Drug Violence Continues; So Does Misleading Reporting

(Acapulco, ElSur/Yahoo 24 May) Yesterday a body was found in a car on the Costera Alemán in the tourist zone, near the Club Deportivo. A “narco-message” was left with the corpse, threatening reprisals against one “Victor Aguirre,” alleged to be a cousin of the governor. The governor took pains to deny having any such relative. Aguirre is a fairly common surname in Guerrero. This Victor Aguirre is one of the presumed leaders of a local drug gang.

The body was decapitated and missing certain body parts, including the ears. The murder most likely took place 30 miles north of Acapulco, in the Costa Grande, where drug gang violence has been intense in the last weeks. The ears were later located in Coyuca, about an hour’s ride to the north.

Newspapers have recently agreed to stop publishing the content of narco-messages, mindful that the purpose of the violent acts is to obtain free publicity and notoriety for the perpetrators. The gangs have also taken to abandoning victims in automobiles in highly-trafficked areas of Acapulco, also as a means of obtaining publicity for themselves.

Yahoo News reported the incident, mentioning that the body was found in a “tourist area,” which is accurate, and that the message threatened the governor of the state, Ángel Aguirre, which was not. The item failed to report that the crime had almost certainly been committed in a small coastal town 30 miles or so away from the dump site. The item made no mention of drug gang rivalries or narcotics trade.