In Taxco, Mexico, a group of people who thought she had kidnapped and killed a young girl beat her to death Thursday, just hours before the city's famous Holy Week parade, according to the Associated Press. On the night before Good Friday, men in Taxco's colonial streets wear hats and either whip themselves or carry heavy bags of thorns as a way to show they are sorry.
That and other processions during Holy Week have been going on for hundreds of years in the old silver-mining town. The crowd came together after an 8-year-old girl went missing on Wednesday. They found her body early Thursday morning on a road on the edge of town. Security camera video seemed to show a woman and a man putting the girl's body or possibly her body in a bag into a car.
The crowd gathered around the woman's house on Thursday and said they would drag her out. The police put the woman in the bed of a police pickup truck, but they then stood by and let the mob drag her out of the truck and onto the street, where they beat, stomped on, and kicked her until she was partially naked and unmoving. The police then picked her up and took her away, leaving blood on the ground. Later, the office of the state prosecutor in Guerrero reported that the woman had died from her injuries.
Mario Figueroa, the mayor of Taxco, said he agreed with the people who were angry about the killing. As a result of the beatings, Figueroa said that the cops had taken away three people: the woman and two men. The video from the scene made it look like they were also beaten, but the AP only saw the woman get hit. There were two guys in the hospital, according to the office of the state prosecutor.
People who live there said they have had enough, even though the violence could make tourists less likely to come. "We know that this will hurt the town's Holy Week business and make things harder for everyone." Some people who were in the crowd say, "A lot of people will no longer want to come." "We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us."
That and other processions during Holy Week have been going on for hundreds of years in the old silver-mining town. The crowd came together after an 8-year-old girl went missing on Wednesday. They found her body early Thursday morning on a road on the edge of town. Security camera video seemed to show a woman and a man putting the girl's body or possibly her body in a bag into a car.
The crowd gathered around the woman's house on Thursday and said they would drag her out. The police put the woman in the bed of a police pickup truck, but they then stood by and let the mob drag her out of the truck and onto the street, where they beat, stomped on, and kicked her until she was partially naked and unmoving. The police then picked her up and took her away, leaving blood on the ground. Later, the office of the state prosecutor in Guerrero reported that the woman had died from her injuries.
Mario Figueroa, the mayor of Taxco, said he agreed with the people who were angry about the killing. As a result of the beatings, Figueroa said that the cops had taken away three people: the woman and two men. The video from the scene made it look like they were also beaten, but the AP only saw the woman get hit. There were two guys in the hospital, according to the office of the state prosecutor.
People who live there said they have had enough, even though the violence could make tourists less likely to come. "We know that this will hurt the town's Holy Week business and make things harder for everyone." Some people who were in the crowd say, "A lot of people will no longer want to come." "We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us."
