Gang Wars in Mexico

A body of a man was found on a back road in the city.

The hands and mouth of the murder victim were taped with duct tape. The killing was most probably drug related. (Photo: Gang Wars in Mexico/Hollandse Hoogte)

With over 2600 people killed in drug related violence, Mexico’s volatile border city of Ciudad Juarez has the world’s highest murder rate. Ciudad Juárez is at war: a war the government is fighting against the drug cartels and a war the drug cartels are fighting against each other.

Cemetery with ostentatious, expensive mausoleums, most probably build by drug traffickers. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Culiacan is the home base of the feared Sinaloa cartel that is involved in a bloody power struggle with the Juarez Cartel. On a quiet village road outside the city, a murder victim is found shot dead in his car. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Couple on a motor bike watching a murder scene. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

The car of a victim was riddled with bullets. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Soldier guarding a murder site. Forensic detectives had put markers at empty bullet casings. A total of 37 shots were fired at the victim in his car. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Seafood restaurant in the center of town. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

One sad and gruesome crime is the diassappearance of dozens of young women. Some were never discovered, othere were found dead raped and murdered. In one location, two bodies of dead women were found. Pink crosses are a memorial to the female victim. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

While on a patrol in a poor area of Juarez, people alert the police that a neighbor has severely beaten up his wife. Eventually, the man is found and arrested. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Soldier takes a photo with his phone at a crime scene. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

A teenager was shot in his car. Most probably, it was a narco related murder like most of the 2600 people that were killed in Juarez during the year 2009. The girlfriend of the victim is comforted by other friends. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Army on a night patrol in the red light district. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Murder scene, most probably a drug related execution.Relatives comfort each other. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

At the scene of a murder, most probably a drug related killing, bystanders watch authorities secure and investigate the crime site. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

In a march for peace, school children and students protest against the violence. They chant slogans, light candles and release white balloons for peace. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Downtown Juarez. Prostitute in the red light district, a seedy area of town that is mostly deserted at weekend night due to security concerns of potential visitors. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

A bullet riddled body of a man with signs of torture was found hanging on a rope from an overpass just outside the city. Often, criminal gangs have a penchant for displaying their cruelty to scare of competing gangs. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)

Chapel of Jesus Malverde, a bandit with Robin Hood status who was killed in 1909 by Mexican authorities. Malverde now is patron saint of the poor and the criminals, especially narco traffickers. There are two chapels fro Malverde in Mexico: One big in Culiacan and this small one on the way leading into the Sierra Madre, near the narco town of Tamazul. (Photo: Teun Voeten/Hollandse Hoogte)