JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) – The border states of Chihuahua and Baja California are high up List of places in Mexico where most of the “atrocities” take place.

The Mexico City nonprofit Causa en Comun (Common Cause), which produces the list, defines an atrocity as, among other things, torture, dismemberment, burning, mass shootings or the use of extreme nonlethal force against a woman.

Chihuahua recorded 442 such crimes in the first nine months of 2023, followed by Guanajuato with 434 and Baja with 413. Guanajuato, where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang are trying to exterminate each other, had more victims and, however, almost twice as many mass shootings as in both border states.

Among the most cruel acts of violence are: Beheading of seven people in Guerrero in June and the kidnapping of five young men in Jalisco – one of whom can be seen in a video forced to kill one of his friends. There was a prison escape in Chihuahua on New Year’s Day 10 guards and seven inmates dead.

“This report brings together stories that collectively paint a picture of the cruelty and pain behind crime statistics. “It also shows that, far from the official myth about organized crime, a large proportion of these atrocities are committed by people who are not affiliated with criminal organizations,” Common Cause said in its report summary.

Mexican authorities at the highest levels blame drug gangs for the violence in their country. “While there is criminal violence, there is also gender-based violence, family violence and group violence,” the group said.

In Juarez’s working-class neighborhoods known as colonias, cartels and their gangs have in recent years aggressively pushed drugs on residents and killed each other to exploit this new market. A new round of body parts have been found in garbage bags, bodies wrapped in blankets lie in the street and a woman was burned at a secret dump last week.

“Those of us who have lived in Juárez all our lives are used to seeing murders in public, the disappearances of young women – which in the past caused outrage and led people to put pressure on the authorities – “We now see it as normal,” said Oscar Maynez, a former Chihuahua state criminologist.

He said this “numbing” effect allows criminals to go about their business with impunity and gives authorities leeway to ignore public safety issues in certain neighborhoods.

Maria Pilar Deziga, an investigator with Common Cause, said opinion polls show three out of five Mexicans never report crimes. She said that’s because they fear retaliation from criminals and “hostile” treatment from police if they try to file a report.

She said it’s beneficial for most politicians that not all crimes are reported so they can say, “Things aren’t that bad.”