MEXICO UNDER FIRE AND TEARS! CHRONICLE OF AN APOCALYPTIC WEEKEND: BETWEEN ROAD HELL, THE VANITY OF THE “LIKE,” AND THE MONSTERS THAT LURK IN THE NIGHT
SUBTITLE: Death showed no mercy and unleashed its fury this weekend. A brutal bus crash that incinerated dozens of dreams, innocent children swallowed by the earth and violence, and inexplicable phenomena mark 72 hours of pure terror. While the country mourns and the “National Grief” brings us to our knees, others prefer the circus of social media, oblivious to the pain that is bleeding the nation dry. Come in, come in, and find out about the horror that is shaking the nation.
BY: “EL CHALE” RODRÍGUEZ / THE VOICE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD / RED ALERT MEXICO
MEXICO CITY, A TRAGIC HANGOVER MONDAY. — If you, dear reader, thought you’d seen it all in this vale of tears, hold on tight and sit down, because this weekend the Devil decided to change his zip code and come live in Mexico and its surrounding areas. We woke up this Monday with our souls hanging by a thread and our hearts crushed, with a moral hangover that can’t be cured with some spicy chilaquiles. The general feeling is one of profound “NATIONAL SADNESS ,” as if a dark cloud had settled over our heads. And it’s no wonder, my friends, because what we just experienced seems like something out of the twisted mind of a gore film screenwriter, but unfortunately, it’s the pure and simple reality that hits us in the face without warning.
HELL HAS A ZIP CODE: THE HIGHWAY OF DEATH
It all began with the roar of the beast on the asphalt. What promised to be a peaceful weekend for many families ended up becoming a branch of hell itself. The highways, those open veins through which life and death flow, were stained red.
The images we’re seeing are horrific, the kind that haunt your dreams and make you cross yourself even if you’re not religious. Recklessness and speed took their toll. We witnessed a true tragedy when a dump truck, an unstoppable steel behemoth, crushed a compact car like a soda can, leaving a young couple and their dreams reduced to twisted metal and a virtual black ribbon flooding social media. Elsewhere, a Rosario Bus, one of those that transports the working class, was involved in a horrific accident, leaving bodies lying on the ground that had to be covered with silver thermal blankets while emergency services were overwhelmed.
But the traffic chaos didn’t stop there. The stress and madness of Mexico City erupted in a traffic altercation that ended with a luxury SUV overturned in a ditch; people’s patience runs out, tempers flare, and boom!, disaster strikes. And if it’s not violence, it’s cruel fate: a wrecked white car on the side of the road, with a body covered by a blue sheet and yellow “no entry” tape marking the end of the road for someone. Bodies lying on the shoulder, under the scorching sun, while onlookers watch helplessly, became the defining image of the weekend.
NATURE ROARS, THE SKY FALLS, AND MYSTERIES APPEAR
As if fire and metal weren’t punishment enough, Mother Nature also reclaimed her due, showing us just how small we are. Satellite maps don’t lie, showing a monster in the form of a hurricane approaching with fury, threatening to wipe out what little remains standing on the coasts. And where it isn’t the wind, it’s the water. Biblical floods ravaged entire regions, leaving houses submerged up to their roofs, with whole families clinging to rooftops or being rescued in makeshift boats while their cars floated like toys in a toxic soup.
The sky also brought misfortune and fear. A commercial airliner was caught on camera landing precariously near a gigantic plume of black smoke billowing from a building—a scene straight out of a disaster movie. And for conspiracy theorists and military power enthusiasts, a state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jet, worth more than entire colonies, ended up in pieces on a runway, its pilot miraculously alive and sitting on the ground, surveying the multimillion-dollar wreckage.
And amidst all this chaos, medical enigmas that send shivers down your spine. What’s happening in the world? A young woman shared images of her skin covered in strange and terrifying growths, a mysterious condition that challenges doctors and reminds us that the human body is fragile and unpredictable.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: VANITY, CRIME, AND THE INDIFFERENCE THAT KILLS
This is where things really get under your skin, folks. Because while our country is falling apart, while mourning envelops thousands of homes, the circus of vanity, organized crime, and frivolity continues its show at full volume.
Violence is rampant. We saw guys like “Junior 30” posing in tactical vests, ready for war in the streets. In Honduras, the police presented detainees with high-caliber weapons, while in the same image, a covered body and a woman in mourning are shown—the endless cycle of Central American violence that also affects us. The earth continues to spit out dead bodies; police and forensic experts were caught digging in vacant lots, searching for the remains of those who “disappeared,” under the sorrowful gaze of family members or public figures like Gugu Liberato (RIP) in online montages. Missing person posters, like that of Emiliano Ignacio, plaster lampposts and social media, the faces of people who went out to work and never returned.
But the most outrageous thing, the unspeakable thing, are the crimes against the innocent. The case of little Kimberly broke our hearts: her small body was found with signs of violence, an atrocity that would bring tears to even the toughest of hearts. Young lives cut short, like that of the boy with the mohawk or the beautiful girls who now only live on in photos with black ribbons, victims of this relentless wave of death.
And while all this is happening… the stark contrast that slaps us in the face. While search teams dig through the earth and grandmothers weep in rural areas, the “influencers” carry on as usual. One girl taking a selfie in the bathroom mirror, covering her face but showing off her cleavage, just before the police raid her apartment. Vanity or cynicism? Another woman being arrested by a police squad, but without losing her style in her denim shorts.
And to top off this absurd spectacle, while the world burns with political tensions between Maduro, Trump, and the screaming woman, people on social media are more concerned with seeing Hilary Duff’s backside in different pants, or sharing bizarre memes of a nun who turns out to be a cardinal—who knows what kind of heresy that is! Even Michael Jackson himself has resurfaced in the gossip, with photos of him in his coffin reappearing to feed the morbid curiosity. And let’s not forget those weird anime-style couple warnings about who goes on top, which, in this context of gender violence, are no longer funny.
THE END OF THE DAY: BETWEEN OPERATING ROOMS AND PRAYERS
The weekend ends with a metallic taste of blood and tears. The hospitals are like war zones. We see doctors fighting to save lives in operating rooms, intubated patients, injured people on the sidewalks being treated by firefighters, and X-rays of legs shattered with screws and metal rods that are painful to look at.
Mexico is wounded, my people. It’s bleeding. Between car accidents, the fury of nature, the violence of thugs, and the indifference of a society that sometimes prefers a “like” to demanding justice. We see the wakes in the neighborhoods, people gathered at night under the yellow light of a streetlamp, saying goodbye to a friend who left us too soon.
Light a candle, hug your loved ones, and if you go out, cross yourself twice. Because in our Mexico, life is worthless and death roams free, sometimes in a dump truck, sometimes with a police badge, and sometimes simply in the bad luck of an ordinary Monday. May God have mercy on us all! We’ll keep you updated… if reality allows.