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Suite 701, Gelman Library Mexico Mormon massacre: US victims were shot at point-blank range [I]n fact, he sometimes came and went inside the cells to beat those who were locked up. Elizondos wife,Etelvina Rodrguez, said she soon realized that many of the wives of those who worked at the Garza ranch were looking for their husbands.. Among the first to be rounded up were people connected to El Wichins uncle, Rodolfo Garza, who owned a ranch directly adjacent to that of his brother Luis. " We will try to look upon those individuals who caused the Allende Massacre. In February, 2014, members of the Army, Navy, State, and . Later we took these people to the Garza ranch where we put them in the same house where we had the others. -Declaration of Allende volunteer firefighter, December 17, 2014. As many as 40 houses and seven ranches were sacked and burned, according to aMarch 2018 CNDH report, the inhabitants beaten and dragged awaykidnapped in broad daylight. Thats the last thing I know about my family., Almas brother, Hctor Reynaldo Prez Iruegas, also witnessed part of the attack and was one of the first to file a missing persons report in the case. On March 20, 2011, my husband and I went to the Garrison of Kilometer 53 to talk with the military officials and we told them what had happened. How US intelligence has helped cartels kill thousands in Mexico . In written statements, both themayorand thepolice director said they had only limited contemporaneous understanding of the events of March 18-20, 2011, and claimed that they did not receive any reports about the violence as it was happening. [18]On homicide rate, see this report from the University of San Diegos Justice in Mexico program; On impunity, see, Mexicos bloody drug war is killing more people than ever, Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2017. The soldiers found doors torn off, the building sacked, spent shell casings, dead animals, burned buildings, and a pick-up truck riddled with bullet holes, but no people. Claudia Snchez last saw her son, Gerardo Heath, around 9:30 PM on March 18 when he left their home in Piedras Negras to visit a friend who lived down the street. "This new law is requiring all foreign agents to report any interaction with Mexico. Most of the victims were later shot and killed, after which the Zetas crudely cremated the bodies, dousing them in gasoline and diesel fuel and burning them overnight until nothing remained but ashes and tiny bone fragments. Later on the following Sunday, with all of those people locked up at the ranch, around 8:30 or 9:00 at night, I accompanied Comandante 7 and [Comandante Pala], together with various estacas, among others that I recall were [El Canelo, El Cubano, El Chilero, El Panda, El Ruso, El Flacaman, El Cabe and El Meno,] together with a municipal police patrol [in which were riding police officers Guadalupe valos Orozco, La Lupe, and Jess Alejandro Bernal Guerrero,] to a house on [Cuauhtmoc] Street in the Center of Allende, which is where Vctor Garza lived. If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via ourContact form. Founded in 2002 as the enforcement arm of the notorious Gulf Cartel, the first members of Los Zetas were recruited from a Mexican special forces group known as GAFE (Grupo Aeromvil de Fuerzas Especiales), members of which were trainedat the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The acrid odor of diesel fuel hung in the air. The above account was confirmed by several others, including one of the shift commanders. The job netted Jimnez about eight thousand pesos ($700 USD) per month, plus expenses. One U.S. law enforcement officialsaid that [Reyes] Arzates corruption as the highest-ranking officer in the MFPs Sensitive Investigative Unit allowed violent cartels to continue the flow of drugs through the region without consequence.. One of the cooks told investigators that his involvement in the Allende massacre began a few days earlier when he was awakened with dousing of cold water. April 16, 2018, US: Mexico Mass Graves Raise "Alarming Questions" about Government "Complicity" in September 2014 Cartel Killings And each estaca is made up of four assassins, but there were trucks that brought more people in the trailers. American authorities eventually helped Mexico capture the Trevios but never acknowledged the devastating cost. But he did not say anything to me. A story about the 2011 massacre in the Mexican border town of Allende How a Mexican Cartel Demolished a Town, Incinerated Hundreds of Victims Lpez said he knew all of the municipal police very well, owing to the fact that there was a lot of contact with them.[14], Upon seeing all of those police, I realized that they were keeping watch or guarding the place. A study from the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Texas Law School examined the trial transcripts of Zetas members prosecuted for drug trafficking, money laundering, and homicide in U.S. federal courts. The recent violence is also a reminder that Mexican authorities have largely failed to protect the countrys civilian population from historically high levels of violence or to alleviate the effects of an ever-deepening security crisis. First published on Wed 6 Nov 2019 16.31 EST. And he was waiting for his brother-in-law [Later,] he told me that they spent the entire night looking for his family; that he had entered the ranch from the back through an opening, and that he realized that he was alone in the ranch house, and that he was there with the expectation that they were holding his sister and his niece and nephews all with the last name Espinoza Garza, who on the day of the acts were seven months, three years, and six years of age.