Authorities said six mutilated bodies were discovered Thursday in a vehicle in southern Mexico, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suspected popular television shows glamorizing the violent drug trade. Prosecutors said the remains were discovered in plastic bags inside a car in Chilapa, Guerrero, without confirming reports that the severed heads were placed on the roof. In recent years, discoveries of dismembered corpses dumped in public or hung from bridges have increased in Mexico as drug cartels seek to intimidate their rivals. In January, ten bodies were discovered in a sports utility vehicle neglected in front of the governor’s palace in the historic core of Zacatecas, Mexico’s northernmost city.
On election day in June 2021, two heads and other human bones were left at voting booths in the border city of Tijuana.
Since the government deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006, more than 340,000 people have been killed across the country in a wave of bloodshed.
On Thursday, Lopez Obrador slammed television shows on platforms like Netflix, claiming they painted a rosy picture of drug traffickers’ lives.
He told reporters that the shows feature “drug trafficking gangs with actors, men, beautiful women, assets, the latest cars, jewelry, designer clothes, and power.”
However, they disregard “destruction, particularly of young people And we’re talking about thousands of people dying. It’s a major issue in the United States “He continued, referring to drug overdose victims.
Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, championing a “hugs not bullets” strategy to combat violent crime at its source by addressing poverty and inequality through social programs rather than the army.
Instead of sending attack helicopters and other weapons to take on drug traffickers, he has asked the US to invest in regional economic development.