Скачать или смотреть Mexican tourist city holds Holy Week procession hours after brutal mob killing

(29 Mar 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4485838

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taxco, Mexico - 28 March 2024
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Close of penitent wearing rosary
2. Various of penitent walking with bundle of thorns on his shoulders
3. Penitents, worshippers and tourists during procession
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Felipa Lagunas, elementary school teacher:
"No, I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching. I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization. I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day."
5. Various of effigy of Christ on an altar during procession
STORYLINE:
The Good Friday Eve religious procession, which dates back centuries in the old Mexican silver-mining town of Taxco, went off as planned Thursday night despite the mob killing of a woman earlier in the day.

The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday.

The mob surrounded the woman's house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Police took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck, but then stood by — apparently intimidated by the crowd — as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and down onto the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless.

Despite the outburst of violence, people later crowded Taxco's colonial streets to watch hooded men walking while whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns across their bare shoulders in penitence to emulate the suffering of Jesus Christ carrying the cross.

However, the events earlier in the day cast a pall over the already solemn procession, which draws thousands to the small town.

Many participants wore small white ribbons of mourning.

"I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching," said Felipa Lagunas, a local elementary school teacher. "I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization ... I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day."

Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence.

In late January, Taxco endured a days-long strike by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs fighting for control of the area.

Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Local media said their bodies showed signs of torture.


AP Video by Fernanda Pesce

===========================================================

Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: [email protected].

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...