2012 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 3rd prize

Drug Cartel's War

Photographer

Pedro Pardo

Agence France-Presse

08 January, 2011

A forensic scientist inspects the scene where six corpses were found inside a taxi in Acapulco, on 8 January—a day on which 25 different bodies, 15 of them decapitated, were found around the city.

About the photographer

Pedro Pardo

Pedro Pardo was born in Puebla in 1974, and studied graphic design at the Insituto de Artes Visuales in Puebla. He did a number of courses in photography and journalism, inclu...

Background story

Acapulco, Mexico

A forensic scientist inspects the scene where six corpses were found inside a taxi in Acapulco, on 8 January—a day on which 25 different bodies, 15 of them decapitated, were found around the city. Acapulco, the Mexican seaside resort much favored by the 1960s jetset, has become a battleground in the wars between drug cartels that are afflicting the country. Nightclubs are closing, and tourists staying away, as the violence escalates.

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