An important moment seems to have come in March 2015, when state investigatorssaw a familiar patternemerge in three seemingly unrelated cases. He said the process reduced the corpses to pure butter., [I]n those days they kidnapped many people [Where] they killed them and burned them was a ranch There, they made me burn one body since I saw what was happening Others were burned at the [deleted] ranch, but nothing was left, because they told me that only pure butter remained after cooking them.- Declaration of Germn Zaragoza Snchez (El Canelo), April 8, 2014, 10:00. Jeremy Schwartz. Closer look at massacre in Mexico reveals glimpse of corruption The Zetas organizational structure includes counterintelligence, intelligence and tactical enforcement units.. About five estacas[9]participated, and with [deleted] and [deleted] ten more joined. Forensic specialists from the Mexican Federal Police examine one of the primary crime scenes from the 2011 Allende massacre on January 28, 2014. It is not clear why members of the the military unit thatexamined the ranch did not secure the property or, evidently, take any additional steps to comprehend what was happening in Allende. Elvira Espinoza told investigators about the day, about a week later, when she found two of her three missing grandchildren at an orphanage in Piedras Negras. September 26, 2019, FiftyYears After Tlatelolco, Censoring the Mexican Archives: Mexico's "Dirty War" Files Withdrawn from Public Access And together with the patrols there were many cars and trucks both inside and outside the ranch, and these people carried long arms from which I deduced that these people were from Los Zetas.- Declaration of Allende firefighter Jess Gerardo De Len Ramos, December 17, 2014, 14:50. Police commander Juan Ariel Hernndez Ramos (who served under police director Trevio) said that Lozano had called top city officials to a special meeting to discuss the ongoing violent attacks around the city. A 10 aos de la masacre de Allende, recrean la pesadilla para no olvidarla [Rodolfo] came home all covered in grease, ate, and later, as we sat outside smoking a cigarette, he told me, Things are getting to be a real pain in the ass, but he didnt tell me anything else, and we were there for about ten minutes. He told me: "The United States . He told me that inside the jail Los Zetas were burning all of these people that I mentioned as well as my spouse who they burned inside that place after killing him, and more people from other parts of the state. Warning: violence in San Miguel de Allende. The DEA claims credit for helping Mexico make the arrest, but would not discuss what steps were taken to investigate the 2011 intelligence leak that led to the massacre in Allende. For this reason, it can be inferred and there exists reasonable certainty that the disappeared people given the time and the place where they disappeared, have been kidnapped by people linked to organized crime, specifically by [deleted] and using the same operational methods. . [W]e all went in shooting and tied up all the people that were found inside the ranch. Mexican Federal Police collect ashes, bone fragments and other bits of evidence from the Garza Ranch on January 28, 2014 (Source: Document 40: Field Criminology Opinion Report, January 28, 2014). 'We are.', Miniseries of Netflix which is based on the report by journalist Ginger Thompson, fiction this harsh reality. He got in the truck and returned to Allende, or at least thats what I think I dont know what happened to [Vctor] nor to his parents. She said she later learned he had been kidnapped from their house and turned over to a criminal group, probably Los Zetas. The acrid odor of diesel fuel hung in the air. What actions had they taken to guarantee the security of the people of Allende? 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. in Allende, Coahuila state, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. That we would turn a blind eye. Among other evidence is thestatementof a former Allende police official, Fernando Hernndez Reyes, who gave a vivid account of his involvement in the kidnappings. And when we met with him, he told us that things were going to get hot. Subscribe to our newsletter and join other 2,442 Justice in Mexico readers! How the DEA Triggered the Massacre of an Entire Mexican Town However, families of the victims in Allende touted the overdue government efforts as a publicity stunt. She learned that her husbands friend, Hector, had also been called away and picked up by the same white truck that came for Rodolfo. Hours later, his daughter was one of the last people to see him alive. Outside the ranch entrance, the firefighters spotted officers and vehicles from the Allende police department. Both in charge of Los Zetas, Allende's is a much