Drug-related violence in Mexico

Saturday turned out to be a day of violence not only for the U.S., with the shooting of Congressman Giffords, but for one of our neighboring countries as well.

15 people were found dead outside a shopping center in a Mexican resort city on Saturday. All but one of them were beheaded. The murderers appeared to be members of “El Chapo’s People,” a drug cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman; the group left messages that said the victims tried to intrude on the group’s property.

Among the 27 total people declared dead on Saturday was the mayor of a small town in Mexico. At least a dozen mayors were killed in Mexico last year “in acts of intimidation attributed to drug gangs.”

All I could feel after reading this article was shock and disgust. I had prior knowledge that drug-related violence was a big problem in Mexico, but I don’t think I had a full grasp of the scale of the problem until I read some of the numbers in the article. The most shocking to me was that over 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, “launched an offensive against cartels in late 2006.” This fact, combined with the murders of so many mayors, makes me think that whatever is being done to fight this violence is not nearly effective enough. I know I was shocked when I read this, but this kind of news is probably not unusual to Mexican residents.

I feel bad that I’m posting about such a gruesome and dismal topic, but I feel that we should all be aware about these things happening in the country right next to us. We should also feel grateful that we live in a relatively safe area; there’s not a lot that we can prioritize before safety. Does the start of this year seem especially filled with violence and tragedy to people?

(I purposely did not include any images - they are quite graphic.)