Mexican Drug Cartels Battle It Out on YouTube

Reuters and The Register report that a bloody war between rival Mexican drug gangs has spilled onto YouTube where two competing cartels “taunt each other with blood-soaked slideshows and films of their murder victims.”

Reuters notes that on YouTube “one popular video shows a man being shot in the head” while a “stomach-churning series of photos shows another execution victim, his missing face a mangled mess of flesh”.

According to the news agency, in one YouTube post, a user “offers about $4,500 to anyone who can show proof of having killed members of The Zetas, ‘via photo, video or presenting the body’.”

Much of the material makes reference to a popular narco corrido ballad called “To My Enemies”; sung by Valentin Elizalde and “widely seen as a musical attack on The Zetas”. Elizade was shot dead last year after “reportedly performing the song at a concert in Gulf Cartel territory”.