Maybe they’re trying it again now - the narco-corruptocracy and all their decapitated victims - worshipping money and Santa Muerta.
With apologies to my Mexican-American grandson, the recent reemergence of a practice of cutting off heads does seem to be a practice limited to Mexico.
The narcos—or at least everyone supposes it is the narcos—have a habit of leaving piles of multiple severed heads in Mexico.
And some are buried or hidden so they aren’t necessarily trying to leave a message to the Mexican authorities. It could easily be a return to the old practice of sacrificing your captured enemies as part of a ritual.
Don’t forget the American college kids that were kidnapped in Matamoros on Spring Break and ritually sacrificed by a narco chief some years ago. That was documented as a bizarre religious cult sacrifice.