http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/22/drugs-mexico-beheading-soldiersEight soldiers found decapitated in MexicoWarring Mexican drug cartels blamed for murder and mutilation of army troopers
Three bodies lie in a Tijuana street during 72-hours of ferocious street battles between drug cartels earlier this month. Photograph: Sergio OrtizMexican authorities are investigating the violent deaths of eight soldiers, whose decapitated bodies were found after one of the most brazen attacks yet by the country's drug cartels.
The severed heads were found on Sunday morning in black plastic bags dumped near a superstore in the southern city of Chilpancingo. Their bodies were recovered along two motorways leading to the coastal resort of Acapulco 50 miles away.
All the victims were wearing civilian clothes, with unofficial reports suggesting they were picked up after leaving their barracks on a few days' leave.
The military is at the forefront of a two-year-old campaign against the cartels that control cocaine trafficking to the US as well as local production of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, and a growing market of local users.
A defence ministry statement called the murders "cowardly acts by criminal organisations seeking to scare off the armed forces."
Mexican newspapers cited a note found beside the heads warning: "For every one of ours you kill, we will kill 10 of yours." The note prompted speculation of a direct revenge attack after the deaths of three gang members nearby on Friday, killed in a shootout with soldiers.
Propaganda messages have become a regular feature of Mexico's escalating drug violence which has killed 5,300 people this year, already double the record total of 2007.The vast majority of the victims are low-level members of rival gangs killed in a turf war raging around the country.
Quelling the violence was the original aim of the offensive launched by President Felipe Calderón in December 2006, but the rate of violent deaths has continued to rise. Members of the security forces make up about 10% of the overall death toll, although most victims belong to notoriously corrupt police forces which means their murders are often treated as an extension of the inter-gang rivalry.
The army has a cleaner reputation – one of the major reasons for its prominent role in the recent crackdown. It also explains why the weekend's decapitations have been greeted with such shock in Mexico.
A ninth head found at the weekend belonging to a former police chief was given far less attention in a country where there have been dozens of non-military decapitations so far this year.
The government has reacted to growing criticism of its offensive by claiming that the escalation in violence is a sign that the gangs are becoming desperate, a line repeated by the defence ministry.
"They are the consequence of the severe blows we have delivered to criminal organisations in this area who now feel cornered," it read, pledging to continue the fight.