less known story. Some cooperated more than others. [18]Others have called on Mexico to prosecute top Coahuila state officials, including former governors, for allowing criminal violence to flourish. Armando Castilla, the publisher of the newspaper Vanguardia de Coahuila, says his publication was the first to report the case, in December 2013. Subscribe. However, I'm mortified at the . For years after the massacre, Mexican authorities made only desultory efforts to investigate. Five years on, mystery still shrouds Allende massacre in northern 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. Source: ProPublica. They erected a monument in Allende to honor the victims without fully determining their fates or punishing those responsible. May 12, 2015, Documenting Mexicos Recurring Nightmare Investigators firstquestioned LozanoandTrevioabout the massacre in 2012. Jos Alfredo Jimnez was one of the first of the Zetas to arrive at Luis Garzas ranch that night. In the U.S., the prosecutions of Reyes Arzate and others are likely to result in the collection of significant new evidence on the Allende case, including the testimony of Reyes himself, the statements of former Zetas, and key DEA records from the period in question. 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. How one reporter uncovered the U.S. role in a massacre in Mexico 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. [T]hey brought them there to the Los ngeles Cemetery near the Piedras Negras city seminary, and also more people. The six-part drama series is inspired by the Allende massacre in Mexico. He just asked us if we knew about what was happening. ALLENDE, Coahuila - Only abandoned and destroyed farms and the self-imposed silence of the inhabitants of Allende remain after the massacre perpetrated in this city in . Washington, D.C., 20037, Phone: 202/994-7000 A longtime resident of Allende, Herrera knew or was familiar with many of the people he saw at the ranch, including the Zetas, their police accomplices, and many of the victims. [4]Mexicos National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) has sinceposted the declassified volumeson its website, but they are not easy to find without a direct link. [A]t that time I lived in La Colonia Presidentes, and I knew all of these people because they were from the town. One former Allende police official interviewed during the investigation described how the payments were made. Other witnesses confirmed the testimony of the police commander. Mexico has again witnessed a brutal incident of gun violence, where a gunman opened fire and killed at least 18 people at San Miguel Totolapan City Hall on Wednesday. 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. One of the guys that went with Pala, who was nicknamed [El Cabezn,] forced me to kill one of the men, and [forced Chucho to do the same.] Members of the criminal group Los Zetas could be seen unloading barrels next to a storage shed near the back of the property. For years after the massacre, Mexican authorities made only desultory efforts to investigate. Mexico Mormon massacre: US victims were shot at point-blank range 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. Document 1 August 25, 2007 Shutdown Slows but Doesn't Stop Central Americans Headed North U.S. Embassy in Mexico, cable, sensitive, 3 pp. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico" was published in 2017 by the investigative news agency ProPublica.. Known as El Pjaro (The Bird), Jimnez was hired by the Zetas in the summer of 2010 as a halcn (hawk) to monitor the movements of rival gangs, state and federal security forces, and anything else that might threaten Los Zetas. I recall that he was light-skinned, thin, of medium height, around 20 or 25 years of age, and they brought him in with his hands and feet tied up and with his face covered with tape.- Declaration of Zetas safe house guard, part 2, March 2, 2016, After a few days, he said, members of Los Zetas came and took him away in the bed of a pick-up truck, adding that he heard that they were going to turn him into roast beef, which is to say, that they were going to cook him.. Allende, Coahuila - Wikipedia 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. "How the U.S. That things were going to get ugly.