Video of narco hitmen caravan in Mexico goes viral

A YouTube video of a motorcade of gunmen on a road in Chihuahua, Mexico is circulating widely on the Spanish-speaking internets.

The men in this video are identified as assassins hired by one organized crime organization, who are preparing to travel to a confrontation with a rival group in the Sierra Tarahumara region.

The clip lasts about two minutes. It appears to have been filmed in November 2014, and was released in early April 2015. The convoy of some 15 or so luxury SUVs and pickup trucks carries up to ten men in each vehicle, wearing tactical body armor, military uniforms, and masks. The men are carrying high-caliber weapons. Some appear to be teenagers.

According to the YouTube description of the video, it was recorded just before a clash in the town of Bocoyna in which at least 7 were killed.

A Mexican government spokesman told news organizations that said several vehicles leaving in the video were burned or abandoned after the resulting narco clashes.

“Animo sicarios!,” (have courage, assassins!) says the man who recorded the scene with a cellphone. The cameraman approaches one of the men in the back of a pickup truck, who then poses for a photo with his machine gun. “Animo, sicarios,” the man with the camera says, several times, as he walks along the convoy line.

Here’s where the video was shot: the red dot on the map.

Spanish-language news coverage: Telemundo, La Opinion, Terra. Looks like Reforma was among the first with the story, they’re paid access only.

As journalist Shannon Young in Mexico tweets, this video shows clearly how the cartels can easily take over entire towns in this region: they have all the muscle they need. But the video reveals more than the violent enforcement power associated with drug trafficking. It also helps us understand more about the cartels’ role in mining operations controlled by American and Canadian multinational corporations, and the theft of native lands for mineral and petroleum resources.