thereby highlighting messages or a perception of power, another perspective is it is far easier, and efficient in their viewpoint.
By targeting a bus load of migrants, or giving corrupt police the task to collect innocent victims off the streets. Compliant and respectful of authorities, they are easy prey, no bullets, no fighting, no bloodshed sustained on the part of the criminals.
"This happened for snitching on Frontera Al Rojo Vivo," read that note. Frontera Al Rojo Vivo is a popular online forum where members anonymously post details on drug cartels, and denounce them.
The second message, attached to the bridge, read: "This will happen to all the internet snitches (Frontera al Rojo Vivo, Blog Del Narco, or Denuncia Ciudadano).
The second note was signed "Z", likely a reference to the Zetas cartel, which operates in the area. The cartel has murdered informants in the past, but this is the first known case where online message boards and blogs were mentioned.
None of the sites singled out appeared to have been intimidated by the grisly murders. "It's very difficult for them to find out who denounced," wrote one poster on Al Rojo Vivo. "They only want to scare society."
This story originally published on Mashable here.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Police found a woman's decapitated body in a Mexican border city on Saturday, alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site.
The gruesome killing may be the third so far this month in which people in Nuevo Laredo were killed by a drug cartel for what they said on the internet.
Morelos Canseco, the interior secretary of northern Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located, identified the victim as Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo newspaper Primera Hora.
The newspaper has not confirmed that title, and an employee of the paper said Macias Castaneda held an administrative post, not a reporting job. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name.
But it was apparently what the woman posted on the local social networking site, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, or "Nuevo Laredo Live," rather than her role at the newspaper, that resulted in her killing.
The site prominently features tip hotlines for the Mexican army, navy and police, and includes a section for reporting the location of drug gang lookouts and drug sales points - possibly the information that angered the cartel.
The message found next to her body on the side of a main thoroughfare referred to the nickname the victim purportedly used on the site, "La Nena de Laredo," or "Laredo Girl." Her head was found placed on a large stone piling nearby.
"Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I'm The Laredo Girl, and I'm here because of my reports, and yours," the message read. "For those who don't want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl...ZZZZ."
The letter "Z'' refers to the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel, which is believed to dominate the city across from Laredo, Texas.
By late Saturday, the chat room at Nuevo Laredo en Vivo was abuzz with fellow posters who said they knew the victim from her online postings, and railing against the Zetas, a gang founded by military deserters who have become known for mass killings and gruesome executions.
They described her as a frequent poster, who used a laptop or cell phone to send reports.
"Girl why didn't she buy a gun given that she was posting reports about the RatZZZ ... why didn't she buy a gun?" wrote one chat participant under the nickname "Gol."
Earlier this month, a man and a woman were found hanging dead from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a similar message threatening "this is what will happen" to internet users. However, it has not been clearly established whether the two had in fact ever posted any messages, or on what sites.
Residents of Mexican border cities often post under nicknames to report drug gang violence, because the posts allow a certain degree of anonymity.
Social media like local chat rooms and blogs, and networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, are often the only outlet for residents of violence-wracked cities to find out what areas to avoid because of ongoing drug cartel shootouts or attacks.
Local media outlets, whose journalists have been hit by killings, kidnappings and threats, are often too intimidated to report the violence.
Mexico's Human Rights Commission says eight journalists have been killed in Mexico this year and 74 since 2000. Other press groups cite lower numbers, and figures differ based on the definition of who is a journalist and whether the killings appeared to involve their professional work.
While helpful, social networking posts sometimes are inaccurate and can lead to chaotic situations in cities wracked by gang confrontations. In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, just south of Tamaulipas, the state government dropped terrorism charges last week against two Twitter users for false posts that officials said caused panic and chaos in late August.
This video just surfaces that shows a pile of dismembered bodies, victims of the gulf cartel.
A few days ago, these bodies were found in Plaza Morelos, a municipality of Montemorelos, Nuevo León.
A few days ago, these bodies were found in Plaza Morelos, a municipality of Montemorelos, Nuevo León.
Among the mutilated victims is a woman. All have signs of torture, some tied with ropes and belts, others with heavy duty chains.
The message contains references that suggest these people were Zetas.
"Sigue mandando Gente como esta pinche Mamito de Mierda Sigues tu Nico Guerra Luna
ATTE: CDG Metro 32"
"Keep sending your people, like this punk bitch. You're next Nico Guerra Luna - CDG Metro 32"
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen killed a leading Gulf Cartel commander who was sought by the U.S. and believed to be behind a split with a rival crime organization that intensified Mexico's drug violence, authorities said Friday.
Samuel Flores Borrego, also know as "el Metro 3," was shot dead near Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, in what appeared to be an attack by members of his own cartel, the Mexican Attorney General's Office said in a statement. He was found Friday inside a vehicle along with the body of a police officer.
Flores, 39, is believed to be responsible for the January 2010 killing of a Zetas member that led to a rupture between the former allies, U.S. anti-drug officials have said. The Zetas started as a gang of hit men for the Gulf Cartel, but after the split formed their own cartel, and fighting between the groups over territory and drug turf has caused violence to soar in parts of Mexico.
Police in Mexico are investigating whether the bodies of 72 peoplefound murdered were those of illegal migrants. The war between various drug gangs and security forces has been notoriously bloody, but this massacre seems particularly gruesome. The bodies were found piled on a property about 150-kilometres from the Texan border. A lone survivor says the dead were migrants heading for the US, apparently killed for refusing to pay off a drug gang.
Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez reports from Mexico City.
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