- Complaint of Sarah Angelita Lira, November 11, 2014. Netflix will release a series next month inspired by a story that revealed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's role in setting off a massacre in northern Mexico in 2011, leaving dozens of people dead or missing. Tracing the missing | The Economist Senior officers, including the police director, commander, and shift commanders, were paid more handsomely than regular cops. Zetas. How one reporter uncovered the U.S. role in a massacre in Mexico December 9, 2020, Six Years On, Ayotzinapa Investigations Advance The hooded figures spotted by Hctor Prez that night included the Zeta known as El Pjaro, who told authorities that he and a group of Zetas led by Jos Manuel Daz (Comandante 7) and Fernando Ros Bustos (Comandante Pala) had kidnapped Vctor, Alma, and their son Julio, and murdered them at the ranch later that night. [W]e passed by the entrance of the ranch where I saw people practically in the street with hoods and black vests who had rifles [W]e passed by again on the way back to Allende, and through the opening I could seebecause from the road you could see all the way to the backthat there were about five or seven trucks, many people with rifles, and I also saw people piled up, like this was where the fire was coming from [I]t was something big like a bodega. Herrera said he knew many of the victims as well. The destruction of the 2011 Allende massacre is still evident to this day. 8 min de lectura. Rodolfo Snchez Robles, who worked as a chauffeur and mechanic for the Garza family, seemed to know something was wrong on the day he disappeared. La masacre de Allende, Coahuila, forma parte de la historia ms siniestra de Mxico. In November 2019, CDN gunmenriddled the city hall with gunfireand engaged in a gun battle with federal forces that leftat least 21 dead. Nine people, including three mothers and six children, lost their lives Monday when they were shot execution-style while traveling to a wedding in Mexico. The truth is I accepted them, one said of the payments, because I needed to take care of my family, and also because they told us that we had to enter the ring, because if we didnt, they were going to harm us, or kill us or someone from our family. He explained why, after16 years on the force, he finally quit the Allende police late in 2011. I dont know who those people were, just that they were people that the police detained or his own people that he ordered be locked up when they handled themselves badly, or people with whom he had a disagreement [tuviera pedos]. Residents of the small town of Villa Union, 12 miles from Allende, said Tuesday . A fire department volunteer described the scene as they approached. Prosecutors say they havepresumptively relatedthe Reyes and Garca cases. The wife of another victim, a heavy machinery mechanic who worked for the Garza family, also went looking for her husband on the morning of the March 19. His mother had called around 9:00 PM to tell her son, Vctor Manuel Garza Prez, that her house was under assault. Descendants of 1918 Porvenir Massacre Fight For Recognition - Time Garcas friend, Everardo Elizondo, worked part-time at Luis Garzas ranch and also raised fighting cocks. In a country where more than 90% of crimes go unsolved, searching. Photograph via . Seven people are gunned down at a streetside taco stand. About five estacas[9]participated, and with [deleted] and [deleted] ten more joined. She told me that around 5:30 in the afternoon she came across the pick-up truck that came for my husband, and that had been circulating up and down Calle Independencia, and that her father was on board the truck together with about five other people, and that he was in the cabin in the back, in the middle, and that the truck was followed by two black late-model cars, Malibu or Impala, and the three vehicles headed for the mountain; this being the last time they saw my husband.- Complaint of wife of victim Rodolfo Snchez Robles, November 10, 2014. Investigators firstquestioned LozanoandTrevioabout the massacre in 2012. Declassified Investigative Dossier Examines Officials' Roles in Cartel Killings, 10th Anniversary of Worst Human Rights Episode in Mexico's Recent History, By Michael Evans, Senior Analyst, National Security Archive, For more information, contact: They picked me up, and, for having fallen asleep, they gave me ten blows on my buttocks with a board, and they gave me shocks [sapones] to the head [T]hey tied up my feet and hands with tape. in Allende, Coahuila state, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. In Coahuila we were hearing the word being passed from municipality to municipality, about a large scale Zeta massacre in several towns of "The Five Springs", (Los Cinco Manantiales) including Allende. I only saw that they had them bent over with their hands behind their backs, and they put them in the back of the