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.
