A drug cartel handed over some sacrificial lambs and apology for recent events in Matamoras. I'm not surprised. The whole thing was bad for everyone's business. It was not good public relations for them.

"CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A letter claiming to be from the Mexican drug cartel blamed for abducting four Americans and killing two of them condemned the violence and said the gang turned over to authorities its own members who were responsible.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement source, the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel apologized to the residents of Matamoros where the Americans were kidnapped, the Mexican woman who died in the cartel shootout, and the four Americans and their families.

“We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” the letter reads, adding that those individuals had gone against the cartel’s rules, which include “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”

Drug cartels have been known to issue communiques to intimidate rivals and authorities, but also at times like these to do some public relations work to try to smooth over situations that could affect their business. And last Friday’s violence in Matamoros was bad for cartel business."
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexican-gang-said-apologize-over-163418119.html

"The more things change the more they stay the same." I've been reading some Oregon history lately. In many ways the only things that changed were the names. Even before Oregon was a state the Republicans were recognizable Republicans the Democrats were recognizable too. Talk of succession from the territory began before Oregon was a state. Only back then it was southern Oregon territory wanting to join northern California territory. They all wanted to take the Indian's land, but the people in southern Oregon tended to favor quicker and more violent methods. In the northern part of the state they were more likely to find the Indians useful as a source of cheap labor.

The Indians sometimes handed over sacrificial lambs too. Sometimes it was the actual guilty party. People sometimes volunteered for the good of the tribe. They had a fine sense of justice back then. Indians couldn't testify because they weren't citizens. They would still make those poor slobs go through a trial when everyone knew they were going to be hung.

TB