Four students kidnapped from school and brutally executed in Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca, Morelos - Four young students, 13, 17, 20 and 21, were taken by force from schools which they attended in this "City of Eternal Spring" about an hour south of Mexican City on Monday afternoon (Mar. 5). The 13 year old was a high school student, and the older three all attended technical schools.

Yesterday (Mar. 8) the boys' dismembered remains were found in black plastic bags which had been tossed on a city street. A narcomensaje (executioner's warning) left with the remains threatened two other boys who live in the same neighborhood as the victims did.

The brutal murders were unquestionably the work of organized crime. Although families of the four victims denied that they had been involved in narcotics trafficking, neighbors told authorities that the boys were frequently on motorbikes, coming and going at all hours. Police say that kids of this age often work for drug cartels as messengers, or as halcones ("hawks"), spying and reporting on police and military movements in the area. Witnesses with the victims when they were seized reported that they were approached by a group of heavily armed men. Other boys managed to quickly flee the scene and escaped capture.

A tech school attended by two of the murdered boys closed for the week, partially out of respect for the victims but primarily from terror generated in the community, according to press sources. The first of the victims was buried today.

More on halcones: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/02/southern-zetas-operate-in-cancuns-hotel.html.
Boy, 13, brutally executed in Monterrey: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/02/boy-13-brutally-executed-in-monterrey.html.
Sicarios execute policeman and four year old daughter: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/11/drug-hit-men-execute-policeman-and-his.html
Sicarios execute policeman and 15 year old son: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/12/two-executed-in-cancun-and-killers-left.html.