MEXICO CITY — Residents of Mexico have become accustomed to a regular ledger of horrors — assassinations, kidnappings, “disappearances” and the discovery of clandestine graves, among other outrages.
Still, this month’s massacre of 10 men in Zacatecas state represented a stunning spasm of violence in a region renowned for its mining industry, its colonial churches of pink sandstone and its crucial role in the Mexican Revolution.
Last weekend, the bodies of the 10 — apparent victims of cartel executions — turned up in three sites across the state in north-central Mexico.
Most dramatically, five of the bodies were hung on a highway bridge, their half-nude corpses displaying signs of torture — a macabre display that recalled the worst days of the Mexican drug wars. Four other victims were left near a government clinic; a fifth was dumped on a roadside.
The targeted killings — and the highly choreographed positioning of the remains — were clearly a warning from organized crime, which, despite official denials, constitutes a kind of parallel government in many areas of Mexico. The gangsters’ unmistakable message: Cooperate with us or pay the ultimate price.
All 10 victims were apparently kidnapped in the days before their slayings, authorities say, though none of the abductions were reported to police until the bodies were discovered.
The victims appear to have been chosen with considerable deliberation. Among them were a former rural mayor, an ex-police commander, a bar owner, a rancher, a fireman and various entrepreneurs associated with mining and construction, industries heavily subject to extortion demands.
Authorities say they are looking at shakedowns and possible corruption among public officials as potential factors in the killings.
At least two of the victims were involved in a “circle of extortion,” the state attorney general, Cristian Paul Camacho Osnaya, told reporters Thursday, without specifying their role. Investigators were examining 14 separate bank accounts possibly related to the crime, he said.
Extortion in Mexico is a multibillion-dollar racket that cuts across economic sectors and is linked to organized crime.
Police have arrested five suspects, at least two of whom may have participated in the killings, authorities said. There was no official word on who ordered the hits or the motive.
Hundreds of army troops, special forces soldiers and police officers were dispatched across the state after the slayings.
“Whoever ordered and committed this barbarism will pay for it,” vowed Zacatecas Gov. David Monreal, a member of Mexico’s ruling Morena political bloc. “There will be justice, not impunity.”
For many, official pledges of justice ring hollow in a country where few gang slayings are resolved beyond what critics call token arrests, typically of low-level hit men and not the masterminds.
Zacatecas has long been the site of bloody turf battles between Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels. But authorities boast that the state has lately become a model for reducing mob mayhem — an assertion that many find suspect.
“We in Zacatecas live in terror because we can be disappeared, murdered, kidnapped, and the authorities do nothing,” said Rosa Carmona Rosales, a domestic worker who is a part of a search group seeking “disappeared” victims, including daughter Adriana, a mother of three who vanished in 2017. “There is no justice.”
Several business leaders contacted were hesitant to speak on the record, citing vulnerability to retribution and a general climate of fear and uncertainty.
“Of course we pay extortion, and the demands aren’t always from organized crime,” said one construction executive who declined to give his name. “Many times it comes from local governments. … It’s an open secret that, in Zacatecas, the government and organized crime are in collusion.”
Two days after the bodies were found, a video began circulating on social media featuring a masked figure reading a statement in front of an array of gunmen in tactical gear. The killings, he said, were payback from a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. The man accused state officials of breaking a “pact” with the cartel and warned that similar, or worse, fates awaited others who double-crossed the mob.
“Here, betrayals cost lives,” the masked figure warned.
Authorities label the video fake and deny any deal or cooperation with the cartels.
The massacre comes as the federal government has hailed its national security crackdown as a major success. President Claudia Sheinbaum has credited her administration’s efforts with reducing homicides by almost 50% in less than two years.
But many Mexicans remain unconvinced, a skepticism only reinforced by a steady stream of high-profile killings across the country.
In the days after the Zacatecas slayings, a mayor was assassinated in his office in the central state of Morelos and a journalist was shot dead in Oaxaca, in the south. Those crimes were unrelated to the slaughter in Zacatecas, authorities said, but again demonstrated how mob violence continues to wreak havoc throughout Mexico.
“What happened in recent days in Zacatecas is one more indication that … criminality remains present, dominating territory, with links to local governments,” wrote columnist Carlos Puig in Mexico’s Milenio news outlet.
All 10 bodies were found outside Zacatecas city, the state capital and a major tourist draw, featuring colonial-era churches and other attractions. Visitors are advised to not wander far from the heavily policed capital.
In Mexico, Zacatecas is renowned for its long history of silver mining and for being the site of a signature 1914 battle during the Mexican Revolution, in which the insurgent forces of Gen. Francisco “Pancho” Villa routed government troops.
The U.S. State Department gives Zacatecas its highest risk advisory rating — Level 4, meaning “Do Not Travel.”
Zacatecas has traditionally been a major source of immigrants to the United States, especially to California. Many U.S. residents with Zacatecas roots regularly visit relatives in the state, especially during holiday seasons.
In 2022, José Gutiérrez, a Mexican-born architect and U.S. citizen who lived in Ohio, was in Zacatecas while visiting his fiancee for the Christmas holidays. The couple went missing. Weeks later, Mexican authorities found four bodies in a pit on a ranch in Zacatecas.
The remains were identified as those of the Ohio architect, his fiancee, her sister and a female cousin.
McDonnell is a Times staff writer. Sánchez Vidal is a special correspondent.
The post Massacre of 10 men in Zacatecas stuns Mexico appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
