Among the usual culture shocks foreigners experience in Mexico are lurid newspapers. Crime, generally speaking, is under reported in Mexico.
But if a juicy bloody event occurs, newspapers compete on who can publish the most gore. None of the political correctness of hiding naked women under counters applies to the category of titillating red dripping gore decorating news stands.
The Mexican crime rate is three times higher than the US, and it has been so, since even before the drug related killings began. Violence is pervasive in the country and is possibly a counter weight to the typical usual Mexican sense of courtesy and good manners.
In perspective, Mexicans have been killing each other in enormous numbers, starting with the war of independence in 1810 to the
Cristero Rebellion ending in 1929 and the most current bloodbath at Tlatelolco in 1968.
But Mexicans are a valiant people, a disproportionate number of them in the US forces are now uselessly getting themselves killed in Iraq.
They are also a nasty people who kill contrary opinion journalists. Another one died yesterday.
