Yet at the same time, for many Mexicans, life goes on in apparent normality with

no tank battles or aerial bombardments. This is what separates the conflict from a
civil war, even though the death toll is comparable. The pattern of killing is
perhaps most similar to that of the death squads of a dictatorship. And in Colinas
de Santa Fe, children could play obliviously while at their doorstep was a mass
grave akin to those left by the Islamic State.