Mexico: 35 bodies in Veracruz, in presumed drug cartel mass killing

Police and members of a forensic team stand around bodies on a motorway in Boca del Rio, on the outskirts of Veracruz September 20, 2011. The bodies of 35 people with suspected links to organized crime were found in two abandoned trucks on a highway underpass in the eastern Mexican city of Veracruz on Tuesday, the local prosecutor said. (REUTERS/Stringer)

@BlogsOfWar put it best tonight: "The violence in Mexico rivals or exceeds that seen in of most of the global hotspots we're obsessed with."

Read more: Blog del Narco (Spanish), Associated Press (English).

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Mexico drops charges in Veracruz “Twitter Terorrism” case

One day after three dozen bodies were found dumped on a busy Veracruz street, authorities in the same Mexican state released a man and a woman and dropped terrorism charges that they faced for tweeting rumors about nonexistent drug cartel attacks.

Good news for the accused, but bad news came today for future users of social media in Mexico:

Criticism of the terrorism case led the Veracruz state legislature to pass a law Tuesday creating the charge of disturbing the peace to cover the situation purportedly created by the pair. But state Interior Secretary Gerardo Buganza told Milenio Television on Wednesday that Gilberto Martinez and Maria de Jesus Bravo would not have to face the new charge.

Defense lawyer Claribel Guevara welcomed their release and praised the support they received from free speech advocates and others.

"Far from scaring people (to stay away from tweeting), it has shown there is great unity among users of social networks," Guevara said. "We all won because this is a victory for freedom of expression."

More in Spanish at El Universal and at CNN en Español.

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