Heads on Parade

Big, tough Mexico far surpasses all other Latin-American States in the pursuit of Crime. Ever since the Spanish Conquest, notably tough individuals variously known as "rebels," "bandits" or "leaders" have led private armies against the forces of law & order. They always have a base village where they are beloved. They live off the land, sack isolated villages for food and women. Today they concentrate in the central and western States surrounding Mexico City. Through Puebla and Morelos roams El Tallarin, one of the most famed of living bandits. Jalisco belongs to Lauro Rocha. In Durango operates Francisco Vasquez. In Guanajuato until last week the small bands of Fermin Sandoval and Camilo Ramirez Argot ("The Rabbit")* had occupied themselves attacking busses, robbing, raping and killing passengers, attacking unprotected school teachers and agrarian communities and generally spreading the pious word of the "Cristeros."

Most Mexican Governments do not try too hard to wipe out these guerrillas. Some of them, like Mexico's onetime Provisional President Victoriano Huerta, the late "Pancho" Villa and San Luis Potosi State's present Boss Saturnino Cedillo, eventually become genuine leaders, generals and political powers. Cedillo's standing army of 7,000 is let strictly alone by Mexico's President Lazaro Cardenas' regular army of 60,000. In time of civil war the bandits are cajoled by both sides. But last week somebody went too far when 13 passengers of a bus in Jalisco were killed by raiders.

The Mexican army promptly went into concerted action. In Guanajuato State they ambushed Ramirez the Rabbit, killed him and 21 of his men. They decapitated him and' paraded his head on a staff through the villages he had terrorized. In Durango State, Francisco Vasquez, tougher and smarter than the Rabbit, rode into an ambush but escaped alive. He left behind twelve dead and a new machine gun. Three days later troops met Fermin Sandoval in Guanajuato, killed him and three of his men, paraded his head through the nearby villages, to convince incredulous peasants that Sandoval was really dead. None of this solved the bus massacre in Jalisco where Bandit Lauro Rocha is too potent to be seriously bothered.

*So named because of his celerity in dodging across State borders.

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