With all due respect I don't think you know anything about cartels, they spare no one, their sadistic approach serves as a warning to others, they don't care how you act, how loudly you scream or what you promise them to spare your life, these guys don't do it as a hobby, they receive orders and they carry them out without any delays or improvisation because, if they don't, the same (or, usually worse) will be done to them and their loves ones. They also kill people with such barbarism to make others believe that their terrible death and the subsequent mutilation was done because they were "involved" and thus deserved their fate. It's quite smart, really, since in a lot of places in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, even Chile and Venezuela, Crtels are often the law, the police, the Fire engine, the bank amd even the hospital, everything is rn by them wherever they dig in, keeping people in line is easier when they don't hate you but still fear you.