Drug trade's gore emerges online

Graphic images raise concerns over their effects
By Lourdes Medrano
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Mexico's drug-trafficking world, long extolled in narcocorridos that pay musical tribute to the carnage, is spilling onto the Internet.

As a wave of drug-related violence grips the country, real-life images of bloody bodies, bullet-riddled cars and stockpiles of cocaine and assault rifles increasingly make their way to Mexican Web sites and YouTube, which is seen by millions around the globe.

"It's an old war with a new twist," said Alejandro Páez Varela, an editor at Día Siete magazine in Mexico City who has documented the drug cartels' violence and growing online presence. "It's something truly grotesque."

Some of the YouTube postings mirror the execution-style killings, kidnappings and shoot-outs that have shaken northern Mexico and other states in what Mexican authorities say is a turf battle between drug-trafficking organizations.