Three bodies, accompanied with messages from criminal groups, were recently found in neighboring Sonora.
Perhaps most spectacularly, one body was found hanging Monday morning from a bridge over the state’s most important interstate just south of Hermosillo, along with a written message reportedly from a criminal organization. Two other bodies, also accompanied by a message, were found in Guaymas, and state authorities said they are investigating the incidents.
Cecilia Farfán-Mendez, an organized crime researcher at the University of California, San Diego, said that such theatrical, violent messages can have many purposes, like creating narratives around violence or threatening rivals.
But in cases like the body hanging from a bridge, Farfán-Méndez, head of security research programs at UCSD’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, said that “the location, obviously, also it’s a message in itself.”
Such a public display can embarrass authorities, she said, making them appear to have little control over the territories they govern.
