Severed Heads Found at Mexican Primary School, as Drug Deaths Hit 41,000
On Tuesday, in the resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, five severed and decomposing human heads were found in a sack placed near a local primary school.
The sack had been placed on top of a small wooden crate near a primary school known as Benito Juarez. Three notes were left alongside the heads, according to AP.
The heads, reportedly, belonged to Mexican males. On Monday, headless corpses were found by local police, and police believe that the heads will likely match the corpses found earlier.
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The discovery reportedly occurred in full view of students and pedestrians, and has reignited fear among locals about security and the power of drug gangs, especially as Acapulco is increasingly becoming a battleground for local criminal gangs.
Both teachers and schools in area have been facing numerous threats and last week thousands of local teachers and activists took to the streets in protest against the threats they have been receiving from the warring drug gangs.
The teachers reported that last month they received threats from the criminal gangs to hand over half of their salaries starting from October 1.
As a result of the threats and security concerns, over 100 schools in the area have been closed since last month and dozens of teachers have gone on strike.
Police have said that it is uncertain if the heads found by the school are linked to the extortion threats that the schools and teachers have been facing in and around Acapulco.
Mexico’s war on drugs is rapidly expanding and offering new challenges daily.
Only days ago police raided the largest-ever drug laboratory they discovered since the Mexican government launched its war against the powerful criminal drug cartels.
Also, only days ago, two young people were killed by local drug gangs in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. The people were killed, according to handwritten notes left by their bodies, for their utilization of social media to expose the cartels.
It is uncertain if the people were killed because they used social media, or if the letters mentioned social media as a scare tactic to silence locals against speaking out in opposition to the cartels that are making their lives and neighborhoods unsafe.
Since 2006, when the Mexican government launched its war on the powerful cartels, at least 41,000 people have been killed.
