Severed Mexican Heads

(Apatzingan, Mexico) With a porous border, the U.S. should ominously expect Mexican-style violence to migrate farther and farther north.

Four severed heads were found Wednesday at the feet of an emblematic statue of former Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas in the western city of Apatzingan, sources in the Michoacan state Attorney General’s Office told Efe.

Left along with the heads was a disposable cooler stained with blood and scrawled messages from organized crime groups.

One of the messages was signed “La Resistencia,” the name of a gang thought to be linked to La Familia, a criminal organization that dominates the illegal drug trade in Michoacan.

The heads had bandages across the eyes and belonged to men in their mid-to-late-20s.

A search of the area around the statue failed to turn up the rest of the victims’ bodies.

Apparently the spread of lawlessness is so open that gangs announce their arrival by dropping off severed heads and bloody banners. There's no behind-the-scenes, surreptitious takeover of the power structure with dead-of-night clandestine criminal acts. With Mexican drug-trade lawlessness, it's more like high noon, guns-a-blazin' submit or die overthrow of the local elected authorities.

Nevertheless, the incident at Apatzingan is merely one of many which occur constantly in Mexico, frequently at locations next to the border with the U.S.

The gruesome discovery in Apaztingan followed news of the deaths of 31 people in drug-related violence in northern and central Mexico.

The most serious incident occurred in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, where at least 18 people died Tuesday in clashes between army troops and gunmen, as well as in shootouts involving rival gangs.

Five people died in Valadeces, a town on the border with Texas, in a shootout between rival gunmen, the Tamaulipas state information office, known as the CIO, said.

A fire truck and an ambulance were torched during the shootout, while the town’s police station was sprayed with gunfire.

Three bystanders were wounded during a shootout in the city of Diaz Ordaz, officials said.

A shootout between soldiers and gunmen in Reynosa, also on the Texas border, left six civilians dead, but the CIO did not say whether they were members of the drug cartels that are fighting for control of Tamaulipas.

A clash between army troops and gunmen left three dead in the border city of Rio Bravo, while three young men were gunned down in the Isleta Perez neighborhood of the Gulf city of Tampico, the CIO said.

I contend that the mainstream media are not adequately reporting the frequency, location and intensity of violence in Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border. Last year, more than 7700 drug-related murders were committed and the tally this year will likely exceed 10,000. Think about those numbers.