Another blogger was found murdered in the Mexican town of Nuevo Laredo on Wednesday, according to the Houston Chronicle. This is the fourth blogger since September that has been reportedly killed by the Zetas, a powerful drug cartel that has been instrumental in keeping the country’s devastating drug war alive.
The man helped moderate a site called En Vivo, which posted information about the Zetas’ activities. The blogger, who posted under the name “Rascatripas,” was found beheaded at an intersection next to a note which read “This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report on the social networks.”
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Social media has played a big role in a drug war where visible, mainstream reporters and broadcasters fear retribution from the cartels. In September, 39-year-old Marisol Macías Castañeda was also decapitated for posting on social media sites. Two men were hanged as well, their bodies next to a sign that read “This is going to happen to all Internet snitches. Pay attention, I’m watching you.”
Last week, hacker collective Anonymous apparently abandoned their plans (if such plans ever really existed) to take on the Zetas cartel, perhaps after a report from Stratfor claimed “Los Zetas are deploying their own teams of computer experts to track those individuals involved in the online anti-cartel campaign, which indicates that the criminal group is taking the campaign very seriously.”
The conflict, which started in 2006, has claimed at least 40,000 lives so far.