The Latin American Report # 167: a (sad) journey through México

The regional capital of violence

Around $1,200. That's what the life of a journalist—uncomfortable for organized crime—can be worth. Everything indicates that this was the amount paid by David 'N', alias 'El Cabo 20', to the hitmen who snuffed out the soul of Mexican photojournalist Margarito Martínez some two years ago, and who despite being held in the penitentiary system for another crime, has still not been prosecuted for this serious act with which he is charged. That debt was denounced by journalists and Martínez's relatives in Tijuana last Wednesday, who wondered what the Baja California State Attorney General needs to move forward more decisively in this regard. They also demanded results in the identification of the intellectual author of the murder of communicator Lourdes Maldonado exactly one year ago. "Half justice is not justice," read a banner they held.

Disappeared: an unresolved issue

When we commented here on the release—by their captors—of the migrants who were taken hostage at the end of 2023 in the vicinity of the Río Bravo (Río Grande in the United States), we noted that in the same place from which they—fortunately—were able to leave, other less "famous" migrants remained, whose kidnappings did not grab headlines, and so were not denounced in the morning press conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Then, disappearances in México are a phenomenon that also threatens migrants who cross the country seeking to reach the southern U.S. border, especially when many of them do so without documentation that would make them visible to the authorities. Mexican immigration authorities reported on Friday the "rescue" in the coastal state of Veracruz of some 370 migrants—mostly Guatemalans—, of whom more than 300 were abandoned in two buses on a highway detour. The rest were detected while traveling in a cargo truck, a typical means of transport for migrants in economic distress "sponsored" by soul smugglers. There were about 100 children in the group.

_{The migrant and his dreams (source of the image).}

"It is a very alarming situation, and the government does nothing and takes no responsibility for what happens in Mexican territory", the director of a shelter for migrants in western Mexico City told EFE. The woman explained that migrant disappearances in Mexico have become a "serious" situation because there is no way to have a reliable record of the victims. Indeed, the whole migration process in the region is nonsense, especially there in the Aztec nation, with the embarrassing and potentially deadly Río Bravo crossing as the most unhappy example of the anomie of the process. Latin America is drowning between the indifference of the United States and the inoperativeness of its leaders, who have no license "to rescue".

Madres Buscadoras (Searching Mothers) follow the trail of their missing and dead sons

El Choyudo in northwestern México is a place where brave mothers who, faced with the poor response of the authorities, concentrate their efforts right now searching themselves for their missing sons. In a little more than a week, they have found 33 graves with more than 56 bodies, remains, or bones of victims. The leader of the group called "Searching Mothers", said that it is critical to reinforce the search in the desert area of the state of Sonora, because in the furtive burials they have found signs suggesting that people disappeared from all over the country could also be lying there, mercilessly discarded and condemned to oblivion by organized crime. "Tomorrow we are going to resume the searches at the site, we know there are many bodies to be found that come from various parts of Sonora and México", said Cecilia Patricia Flores Armenta, the aforementioned leader, who received an anonymous call alerting her to the site.

_{These women have developed a sad but productive experience following the trail of clandestine burials (source of the image).}

"I call on the families of the victims to join us, all the disappeared are ours, regardless of the (different civil society searching groups), we have to accelerate the searches due to the serious crisis we are going through with hundreds, thousands of missing people", said Flores. The Sonora Prosecutor's Office, to whom these urgent and desperate mothers "advance" the work, confirmed the finding and is working on the processing of the bodies, but has not officially specified the total number of victims. Flores Armenta has two missing sons, one of whom has been missing for more than eight years. The Office in México of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights encouraged "all political actors to assume the commitment to promote a State policy on the disappearance of persons, listening attentively and respectfully to the voice of the victims". This is not a problem of López Obrador's administration, which inherited it from others in which it was even more serious, but how he has managed the criticisms aroused has been controversial.

For example, last Sunday in the also northern state of Nuevo León, members of other collectives protested against the chronic lack of results—from the authorities—in the search for their sons and relatives. "Fear no longer exists for us, it was lost, we lost it or we took it out of our lexicon when we went through this pain as great as the disappearance of a son", denounced the father of Jesús Iván Salazar Lorenzo, who disappeared three years ago. He, who even worked for the Public Prosecutor's Office in the neighboring state of Coahuila, told EFE that his son went out to work in his cab and never returned home. "I ask the president to analyze the information well because maybe he doesn't know that there are more than 120,000 missing people (throughout the country). There are not 12,000 as he is arguing", said Salazar, referring to a polemical census promoted by AMLO that considerably lowered the number of missing people, alluding to the existence of an information campaign against him manipulating the issue. And yes, there is an effort in that sense, from people with power who are not so interested in finding anyone, being more interested in lowering his consistent levels of popularity. But the reality of Jesús Salazar is there and should be above all that, and the lack of results is also a hard truth.

More tragedy in Sonora

Still in Sonora, two inmates died last Wednesday in a prison in Obregón City from overdoses of narcotics, including the potentially deadly fentanyl, while four more were intoxicated but survived. The two dead inmates were serving time for homicide and robbery by violence, respectively, exemplifying the comprehensive anomie experienced by a representative part of Mexican society. Dozens of people related to the inmates tried to force their way into the prison, demanding the administration to identify the victims and to elaborate on what was happening inside, information that was finally provided by the head of the Public Security Department of Sonora. Because of the event, State and federal forces carried out a raid to seize drugs and other contraband. In Cajeme, the municipality where the prison is located, there are up to 60 intentional homicides every month, as part of a fierce struggle between criminal groups for control of bloody routes for trafficking fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.

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Finally, 12 alleged criminals were killed last Saturday by police forces in Hermosillo, the state capital, following a movie-style chase that included a direct armed confrontation, in which two police officers were also wounded, according to information provided by the state Public Prosecutor's Office. The alleged criminals must have shot at investigative police agents, unleashing the pursuit by the latter of "various vehicles manned by armed civilians", who finally decided to attack the police convoy. "As a result of the (...) actions, 12 criminals were neutralized and seven managed to escape, some of whom are presumed to be wounded", the Sonora prosecutor's office said. Preliminary investigations indicated that the attackers were seeking to spectacularly rescue a notorious organized crime leader, who is being held by the authorities. Six pickup trucks were seized, including some high-end ones, about twenty assault rifles of various calibers, such as AK-47, AR15, SCAR, and BARRET, magazines, ballistic vests, tactical helmets, an undetermined number of cartridges and camouflage clothing, typical of these criminal groups. I share below a local TV report with some footage.

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.