A woman frees a man tied to a lamp post, after he was apprehended by neighbors accusing him of robbery, in Oaxaca City, Nov. 1, 2006. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters)
Vigilante justice spreads across Mexico
More Mexicans turn to the lynch mob as crime spirals out of control.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — The five teenage boys slump against the wall of a dark house and eye the camcorder nervously. Suddenly, a fist enters the frame smacking one of the boys in the face. Then the barrel of an automatic rifle appears and the teenagers’ expressions turn to terror.
“Why are you here?” shouts a voice.
“For robbing,” one of the boys mumbles.
“You see. You were little rats and now look at you,” replies the interrogator.
The torture video of the five alleged house burglars was posted on the internet last week. It is the latest sign of brutal vigilante justice spreading across Mexico.
As kidnappings, muggings and car jackings spiral out of control, and the authorities appear increasingly impotent, shadowy groups have been advocating justice by the sword.
In other recent cases, alleged kidnappers and car thieves have been abducted and murdered and had their corpses dumped in public places along with threatening notes.
There are also rising cases of mobs lynching alleged thieves and leaving them beaten, naked and tied up.
“The government is failing to provide security and people are turning to some brutal alternatives,” said Rossana Reguillo, who studies crime and violence at the Jesuit University of Guadalajara. “This is not something that has always been around in Mexico. It is a new phenomenon that has been growing since 2000.”
In the latest case, the five teenagers were abducted after they allegedly robbed a house in the town of Tepic in the Pacific state of Nayarit.
The boys — all students of a local high school — were taken to an abandoned building where they had their heads shaved and then were beaten by fists and rifle butts and threatened at gun point, as shown on the video. One of the torturers is heard on the film saying he is the man whose house was robbed.
The teenagers were also forced to perform sexual acts — including kissing each other in front of the camera — as a humiliation. The gunmen are heard threatening to cut their hands off unless they comply.
After being held all night the students were dumped naked on the street and then attended at hospital for injuries including broken ribs.
The torture film was posted on YouTube under the title “Little Rats of Tepic.” YouTube’s monitors quickly removed it from the site, flagging it as unsuitable content.
Following an outcry over the film, police on Monday arrested four building workers for the torture.
However, one of the boys said they had first been arrested by state police and it was the officers themselves who turned them to the vigilantes. The Nayarit police chief denies the charge, saying officers did not question the boys until after they had been tortured.
If they don't protect their own how can you expect the Mexican police to protect tourists? Hate to say it - but now is not a safe (or wise) time to visit Mexico.
"Vigilante Justice" is a euphemism for "revenge." It never has a deterrent effect on generalized crime except in movies and comic books.
What utter nonsense, David! Tourists are rarely victims of crime in Mexico, and they certainly have nothing to worry from "vigilante justice", unless of course they themselves are criminals. On the whole, Mexican people enjoy a much more decent society than most "developed" countries because of their cultural values, and it is precisely because they are so decent that they manage to get along so well even in the absence of reliable police forces.
Dude, Vigilante justice is a GOOD thing. We need more of that in the US! The streets would be MUCH safer.
RT
I´m okay with this vigilant process. I´ve lived in Mexico almost a decade, and this is what happens when the legal system is lacking. I´m in favor of bringing back the Medieval stocks in public places.
Regarding visiting Mexico, it´s a wonderful place to visit. If you´re not a cop or a narco, the chances of anything bad happening to you are far, far less than in any big city in the United States. And that´s a fact. Random, senseless violence by slack-jawed, glassy-eyed young men with the IQ of a tree trunk, which is common these days in the U.S., remains a rarity here. There are no Columbines, and nobody Goes Postal. And nobody carjacks you in the drive-through lane at Burger King.
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