truck. Members of the criminal group Los Zetas could be seen unloading barrels next to a storage shed near the back of the property. What we saw, he said, was something thats not easy to forget.. Washington, D.C., March 18, 2021 Ten years ago, the Mexican municipality of Allende was the site of one of the worst human rights atrocities ever seen in the country: a three-day rampage that punctuateda larger wave of violencein which theLos Zetas criminal groupkidnapped, murdered, and later burned the bodies of as many as 300 victims, incinerating the remains into piles of ashes, bits of teeth, and tiny bone fragments. PICTURED: Victims of Mexico massacre that left 3 moms and 6 children Schamus presents the trailer and key art for his new drama series Somos. All threereceived lengthy sentences, but with no bodies to build a murder case, they were convicted only of aggravated kidnapping, a charge that seems woefully inadequate given the nature of the crimes. October 2, 2018, Transcripts of intercepted cell phones open new lines of investigation in Ayotzinapa case June 19, 2017. May 29, 2021. Edited by Michael Evans. [5]More recently, Lpez Obradorsignaled his intentionto eliminate the autonomous state organ charged with guaranteeing access to human rights documents like these, the National Institute of Access to Public Information and Personal Data (INAI). Others had nothing whatsoever to do with the Garza family and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And from previously I knew that all of the Allende municipal police were linked to or worked for the Zetas.-Revised declaration of Christian Alejandro Lpez Tamez, December 17, 2014, Firefighter Jess Gerado De Len Ramos, too, spotted various units of the municipal police at the entrance to the ranch, including police director, Roberto Guadalupe Trevio Martnez, and shift commanders Maria Guadalupe Avalos Orozco and Rogelio Javier Flores Cruz, who he and others described as key links between the police and the Zetas. One former police official who attended the meeting said that Trevio told them that things were going to get hot that there had been a meeting with Los Zetas and the mayor, and that things were going to get ugly., As a result of the meeting with the mayor and Los Zetas, Trevio ordered police personnel not to leave the offices for anything, even if there were reports. The officer said they were told that if we went out it was under our own risk, and that they would fucking get us.. [W]e all went in shooting and tied up all the people that were found inside the ranch. Following the title sequence is a short paragraph introducing the story of Allende, a Mexican border town unexpectedly overtaken by a powerful drug cartel that . How DEA Informers Sparked a Massacre in Mexico - The Daily Beast You know who they are., Still other witnesses said that they saw Lozano standing calmly outside his house on the night of March 20 talking on a mobile phone while the Zetas sacked a house across the street. Among other evidence is thestatementof a former Allende police official, Fernando Hernndez Reyes, who gave a vivid account of his involvement in the kidnappings. Somos ("We are" or "We Exist" in English) is a Spanish Television Mini-Series based on the ProPublica article " How the U.S. triggered a massacre in Mexico. In July, Coahuila state investigators gave them a nearly identical set of questions; among them: Did they know about the disappearances as they were happening? Criminals were shooting up the street and two police officers . Washington, D.C., March 18, 2021 - Ten years ago, the Mexican municipality of Allende was the site of one of the worst human rights atrocities ever seen in the country: a three-day wave of violence in which the criminal group known as Los Zetas kidnapped, murdered, and later burned the bodies of an estimated 300 . Declassified Documents on the San Fernando Massacre & Violence against Migrants in Northeastern Mexican States . Witnesses Described Defendant's Participation in the 2011 Allende Massacre, Where Over 100 Men, Women, and Children Were Slaughtered by the Zetas Cartel PLANO, Texas - A Mexican national and high-ranking member of the Los Zetas cartel received a life sentence for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting . The situation was especially dire in Piedras Negras, where Los Zetas had turned the state prison into a center of operations. In a sworn statement, El Pjaro said the Zetas coordinated the kidnappings with high-ranking officials of the Allende municipal police department, who were present during the abductions and who carried the victims from the house to the ranch in a police patrol vehicle. There was a fire coming from a small building inside the ranch alongside armed men who did not seem like they were police, according to the former volunteers statement. May 12, 2015, Documenting Mexicos Recurring Nightmare Because if you dont [keep quiet] theyre going to kidnap you too.. In an act of revenge cartel members in 2011 razed and burned houses and disappeared people just by bearing the last name of the alleged traitor. The study sought to determine the treatment and reparations of the State to the victims of the massacre of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, in August 2010, and the disappearance of an unknown number of people in Allende, Coahuila, in March 2011. Among others, I remember that there was Jos [deleted,] the owner of the ranch, [deleted,] his wife, [deleted,] [Vctor Manuel] [deleted,] an employee of the [Garzas] by the name of [deleted,] a man by the name of Hctor [deleted,] among other people from the family of the [deleted] and people from the town whose names I dont remember, but who I know on sight, other people that I had not seen before, and people of advanced age, who they were putting inside the large bodega.