Gangsters decapitate Mexican blogger

Mexican tweeters and bloggers were shaken anew on Wednesday when a decapitated body appeared by a statue next to a message that the victim was killed because of what he wrote on the Internet.

Police found the corpse in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the border with Texas where the ultra violent Zetas cartel fight rivals over the lucrative drug trade.

The hand-written message said the victim was known by the blog name “Rascatripas” and had exposed information on a website that deals with security issues in Nuevo Laredo.

It is the fourth victim in Nuevo Laredo who has been killed in apparent reaction to writing on the Internet. In September, a man and a woman were hanged from a nearby bridge, while another woman was decapitated.

It is unclear how the gangsters identify the bloggers from the names they use to write on the Internet.

The drug cartels have widespread networks of informants who could have exposed the writers. Some analysts have also speculated that the cartels have technology to track the addresses.

In Nuevo Laredo and other parts of Mexico, many rely on blogs and social media for news as mainstream newspapers are often too scared to publish reports on organized crime.

Last week, the fight between Internet users and cartels gained international attention with the story of a supposed showdown between the Zetas and the hacker group Anonymous.

Videos that were put in the name of Anonymous alleged that one of their members had been kidnapped by Zetas and said they would retaliate by releasing names of officials on the Zeta payroll.

Later videos alleged that the member had been released and said Anonymous would back down on its threat.

However, there is no solid evidence that the kidnapping ever took place or that the videos were really the work of seasoned Anonymous activists.