“If they don’t put an end to this, it could become more frightening here,” said Christian Falbi, a 24-year-old college student who lives in an apartment building within walking distance of the mall.
In October, the Mano con Ojos gang claimed responsibility for leaving two severed heads on a street across from the nation’s top military base in Mexico City.
The gang was once part of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, and authorities say it has killed dozens while trying to forcefully recruit local drug dealers to its ranks.
Nationwide, 47,515 drug-related killings occurred from December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of troops to drug hot spots, through September 2011, the Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.
Drug-related killings rose 11 percent in the first nine months of 2011, when 12,903 people were killed, compared to 11,583 in the same period of 2010, the office said.
The figures indicate that three-quarters of all homicides in Mexico are now linked to the drug war.
