Mexico Under Siege

STAGED PHOTOS OF DRUG LORD'S BODY STIR CONTROVERSY

The dead drug lord lay on his back, blood-soaked jeans yanked down to
the knees. Mexican peso notes carpeted his bullet-torn body, and U.S.
$100 bills formed neat rows next to his bared belly.

The gory photograph of Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of Mexico's most
wanted kingpins, was among those widely published here during the
last few days following his death in a shootout Wednesday with
Mexican marines in Cuernavaca, capital of the central state of Morelos.

Even in a country where pictures of gruesome crime scenes routinely
show up on the front pages of newspapers, the Beltran Leyva images
have stirred controversy over who staged the tableau and whether
Mexican authorities did so to send a taunting message to the rest of
his powerful drug trafficking gang.

Several commentators said the photos, some of which showed religious
jewelry laid across Beltran Leyva's stomach, were evidence that the
government had adopted the macabre public-relations methods used by
hit men. Gang members often line their victims' bodies along the
roadside or hang them from bridges, leaving menacing, handwritten
messages to scare foes.

The federal government, locked in a violent 3-year-old crackdown on
drug cartels, has denied any responsibility for the photographs,
calling the images "pernicious" and "reprehensible."

"The Mexican government fulfills its duty to halt organized-crime
activity, but it does not get into personal humiliation," Interior
Minister Fernando Gomez Mont said in a television interview.

But that has not laid the doubts to rest.

"Photographs of a corpse: law or vengeance?" the Excelsior newspaper
asked in a headline over the weekend.

"The humiliated corpse, with its pants lowered, covered with bloody
bills in one photo and religious objects in another, showed the
typical modus operandi of narco-traffickers," security analyst Jorge
Chabat wrote Monday in El Universal newspaper, which earlier ran a
version of the photograph on its front page. "The only thing missing
was a sign saying 'so that you learn to respect' to confirm the
unmistakable stamp of an act of narco revenge.

"The problem is much deeper: It has to do with the absolute lack of
democratic culture and respect for human rights in our country."

Among the main questions was who took the time to cover Beltran Leyva
from neck to knees with blood-smeared bills, apparently to publicize
the scene. Most of the bills appeared to be 500-peso notes, which are
worth about $39 each. Another image, taken without the bills, showed
Beltran Leyva's face disfigured by bullets.

Beltran Leyva, who called himself the "boss of bosses" and headed a
family-run gang based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, was
killed when marines stormed an upscale apartment complex Wednesday.
Six bodyguards and one commando also died.

Gomez Mont said the marine commandos, who are part of the Mexican
navy, left the crime scene in the hands of coroner specialists from
Morelos. He said federal officials would help state authorities try
to figure out how the photographs were taken and distributed.

Morelos officials said Monday that they had opened an investigation.

El Universal published a series of photographs Sunday showing three
people in civilian clothes, with faces digitally blurred, lifting
Beltran Leyva's body by the arms and belted pants. Pictures showed
gloved hands handling the bloodied bills and then portrayed the body
covered with them.

The case sparked debate among journalists over newsworthiness of the
photographs, which were credited to Mexican newspapers and wire
services. But mainly it had people wondering whether the drug war,
with 15,000 dead in three years, had both sides adhering to the same
vicious rules.

"It is the state forces that adopted the basic language of the
narco," columnist Luis Petersen Farah wrote in the Milenio newspaper.
" 'There's your money,' the photograph seems to say. It's the language of war."