The Root of All Evil

It began, in one way at least, on a Saturday in early 2011, outside of a bodega called El Tal Iván in Iztapalapa, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Mexico City and a recent nexus for violent crime.

According to an account in the newspaper La Jornada, six young people had gathered there late at night when a passing car fired 25 9-mm. bullets at them. Five were killed immediately. The sole survivor, a pregnant woman in her early 20s, was rushed to a public hospital with a punctured lung. She was in danger of bleeding to death.