“My Son is one of Them; but he is a Good Person”

Borderland Beat

Martha speaks of her son being with the "letter" (zetas) but is a good person, she explains he had no choice.  This is especially true of the iimpoverished youth of Mexico....Paz Chivis

Mothers protest at prison gates

Alejandro Salas

Knowing her son is in CERESO (jail) is just a concern of this lady; but how he got to that place and if he will be alive for one more day, is what really torments her.

Monterrey. The cries and groans emerge from outside the Forensic offices. The women hug each other; mothers, daughters cry for their deceased that are on the mortality list of the 44 killed of the Apodaca Penitentiary.

It is the afternoon of Sunday, February 19^th; Martha doesn’t know why she is there,  she has been there waiting since dawn, she was told by phone that the persons killed at the prison were from CDG and not Zetas. But she wanted to be at SEMEFO, hopefully to quell her concern and then go to the penitentiary.

A 50 year old man had been in the city for a couple of hours, searching for a nephew from Panuco, Veracruz, and after the mass killing of CERESO, he also went to SEMEFO to see if he was among the victims.

The man of Panuco and Martha were talking; she was advising him, she told him to have in his hands, a copy of the birth certificate of his nephew and to proceed to the unit and ask for him.

“I am leaving to the penitentiary; Thank God Jonathan is not here. I wanted to be here anyway; it’s not easy, one of the deceased was named like my son, when I heard the name I almost fainted, but I saw the last name and I was relieved, but I felt badly for the others.

Half hour later, Luis Manuel from Panuco, said he didn’t find his nephew on the list.

At the beginning of the year, Beto telephoned his mother and also spoke with his uncle; he told his mother that he was working in construction and told his uncle that he was working for the people of the letter in Monterrey.

A friend of Beto called the family and told them that Beto was kidnapped. Luis Manuel had searched  Veracruz, Poza Rica, San Fernando and Ciudad Mier, since he has promised his sister, Beto’s mother,  that he will find him, dead or alive.

Reports of beat down

Late afternoon of February 22^nd, Luis Manuel presented himself on the doors of the Cereso, where one more time meets with Martha, who explains to him that to request information he needs to go in the morning.

“Now things are heated up, last night was a chaos because many of us got pissed off because there was an operative, Police beat up and shot many of our prisoners,  they went overboard and that is why we quarrel with the Civil Force”, said Martha, angry.

Outside the penitentiary are 20 people. Some are sitting down on the bench of the bus stop, others are aboard cars and one or two wait standing in front of the barbwire fence of the Penitentiary of apodaca, on the road to Salinas Victoria.

Martha is there, she a 45 year old lady, 5'2" tall,  dyed red hair, medium complexion and having an extroverted character. She and the other mothers and family members were literally on guard, taking note of every police car or vehicle that go into the penitentiary.

“That is how we realize who enters, the hour they go in and if our people inside gets shot, we report them. We know that the fucking authority doesn’t do anything, but for now we tell Human Rights and we also tell the people inside, who they are.

Martha says she is pissed off of the operative that the federals did, since she said that it was a bloodbath. She was referring to what occur on the Coca Ambulatory (C), where, according to investigations, the majority of the responsible for the massacre that left 44 inmates of Delta killed.

That is why Martha is there, guarding, along with other inmate relatives. By then, Jonathan, her 21 year old son, has 11 months in jail.

She admits it, her son joined the Zetas, but she says that he was forced to and threatened.

A forced change

Jonathan was a plumber, floor tile helper and electrician.

He has worked since he was 15 years old, age when he started using crack, but mostly marijuana.

One day he bought drug and was kidnapped by an armed group, under the argument that he had bought weed from the contrary band.

He was kidnapped two days, he was whipped and beat up along with a friend and “when he was released they said that he had to work for them, and if he refused, my little girl – his sister- and I were going to get killed”.

That is how the Zetas recruited him.

Immediately, Jonathan left his trade and the job his employer gave him for over five years and drastically change direction.

He was doing better economically speaking, his income provided him to purchase his drug, buy clothes, take care of his girlfriend and give money to his mother, whom at first opposed to his new activities.

Good thing they got lucky

One time, by the end of 2010, Jonathan and his friend absented from their house for three days, in which Martha looked for him everywhere.

On the fourth day of absence, at noon, Martha saw her son in a presentation of a kidnapper band on television.

The Marines rescued a merchandiser and his two sons from a safe house located in one of the colonias on the peak of the mountain of Topo Chico and apprehended Jonathan and an accomplice there..

Stunned and staring at the television, Martha says, “I was shattered, as if I was falling into a deep hole. I was falling, falling… The good thing, I thought, despite everything, he is alive and not dead, like I thought he would be many times”.

Martha managed to talk to one of her “son’s captors”, (zetas recruiter), who told her  thank God that her son was alive.

He told her that at first the young boys were protecting him, for which they were almost killed in gunfire.

“He told me: good thing they got lucky”.

The woman asked the marine why they beat him up so much. He said that it was part of their job.

At this point, Martha thinks that her son can be rehabilitated, although in the penitentiary, he is to the service of the same group that recruited him.

“Yes, My son is one of them, but he is a good person, he has to work for them, if not they would kill him. I put him on God’s hands.

Source: Milenio

Translated by Chivis