Whack-jobs

What does the artistic and creative hit man do for an encore? Michael Marizco reviews Mexican gangland’s greatest hits (The News 2-Sep-08 ):

Everybody´s jumping onboard with the head chopping.

In Culiacán, the headless corpse was found with a message to Arturo Beltrán Leyva to get out of town. Then 12 more materialized in Yucatán.

The Get Shorty coalition of Beltrán, Carrillo and Zetas then did three in a posh Nogales, Sonora, neighborhood, Colonia Rodeo. From my understanding, the second body was found near the police chief´s home and the first thing to come to everybody´s mind was whether his neck was still intact.

Clearly, someone is taking no small measure of pride in the cleanliness of the beheadings. These are no rusty bow saw jobs, but rather, exceptionally clean slicings, probably with a power saw.

The Yucatán job was so well done there was barely any neck left above the shoulders.

It´s all very impressive, dramatic and depraved, an intimidation campaign designed to shock and awe the enemy.

Beheading one´s enemy is as old as the idea of the state. It´s been the chosen form of capital punishment for thousands of years all over the globe . Chinese, Japanese, British, Arabs, and now Mexico´s cartels are wanting to enter the annals of decapitation.

But have they gone too far?

I am not talking about going too far into the depths of their barbarism.