Vigilantes chop off the hands of six alleged criminals in western Mexico
Six of the seven victims were still alive when the police found them.
Six alleged criminals were found alive with their hands chopped off after an apparent vigilante attack in the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city, on Monday afternoon.
Authorities in the western state of Jalisco confirmed that five men men in their 30’s and a 44-year-old woman were being treated for amputations in local hospitals after they were discovered at about 6pm in Guadalajara’s Tlaquepaque district. The woman’s partner, a 39-year-old male, was found dead at the scene.
Graphic images circulating on social media showed several bloodied men with their hands hacked off at the wrists. Some had the words “I’m a rat” tattooed on their foreheads. Their severed hands were dumped in two plastic bags that lay beside them.
A handwritten banner left at the crime scene accused the victims of disrespecting women and children, breaking into people’s homes and stealing vehicles, jewelry and cell phones, among other alleged crimes. It was signed by the “Elite anti-rat group”. Thieves and petty criminals are commonly known as rats in Mexico.
A Guadalajara police officer, who asked that his name be withheld because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the case, confirmed the authenticity of the images…
The Tequila Files 