-Declaration of former Allende police shift commander, September 18, 2016. And as there were three barrels we put one dead body in each barrel. I n the dead of night on Jan. 28, 1918, a group of white Texas Rangers, U.S. military men and local ranchers burst into the homes of Mexican and Mexican American . Audio series examines DEA culpability in 2011 Allende massacre. I want to point out that all of the police at that time were getting money from the Zetas, some by obligation and some by choice. In 2017, a group led by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)submitted a communicationto the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) detailing crimes committed against the civilian population in Coahuila, including murder, illegal imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and sexual violence, not just from March 2011 but from a seven-year period from 2009-2016. They had brought people from Sabinas, among others an ex-federal highways official and other people from the municipalities of Zaragoza and Morelosthis was weeks after what happened in Allende.- Complaint of wife of murdered Zeta, November 13, 2014. The next day, the wives of other ranch workers came by the Snchez Robles house, looking for their missing spouses. [12] While the names of Zetas, police officials, and witnesses are for the most part redacted in the volumes released through CNDH, a previously published portion of El Pjaros declaration reveals some of those redacted names. During the two years she spent investigating the role of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the 2011 massacre in Allende, Mexico, she worked to understand and portray that reality of . And outside the house there were four people with long arms who were dressed in black and had on bulletproof vests. The George Washington University In March 2011, The Zetas They carried out a massacre in the municipality of Allende, Coahuila, which did not receive the attention of the media at the time, until many years later. [T]here was a red truck with wooden enclosures that was parked near the bodega or large barn that was inside the ranch. MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexican drug gang bosses furious at suspected turncoats sent commandos aided by local police to seize dozens perhaps hundreds of people, murder them and dispose of their bodies in a town near the Texas border, yet state and federal officials ignored the massacre for years, according to a government-backed report released Sunday. Netflix will release a series next month inspired by a story that revealed . [9] Literally stake or post, an estaca is a term used by Los Zetas for its assassination teams. May 29, 2021. Relatives of victims wait in anguish for news after a shooting July 1 at a drug rehabilitation center . Later, [El Comandante Pala (ordered) El Ruso, El Blue, Chaln, Cabe, Meo, Flacaman, Cubano and Canelo] to take them from the house and walk them to the inside of a bodega near the house, and later to kill all of them, shooting them in the head. American authorities eventually helped Mexico capture the Trevios but never acknowledged the devastating cost. That is to say, to transfer them to the Los ngeles Cemetery of this city and later to the ranch of the [deleted] to finish them off. But a few minutes later he called me saying that neither his father nor his sister were answering and that there were many trucks and armed men guarding the entrance to the ranch. And once they had killed the people, between [Chucho] and I we began to spray the diesel and the gasoline all around the house and the bodega with the bodies inside After this, we set fire with the help of diesel and gasoline to the bodega with all those dead people inside, and we were there for many hours until we cooked all the people, and with so much fire that it melted the roof of the bodega.- Declaration of Jos Alfredo Jimnez Aguilar (El Pjaro), June 13, 2014, El Canelo admitted to having helped burn the body of at least one victim. He told her to cancel the birthday party they were planning for her the next week. Isabel Allende - Books, Life & Career - Biography [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. 'Somos.' Summary & Ending, Explained - How Allende Massacre Was Over three consecutive days in March 2011, a series . It is not a series of drug traffickers, but of their victims: of those who try to survive . A fire department volunteer said he also saw many familiar faces among the victims, the Zetas, and the police officials gathered there. Few had the courage to defy Los Zetas. Child survivors of massacred family spent 10 hours hiding in Mexican 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. And out of fear that they would do something to me if I disobeyed orders, I had to kill a person, that being Everardo Elizondo, who was about 30 or 35 years old, to whom I gave a shot in the head. Meanwhile, Mexico has announced the arrest of police officers allegedly involved in the killings. 'Somos' Review - The Hollywood Reporter Netflix series inspired by story of 2011 massacre in Allende, Coahuila Please do not fill in this field. 