18 murdered, dumped in portrero chico; climbers are fleeing

I don't think there is ANYTHING that will improve the situation.

Eliminating demand would immediately improve the situation.

Archaeologists from Israel say they have have stumbled onto a Neolithic murder mystery after two bodies were found dumped in a well dating back 8,500 years.

Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority unearthed the ancient well in the Jezreel Valley, south-west of Nazareth, after it was discovered by road maintenance workers.

But they have no idea how the skeletal remains of a 19-year-old girl and an older man came to be dumped deep down the 26ft well, and suggest that it may be a case of murder

'What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well it was no longer used,' said Yotam Tepper, the archaeologist in charge of the dig.

Early on the morning of January 25 at least seven vans and trucks (reports say up to 14) rolled through Colonia Francisco Villa, the neighborhood just outside the gates of Potrero Chico, a popular winter rock-climbing destination in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The vehicles stopped at a bar called La Carreta, an establishment that borders several climbers’ campgrounds. La Carreta is familiar to many climbers who, like me, have been rendered sleepless by the double bass, accordion and pig squeals of performing Norteño bands. That night, armed assailants got out and proceeded to kidnap members of the Vallenato band Kombo Kolombia. According to a report provided by a member of the band who managed to escape, the musicians were driven around the area for several hours and tortured. Eventually, each was shot in the head. The bodies (at least 12) were thrown in a well near Mina, a small pueblo a few minutes (6 miles) away from the Potrero, and the closest town and access point to the Culo de Gato, a sport-climbing cave.

Tactics employed by the cartels have expressly targeted innocent victims completely unconnected to the cartels. The 2011 massacre near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, provides a striking example. According to an interview with a Zeta cartel member published in the Houston Chronicle and another interview with a survivor first published in El Informador, a Mexican newspaper, several public buses were hijacked by cartel members and driven to an isolated ranch called La Joya. The male passengers were given bats, clubs and hammers and told to fight to the death with other victims. The winners of these gladiator-style duels were recruited as killers for the Zetas. The female passengers were removed to a room, raped and beaten, their children taken and tortured. According to the survivor, one bus driver was forced to drive over the elderly and was then executed. Most of the 193 victims (including one U.S. citizen) found in the 47 mass graves had features of "blunt force trauma" consistent with the testimony of the two men.

The 72 immigrants were traveling through Tamaulipas to the United States when a convoy of Los Zetas surrounded their vehicles and cut them off the road.[48] Then, they were forced to get out of their vehicles, and the gunmen warned them that they were members of Los Zetas. They were taken to warehouse inside a ranch, where one by one, the 72 immigrants were put on their knees and placed against a wall. They were told to remain with their knees on the ground, and then they were shot, one by one, in the back of the head.[48] There was one survivor—an Ecuadorian—who was shot in the neck and faked his death till the perpetrators left the area.[49] He then traveled more than 22 kilometers until he reached a military checkpoint where he asked the Mexican marines for help, and notified them of the area where the massacre had occurred.[50] The man was placed under the protection of federal authorities.[51]