Violence in Baja Continues as Six Bodies Are Found on Highway Overpasses
The bodies of six men have been left hanging from three different bridges near the Mexican tourist resort of Los Cabos on the Baja California peninsula on Wednesday, local authorities said.
The authorities did not give details on what happened to the men, but drug gangs often hang the bodies of their murdered victims in public to intimidate rivals. Drug gang violence is set to make 2017 Mexico's deadliest year in modern history.
Two bodies were found on a bridge in Las Veredas, near Los Cabos international airport, and two on a different bridge on the highway between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, local prosecutors said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the prosecutors said two further bodies were found on a third bridge near the airport.
An official from the prosecutor's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of the men had been hung from the bridges.
Mexico's decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the injection of American cash and military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite indisputable evidence of human rights violations.
Under new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, murder rates are up and a new security force, the Civil Guard, is being deployed onto the streets despite campaign promises to end the drug war.
What has been achieved?
Improved collaboration between the US and Mexico has resulted in numerous high-profile arrests and drug busts. Officials say 25 of the 37 drug traffickers on Calderón's most-wanted list have been jailed, extradited to the US or killed, although not all of these actions have been independently corroborated.
The biggest victory – and most embarrassing blunder – under Peña Nieto's leadership was the recapture, escape and another recapture of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
While the crackdown and capture of kingpins has won praise from the media and US, it has done little to reduce the violence.
","image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/12126a12dd84d6d741ceca5749bcc491f478ea25/1278_0_3153_3153/3153.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=804b9faf24a6018743faaf7a5cf12808","credit":"Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP","pillar":0}"> Quick Guide Mexico's war on drugs
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Why did Mexico launch its war on drugs?
On 10 December 2006, Felipe Calderón launched Mexico's war on drugs by sending 6,500 troops into his home state of Michoacán, where rival cartels were engaged in tit-for-tat massacres.
Calderón declared war eight days after taking power – a move widely seen as an attempt to boost his own legitimacy after a bitterly contested election victory. Within two months, around 20,000 troops were involved in operations.
What has the war cost so far?
The US has donated at least $1.5bn through the Merida Initiative since 2008, while Mexico spent at least $54bn on security and defence between 2007 and 2016. Critics say that this influx of cash has helped create an opaque security industry open to corruption.
But the biggest costs have been human: since 2007, over 250,000 people have been murdered, more than 40,000 reported as disappeared and 26,000 unidentified bodies in morgues across the country. Human rights groups have also detailed a vast rise in human rights abuses including torture, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances by state security forces.
Peña Nieto claimed to have killed or detained 110 of 122 of his government's most wanted narcos. But his biggest victory – and most embarrassing blunder – was the recapture, escape, another recapture and extradition of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
Mexico's decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the injection of American cash and military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite indisputable evidence of human rights violations.
Under new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, murder rates are up and a new security force, the Civil Guard, is being deployed onto the streets despite campaign promises to end the drug war.
What has been achieved?
Improved collaboration between the US and Mexico has resulted in numerous high-profile arrests and drug busts. Officials say 25 of the 37 drug traffickers on Calderón's most-wanted list have been jailed, extradited to the US or killed, although not all of these actions have been independently corroborated.
The biggest victory – and most embarrassing blunder – under Peña Nieto's leadership was the recapture, escape and another recapture of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
While the crackdown and capture of kingpins has won praise from the media and US, it has done little to reduce the violence.
Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP
Violent crime has spiked in Baja California, particularly around the once peaceful resort of Los Cabos visited by million of foreign tourists every year. Los Cabos's police chief, Juan Manuel Mayorga, was shot dead last week.
Mexico is on track for its most violent year since records began, with the rise of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, now one of the country's most powerful, and disputes between other criminal groups fueling murder rates.
On Tuesday, authorities in the northern state of Chihuahua said 12 people were killed in clashes between armed groups.
The governor of the state of Baja California Sur, Carlos Mendoza Davis, said that authorities were investigating the incidents near Los Cabos.
"I condemn these acts and any expression of violence. Today more than ever in #BCS we should be united," he said via Twitter, using the hashtag for the state's initials.
Homicides have more than doubled in Baja California Sur this year, with 409 people killed through October, from 192 in all of 2016. In June authorities said they had found a mass grave with the bodies of 11 men and three women near Los Cabos.
More than 4.4 million passengers, mostly international, have passed through Los Cabos airport so far this year, according to operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/20/mexico-six-men-found-hanged-from-three-bridges-near-tourist-spot-los-cabos
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