International Outcry Over Facebook Beheading Video: Who was Mexico's Jane Doe? Will Grant - BBC
go to original November 4, 2013

Graves in a cemetery in Juarez neighbourhood where many of the deceased are victims of violent crime Graves in a poor Juarez neighborhood, which has been affected by drugs-related violence. (Getty Images)

MEXICO CITY - A film of a woman being beheaded in Mexico caused an international outcry in October when Facebook refused to remove it from its site. There have been hundreds of reports about the video - but why has no one identified the victim in it?

In the grainy footage, the woman is on her knees in jeans and a pink top, before a masked man holding a knife behind her says in a gruff voice: "Well, gentleman, this is what happens to all those in the Gulf Cartel. On behalf of Los Zetas."

The rest of the video is a gruesome 40 seconds of cold-blooded murder, which caused international controversy recently when it was posted on Facebook.

"Irresponsible" was the word used by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, about the social network's policy permitting the video to be uploaded. After a day or so of impassioned debate on both sides, Facebook reversed its decision and took the video down.

Needless to say, it is still easy enough to find online, especially in Mexico. There are numerous websites dedicated to uploading videos of "narco-killings" or executions similar to the Facebook example.

Yet despite the fact the victim is clearly identifiable and that presumably someone somewhere in Mexico must recognise her - as their wife, daughter or sister - no one has come forward to name her. As far as the BBC has been able to ascertain, there is no investigation under way in Mexico to establish the woman's identity, or find the culprits of her murder.

Read the rest at BBC

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