The clandestine online activist network Anonymous [2] has released an Internet video [3] demanding that Los Zetas [4], Mexico's bloodiest drug cartel, release one of its members who was kidnapped from a street protest in Veracruz [5]. The Anonymous spokesman—in tie, jacket and Guy Fawkes mask [6]—says if the Zetas don't release their comrade, it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates. Speaking in Spanish with fluent use of Mexican slang, the masked spokesman says: "You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him." Otherwise it threatens to reveal the Zetas' "cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession. It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located."
The Anonymous member was apparently abducted Oct. 6 during a Veracruz protest campaign against the narco-violence, dubbed "Operación Tormenta de Papel" (Operation Paper Storm). The statement claims that Anonymous has the identities of Zeta operatives in law enforcement, media and taxi drivers in several cities across Mexico. It also threatens to expose the 500 users of the Lolita City child pornography [7] site. (Animal Politico [8], Oct. 29; Houston Chronicle [9], Terra.com [10], Oct. 29)
See our last posts on Mexico [11], the narco wars [12], and the politics of cyberspace [13].
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