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. The cartel allegedly turned this storage shed, which held equipment and animal feed, into an incinerator for the . Some portions of these files have been excerpted elsewhere, including in reports from the CNDH and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), which cites many of these same records.But this is the first time that images of records from the case file have been published in their original form (although . 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. [8]But the initial three-year delay in starting the investigation has complicated the pursuit of justice for the massacre. Many others disappeared and were presumably killed in the weeks and months that followed in the wake of the massacre. The six-part miniseries examines the lives of the victims of a cartel massacre at the Mexican border town of Allende. U.S. Prosecutions Bring Mexico Corruption into Focus Warning: violence in San Miguel de Allende : r/digitalnomad - reddit Since the acts occurred on the dates of March 18, 19 and 20 of 2011, they were committed under the same mechanics not just in the city of Allende, Coahuila, but also in other municipalities in the northern region of the state, among others Piedras Negras, Coahuila.- Memorandum on links between various cases, March 5, 2015. The US shares the blame for a massacre in Mexico Mauricio, the infant son of Liliana lvarez and Arturo Espinoza, was never seen again. 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. 'Somos.', the fictionalized retelling of the massacre that took place in the town of Allende, is now streaming on Netflix (Netflix) 'Somos.', which began streaming on Netflix on June 30, may involve a fictionalized perspective of the victims of the shocking massacre that took place in the town of . We told him, Yes. And I asked him why he, as the person in direct charge of the city, the top authority, had not asked for help from the military or the state or federal government, since I had explained that we did not have the weapons or the resources to take on these people? He said that he and Rodolfo Jr., his brother-in-law, were going out to look for them. THE DOCUMENTS. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal Highway 101 in San Fernando, and the kidnapped victims were . [4] The thinking behind the special exception measure is simple: Human rights crimes affect both the immediate victims and society as a whole, and in such cases there is a society-wide interest in full transparency to ensure that such grave abuses do not reoccur. 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 money went through the [police] commander, which he then delivered to the RTs [shift commanders] and from them to the rest of us police officials. 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. Declassified Documents on the San Fernando Massacre & Violence against Migrants in Northeastern Mexican States . [8] The CNDH report does not name any of the victims, perpetrators or other witnesses it cites. 92110 United States [email protected] +1 619-260-2299. Oct. 27: A police officer is seen outside a car wash after gunmen burst into the shop and killed at least 15 people in Tepic, Mexico. Report Criticizes Mexican Officials for Ignoring 2011 Massacre Edited by Michael Evans. [T]he municipal police received monthly payments of amounts that ranged from 2,000 to 3,000 pesos, and these were delivered in yellow envelopes [W]hen they arrived to divide it up they said, the little chicks [los pollitos] have arrived.- Declaration of former Allende police official, November 12, 2014, 15:20. 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. The Zetas started out as an enforcer gang for the Gulf Cartel . The collection of testimonies found in the files of Coahuila state prosecutors depict a town almost completely beholden to the criminal groupfrom the mayors office to top police commanders to ordinary cops on the street. Lilianas brother, Rodolfo Garza, Jr., last heard from her around six or seven oclock that evening. Declassified Documents Released on The Allende Massacre In the latter group was Csar Alfonso Garca Ramrez, who had just returned home to Coahuila for a visit from his job in Texas. For reference to U.S. training and other background, see our previous Electronic Briefing Book, especially Document 1 and Document 2. As ocurri la brutal y olvidada masacre de Allende - BBC News Mundo San Miguel de Allende might be voted the nicest town in Mexico by many travel magazines, but it is not safe at the moment and I advise you not to come here right now. 