The mutilated bodies of six people were found Thursday in a vehicle in southern Mexico, authorities said – the latest gruesome discovery in a country torn by gang violence. Reuters reported, citing a statement from Guerrero’s attorney general’s office, that the severed heads of six men were discovered on an abandoned Volkswagen on a busy boulevard in the town of Chilapa de Alvarez.
A warning sign attached to two trees was also found at the gruesome scene, according to local authorities, Reuters reported.
“In Chilapa, selling crystal, kidnapping, extortion and theft are strictly forbidden. This will happen to anyone who messes around,” the sign reads, according to a photo of the crime scene provided to Reuters by police. “The death penalty is the punishment for all these crimes.”
Authorities said the bodies would be buried on Friday.
The discovery of mutilated bodies that have been dumped in public or hung from bridges has increased in Mexico in recent years as criminal gangs seek to intimidate their rivals.
In June 2021, two heads and other human remains were left at polling stations in the border city of Tijuana on Election Day.
The Guerrero violence also included the discovery of hidden graves containing dozens of bodies and a warehouse where gunmen kept the severed heads of nine rivals in a cooler.
Mexican army personnel patrol the Ahuhuiyuco community in Chilapa de Alvarez, Guerrero state, Mexico, June 20, 2017, after around 800 families fled their homes following a crossfire between two regional drug cartels. AFP staff
Across the country, more than 340,000 people have been killed in a spate of bloodshed since the government deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006.
On Sunday evening, 20 people were killed at a site where cockfights were taking place in the city of Las Tinajas, in the Mexican state of Michoacan. An American mother was among the victims.
American woman killed in mass shooting in Mexico 02:14
Meanwhile, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused popular TV shows of glorifying the violent drug trade. Appearing on TV series on platforms including Netflix on Thursday, Lopez Obrador said they presented a pink version of the drug dealer’s lifestyle.
The shows feature “gangs of drug dealers with actors, men, beautiful women, property, the latest cars, jewelry, designer clothes and power,” he told reporters.
But they ignore “the destruction of young people in particular. And we’re talking about thousands of deaths. It’s a serious problem in the United States,” he added, referring to drug overdose victims.
Lopez Obrador took office in 2018 and championed a “hugs not bullets” strategy to tackle violent crime at its roots by tackling poverty and inequality with social programs rather than the army.
He has urged the US to invest in regional economic development instead of using helicopter gunships and other weapons against drug traffickers.