- Declaration of former Allende volunteer firefighter, December 17, 2014, 11:37. I didnt know which of them woke me up with cold water since Id been asleep. In return for the departments cooperation, most officers received 2,000 to 3,000 pesos per month (about $175-260 USD) from Los Zetas. An important moment seems to have come in March 2015, when state investigatorssaw a familiar patternemerge in three seemingly unrelated cases. The original Zetas are former members-turned-deserters of Mexicos elite Airmobile Special Forces Group (GAFE), trained in the U.S. at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA. There was also a man by the name of [Everardo Elizondo,] who raised fighting cocks, and [Csar Alfonso Garca Ramrez] And how the people from the Zetas were shouting, hitting and mistreating these people!-Declaration of Allende volunteer firefighter Luis Gerardo Herrera Estrada, November 23, 2014, The chief of the fire department, Christian Alejandro Lpez Tamez, told investigators in a revised statement that, just like his colleagues, he was able to identify many of the faces he saw there, including the director and other top officials from the Allende police department. [F]rom the road you could see smoke coming from inside the ranch. According to testimony, Vasquez did so because he and other Los Zetas wanted the father to suffer. jschwartz@statesman.com. Did United States Trigger a Drug Cartel Massacre in Mexico? Is Netflix's 'Somos.' a true story? Horrifying Allende massacre still Audio series examines DEA culpability in 2011 Allende massacre The Tamaulipas massacre: how the American Dream dies in Mexico In the worst cases, civilian authorities were little more than subcontractors of the Zetas criminal organization, involved in shakedowns, kidnappings, drug trafficking and numerous murders, not over a period of weeks or months, but for many years. (AP) MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash . When he arrived, he told me and the other workers of the ranch to leave; that there had been a ruckus there; that armed, masked people told him to get inside; and that we should not get involved and should leave the ranch. The National Security Archive is committed to digital accessibility. Los Zetas Drug Cartel Sicario and Piedras Negras Plaza Boss Sentenced When the Zetas arrived in Allende a decade ago, they infiltrated the very . The police radio operator said that the director, Trevio, and the commander, Hernndez, were paid as much as five times what ordinary officers were given. Allende massacre. It's tranquil now in Allende, but 300 are still missing - Mexico News Daily The perilous path Central American migrants take while traveling through Mexico to reach the U.S. border has been an area of . Warning: violence in San Miguel de Allende : r/digitalnomad - reddit From the highway, smoke could be seen coming from the interior of the ranch. An Allende police radio operator who worked closely with the shift commanders said in his declaration that a ranking Zetas member[17]would sometimes come by the police station and take people from city jail cells with the full knowledge of the police director and commander, both of whom, he said, were paid by the Zetas. He gets up into the truck and with his hand he says goodbye leaving his suitcase there at the house because he was supposedly going to come back. The next day,investigators requested, andlater received, a list of Allende police officials active in 2011 and began to interview them systematically. Eastern District of Texas | High-Ranking Member of Los Zetas Cartel 0:04. She toldProPublicathat, after separating the children from their parents, the kidnappers held them for several days before leaving the two older kids at a park. My parents were born in Mexico and every summer we visited and it we had the times of our lives as kids and young adults. And when I finished tying him up, I put him in the back of the truck, and there were already bodies in the trunk.- Declaration of Zetas member, September 19, 2014. [T]hey brought them there to the Los ngeles Cemetery near the Piedras Negras city seminary, and also more people. World News Day: A town, a massacre, a decade of silence in Mexico's Allende Arriving at the ranch that night with three others from the department, Herrera said he could see that what was burning was a small room that was near the ranch. He saw that there were units of the municipal police out front. Many thousands disappeared in Mexico's drug war. [6] CDN is reportedly led by Juan Gerardo Trevio Chvez (El Huevo), nephew of former Zetas leaders Miguel ngel Trevio Morales (Z-40) and Omar Trevio Morales (Z-42), according to this press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. To me in particular they gave me 2,000 pesos [per month].