S
ecurity Information Publicly Disseminated

Friday, September 16, 2011

Bloging Can Kill

The drug Cartel los Zetas has left a warning to blogers that report cartel activities on web sites. In the Mexican town of Nuevo Laredo just across the border from the Texas town of Laredo the gruesome sight of two dead bodies was discovered Tuesday 9/13/11. The bodies of a man and a woman in there 20’s were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge. Both the man and the woman showed signs of beating and torture before they were killed. The woman was Topless with her hands and feet bound  together, she was killed by disembowelment. The man next to her was hanging by his hands with a machete wound to the shoulder so deep that bones were visible. It was evident from the torture that the woman had been beaten in front of the man to make him talk and when he did, they killed her and the young man was subsequently killed. Evidently these killings were in retaliation for reporting on Los Zeta drug cartel activity in the blog Frontera Al Rojo Vivo . At the sight where the bodies were found a sign was discovered as a warning to bloggers as well as signs attached to the the dead bodies.

This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet," and "You better fucking pay attention." “Z”

The first message (attached to the male victim's leg)
“This happened for snitching on Frontera Al Rojo Vivo

The second message

“This will happen to all the internet snitches (Frontera al Rojo Vivo, Blog Del Narco, orDenuncia Ciudadano) Be warned, we've got our eye on you.” “Z”


Social networking is like gun powder it is fun when made in to fireworks but deadly when packed in a casing behind a bullet. Twitter, Face book and blogs are powerful tools in the information age but precautions must be taken when reporting criminal activity. In Mexico journalists are routinely threatened and killed for publicizing cartel activity. Many have gone underground or stopped reporting altogether on the cartels. In the city Monterrey the word “balacera” (the Spanish word for shootout) was tweeted more last year than any other place in the world. A google search on “Journalists killed in Mexico ”returned 1,760,000 results. One story by USA Today dated 12/15/09 quoted a Mexican National Human Rights Commission report saying that 56 journalists have been killed in the past nine years and that was in 2009. It seems as though being a reporter in Mexico is hazardous to your health. Judging by the corpses hanging from the bridge blogging and tweeting is too.

No matter who you are, where you live or what you do, in the information age personal security is more important than ever. Just be forewarned that the information you share on Face book, Twitter and My Space is out there for the whole world to see and not everyone has your best interest at hart.

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