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Five reasons why David Hartley's disappearance on Falcon Lake is not a big story in Mexico

The story of David Hartley, who was allegedly shot by Mexican drug traffickers Sept. 30 while jet-skiing on a lake that straddles Texas and Mexico, has received continuous coverage in American news.

One of 28,000 deaths

Edgar Montelongo/Reuters
A student lights a candle during a protest against violence and in memory of slain university student Lucila Quintanilla at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon in Monterrey on Oct. 15. Once an oasis of calm, Mexico's richest city has become a central battleground in the country's increasingly bloody drug war as cartels open fire on city streets and throw grenades onto busy highways.

  • By Sara Miller Llana Staff writer

While the incident on Falcon Lake has appalled American society, in Mexico it is sadly just one of more than 28,000 drug-related deaths reported since Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006 and dispatched federal authorities and the military to clamp down on organized crime.

Even after the lead Mexican investigator on the case was beheaded last week, the incident was not headline news in Mexico. “People tune it out,” says Thomas Legler, an international relations professor at Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. “[Mexicans] have become desensitized to the ongoing violence.”

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