Mexico: 'Four Letters' Cartel Sends a Message with 9 Corpses

On Friday, the "Four Letters" drug cartel left the bodies of eight men and a woman lying on the Cosoleacaque-La Tinaja highway in the Veracruz state.

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The naked victims, who showed signs of being tortured, were piled up by the roadside, where the drug cartel left a message threatening the Veracruz Interior Secretary Eric Cisneros.

Currently, Veracruz occupies the sixth position in the national ranking of states with the highest number of criminal acts, with a heinous or violent character. 

Between Jan. and Oc. 2021, according to data from the Common Cause NGO, Mexico registered 4,527 "atrocities", that is, crimes with evidence of intentional use of physical force to cause death, laceration, or extreme abuse. The states with the highest number of atrocities were Guanajuato (327), Jalisco (227), Mexico (221), Michoacan (191), Puebla (175), and Veracruz (175).

The package of corpses abandoned in Veracruz was discovered a few hours after another similar symbolic event, which took place in the state of Zacatecas on Thursday night. 

On the Three Kings day, when Mexicans give gifts to children, another drug cartel abandoned a sports utility vehicle with 10 bodies in the central square of Zacatecas city. The SUV was placed next to a Christmas tree and in front of the subnational government headquarters.

"The abandonment of those 10 bodies is one more of the postcards of the constant violence in Zacatecas, a key state for drug trafficking which is disputed by the cartels," outlet SinEmbargo commented.

These bodies also showed signs of torture, State governor David Monreal acknowledged. Zacatecas has become another scene of violent disputes between illegal groups seeking to control drug smuggling routes. Among them are the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, according to the new agency AFP.