'Are.' from Netflix: learn the true story of the Allende massacre This story was originally published by ProPublica. Sergio Aguayo is a prominent Mexican human rights investigator at the Colegio de Mexico, which last year launched an independent probe into the Allende massacre. This article was posted in Borderland Beat mainpage on March 26, 2011. Garcas friend, Everardo Elizondo, worked part-time at Luis Garzas ranch and also raised fighting cocks. It was approximately 7:00 or 7:20 in the evening, which is the hour of the shift change. Contemporaneous records from the Mexican military, obtained through a separate access-to-information request, confirm that the Army receivedmultiple reports about the ongoing violence in and around Allende. Horrifying Allende massacre still haunts Mexico. What we saw, he said, was something thats not easy to forget.. He always knew what was happening here.- Declaration of former Allende police official, November 12, 2014, 17:30. The files depict a town almost completely beholden to LosZetasfrom the mayors office to top police commanders to ordinary cops on the street. A. U.S. authorities inadvertently helped to cause the deaths of thousands of people in Allende, Mexico in 2011 after information they gathered was leaked to the Zetas cartel's leaders, according to journalist Ginger Thompson. [T]hey gave [Trevio] a quota of 10,000 pesos [about $850 USD] every 20 days, and he did not get involved in what [deleted] was doing. And there were approximately from seven to ten people that we tied up with rats tails. . The mini-series is created by James Schamus, who divides the real-life emotional fable into 6 . . See Vanguardia, March 18, 2019.. Leave them. Go fuck your mother! 202-994-7000 ornsarchiv@gwu.edu, Special thanks to former National Security Archiveintern Emily Taylor for her assistance with this collection. 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 . Notes Translations throughout the text by Michael Evans. Allende y la masacre de la que no se habla en Mxico - Cultura Colectiva When they did not return or respond to phone calls, their wives became concerned. 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.. [12]- Statement of Jos Alfredo Jimnez Aguilar (El Pjaro), June 13, 2014. Villa Unin, just a 20-minute drive from Allende, has been the site of numerous acts of violence linked to the CDN in recent years. History. The same year, the Zetas member known as El Cubano was arrested in the U.S. and later extradited to Mexico in connection to the case. 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. Tracing the missing | The Economist * * * * *. I left the job because, the truth is, I did not like what was happening in the town of Allende, since things were getting ugly, in addition to which the entire directorate of the municipal police were mixed up with people from Los Zetas. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico,, Allende, el infierno: Los testigos de la masacre,, Exoneran a ex alcalde de Allende, Coahuila, ligado a masacres de 2011, this report from the University of San Diegos Justice in Mexico program, Mexicos bloody drug war is killing more people than ever,, Masacre de Allende: el silencio del general, U.S. Prosecutions Bring Mexico Corruption into Focus, Advirti EU riesgo ante mandos mexicanos corruptos, Six Years On, Ayotzinapa Investigations Advance, FiftyYears After Tlatelolco, Censoring the Mexican Archives: Mexico's "Dirty War" Files Withdrawn from Public Access, Transcripts of intercepted cell phones open new lines of investigation in Ayotzinapa case, US: Mexico Mass Graves Raise "Alarming Questions" about Government "Complicity" in September 2014 Cartel Killings, Mexico's San Fernando Massacres: A Declassified History. El Pjaro said it was left to him and El Chucho to set fire to the house, the bodega, and everything inside, including the many dead bodies. A story about the 2011 massacre in the Mexican border town of Allende Oscar nominated screenwriter/producer James Schamus makes his television debut with 'Somos,' a six-part Netflix drama about a real-life cartel massacre in the Mexican town of Allende. 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. Her brother-in-law, who also worked for the Garzas, arrived later and told her that her husband had been kidnapped. April 16, 2018, US: Mexico Mass Graves Raise "Alarming Questions" about Government "Complicity" in September 2014 Cartel Killings Witnesses describe in graphic detail how Los Zetas undermined and criminalized the public security forces of Allende, and how the latter routinely participated in kidnappings, murders, and other crimes on behalf of the group. At the same time, President Lpez Obradors desire to weaken or abolish the institution charged with guaranteeing those rights, INAI, represents a looming threat to human rights transparency in Mexico. The attack at Allende began on the night of March 18, 2011, when the Zetas and their collaborators launched a coordinated three-day sweep through the town, situated only about 25 miles from the U.S. border.
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