In Mexico, a Deadly Warning

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/opinion/sunday/in-mexico-a-deadly-warning.html

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GUADALAJARA, Mexico

“THIS is what will happen to everyone who talks, who accuses us. Respect us and we will respect you (big mouths and finger pointers).”

That was the message attached to the lifeless body of a man who, by the end of a workday, had become one more statistic, one more death connected to Mexican organized crime. His name will be forgotten — and the day of his death will be remembered only by his family.

This body was found around 8 a.m. on a Wednesday, by the local police of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. In the same spot, 44 days earlier, in an alley leading to a transient motel, another man was found murdered.

The note offers only a hint of the possible motive for the man’s murder, and it may well have been used as a ruse to confuse investigators. The real message that the assassins wanted to send, and the reason for it, will remain a secret that he takes to his grave.

This man’s face was covered with a blindfold, and his hands and bare feet were wrapped in duct tape. Before the crime was committed, he was probably interrogated and tortured, which seems to be the usual operating procedure among hit men; countless videos on the Internet attest to this.

These kinds of murders have come to be considered acts of terrorism — for the ease with which the murderers take away a person’s life and put it on public display elicits terror among the local population. This is how the criminals communicate their message of power, defiance and control.

In the six years of Felipe Calderón’s presidency, over 60,000 people have lost their lives in incidents connected to organized crime. That is the number acknowledged by the government; there are those who believe it is closer to 90,000.

The identities of the dead and the possible motives for their murders remain a mystery that the Mexican government has been unable to solve through its public prosecutor’s office, which, to complicate things further, has often responded by associating the victims with organized crime. And despite this, the government is preparing a monumental memorial to the victims of violence.

<NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Víctor Hugo Ornelas is a journalist and photographer. This essay was translated by Kristina Cordero from the Spanish.