-Declaration of former Allende police official, July 22, 2014. The Zetas started out as an enforcer gang for the Gulf Cartel . Just a few people. Mass shooting at Mexico's San Miguel Totolapan kills 18, mayor among Volunteer Luis Herrera Estrada was one of the four Allende firefighters who responded to reports of a blaze at the Garza ranch, and his statement of November 23, 2014, three and a half years later, is the first detailed account in the file of what the firefighters saw at the ranch that night. Isabel Allende - Books, Life & Career - Biography The mayor of Allende in the Cinco Manantiales region of Coahuila said at the time of the slaughter that he was helpless to prevent the massacre. ProPublica and National Geographic set out to piece together how the U.S. contributed to a massacre executed by a drug cartel in Allende, Mexico. FOR almost three years residents of Allende, close to the Mexican border with . See Allende, el infierno: Los testigos de la masacre, Zcalo (Coahuila), July 10, 2017. He just asked us if we knew about what was happening. When the Zetas became aware of our presence, and that we were there to put out the fire, they said to us: You guys get the fuck out of here! They erected a monument in Allende to honor the victims without fully determining their fates or punishing those responsible. Over the course of six episodes, "Somos." gives a platform to the victims of the Allende massacre to tell their stories. Meanwhile, criminal violence continues to soar in Mexico, with the Cartel of the Northeast (CDN), successor to Los Zetas, implicated in some of the worst cases. Mexico's defense secretary, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, was in charge of the military garrison in Allende when the massacre took place but has deflected responsibility for failing to stop the killings. Yesterday I heard machine guns right outside my door on Independencia. Mexican President Consoles Family of Massacre Victims. But a2017 investigation by Ginger Thompson of ProPublicafound that Cuellar and Junior weretargeted for another reason: Los Zetas leaders had discovered that members of Cuellars cell were cooperating with agents of the DEA and had provided them with secret PIN codes allowing the DEA to track the mobile phones of top Zetas leaders. Inside the gate, a small building was burning. American authorities eventually helped Mexico capture the Trevios but never acknowledged the devastating cost. Jimnez told authorities that local Zetas leaders sent him to the ranch as part of an all-out assault on people and properties associated with the Garza family. Several said the police director ordered that officers should not do anything or say anything about the carnage. Another explained how the money was divided up among members of the Allende police. He said that he and Rodolfo Jr., his brother-in-law, were going out to look for them. She is the goddaughter of Salvador Allende , the first socialist president of Chile who was her father's . 'Somos' Review - The Hollywood Reporter "How the U.S. Vasquez then ordered that the father be killed. [7] GAFE stands for Grupo Aeromvil de Fuerzas Especiales (Airmobile Special Forces Group). The plan, he said, was to kidnap and kill everyone. When more Zetas and various patrols of the municipal police arrived later they knocked down the main gate of the Garza ranch by ramming it with a truck, according to Jimnez. Gunmen Storm Wake in Mexico, Killing at Least Nine 'Somos.' Summary & Ending, Explained - How Allende Massacre Was The Allende Massacre in Mexico: A Decade of Impunity | National Both in charge of Los Zetas, Allende's is a much less known story. Most of them, he said, were killed and cremated inside the state prison in Piedras Negras. And the mayor commented on what was happening in the city, but never said if he was going to ask for help or if he had advised anyone of what was happening. But he never came back. 202-994-7000 ornsarchiv@gwu.edu, Special thanks to former National Security Archiveintern Emily Taylor for her assistance with this collection. Outside the ranch entrance, the firefighters spotted officers and vehicles from the Allende police department. The Allende Massacre in Mexico: A Decade of Impunity Ten years ago, the Mexican municipality of Allende was the site of one of the worst human rights atrocities ever seen in the country:a three-day rampage that punctuateda larger wave of violencein which theLos Zetas criminal groupkidnapped, murdered, and later burned the bodies of as many as 300 victims, many of them from Allende but also from nearby towns like Villa Unin and Piedras Negras, a city 35 miles to the north that lies just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. So the moment that we were leaving the place out of fear from the threats made by these people, and because the police were attending to them, the people of Los Zetas put the entire [deleted] family into the bodega or large barn I mentioned, along with various other people who I saw clearly but who I did not know. Thompsons reporting and the U.S. investigations strongly suggest that the former SIU chief may have been part of a criminal conspiracy that sparked the Allende massacre. [11] A portion of the Prez Iruegas complaint was previously published by Zcalo, revealing some of the parts that were redacted in the version released by CNDH (shown here in brackets).