El Fuerte: Founder of Las Rastreadores Finds her Son after 3 Year Search

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Debate

Identified remains found in El Fuerte are the son of Mirna Medina Quiñónez

Extra Material from Sin Embargo
Second Debate link
By: Noel Vizcarra Aug 27, 2017

Los Mochis, Sinaloa.- It took three years and a month for Mirna Nereyda Medina Quiñónez, leader of the group known as Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, to find her son Roberto Corrales Medina, who was deprived of his freedom and subsequently murdered on July 14, 2014 when he was selling CDs at a gas station in the municipality of El Fuerte.

Roberto Corrales Medina DEP: 1993-2014 (RIP)

Mirna Nereyda was fully convinced that someday she would find her son, and so it was ............

On July 14, 2014, Roberto Corrales Medina arrived from the municipality of Choix at the gas station located at the main entrance of El Fuerte where he worked, with his box in which he kept his merchandise ready to offer music for all tastes, without imagining what awaited him.

It was 17:45 on a hot afternoon, when a black Explorer  SUV type vehicle stopped and someone spoke to him. Roberto left his box next to one of the gas pumps at the  station and went to answer the call of the occupants of the vehicle.

That was the last time he was seen alive as the subjects forced him into the unit and took him away. His merchandise was abandoned and he no longer answered his cell phone. When he disappeared, Las Rastreadoras were born.

How was the Group Formed ?

Senora Medina Quinonez Speaks: "When they do this to you they do not know the pain that they are going to cause you, the anguish that you  will  submit to , nor do they care, they take part of your life".

El Grupo de Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, (Trackers/Rakers/Searchers), were formed when Mirna Nereyda Medina Quiñónez began looking for her son days after the "levantón"/ kidknapping happened. She said she got tired of going to the Regional Attorney's Office of Northern Justice  (now Vice-Chancellery) to ask for progress and results.

Mirna Nereyda was fully convinced that someday she would find her son some day, and so it was.

"At first I was going with Roberto's father through the mountains, hills, canals to look for our son," said Mirna on several occasions. They even hired people to help them search for desolate places.

Mothers of families who had children who disappeared in El Fuerte, Ahome and Choix were contacted simultaneously, and word spread thanks to the media and social networks in which she shared the photos of her son. It was in the Mochicahui area where they found the first skeletons in pits.

The first thing they checked were the victims clothing, which was  brought in the hope that it would be their son's. Sometimes the mood swelled and waned, but she never gave up. "This is very hard, but we have to continue until we find them."

"Previously, I had already gone with El Grupo de Las Ratreadoras, (the Trackers/Rakers/Searchers), to that same place, but for being off by several meters of distance I did not find the pit".

The news was confirmed yesterday; when the woman originally  from Guasave received a call that was  transferred to the Attorney General's Office in Culiacan because the authorities had to inform her of the results of DNA studies on her son's skeleton which was found on July 14, 2017 on a hill in the vicinity of Ocolome, El Fuerte.

The news was communicated directly to her and her partner. The DNA tests that were done to  her son's remains coincide with his relatives and that was the news Mirna Medina Quinoz, Roberto's mother, had looked for day and night, for weeks, months and now years.

A Mother Hoping to Find the Skeletal Remains of her Son

Mobilizing: How and When It Began

The majority of the disappearances were concentrated in the municipality of El Fuerte, Ahome and Choix.  Mirna Medina has been invited to speak to  various organizations in the country and also abroad about her work.

International Recognition:

As a result of her untiring efforts and dedication to the search for their loved ones, the organization Las Rastreadoras of El Fuerte obtained a great international recognition. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International acknowledged their titanic work, and last year they were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a national body.

Likewise, they joined the international caravan "Hasta Encontrete" (Until We Find You) to bring their complaints to different countries, including the United States, Canada, Guatemala, as well as several cities in Europe and various areas of Mexico.

Sitting behind her desk in the newly opened office of the group Las Rastreadoras, Mirna Nereyda remembered the last time she saw her son, who said goodbye to her to move to the municipality of Choix to meet with her father, his grandfather, which she is close to.

"When we go out looking for bodies and find one, all the mothers want it to be our child, but at the same time we keep that light of hope to find them alive and we while hope it is not so, these are very difficult feelings found, but we ask God to Deliver them to us as they are."

With more than 400 folders of the missing, the families made up of women and some men, parents and siblings, who have joined in the unique goal of finding the remains of victims of violence by unknown hands that  have been  taken and buried in some lonely place, they work every day to try to find them, their loved ones, some of whom have been told lie under the ground at their feet.

In the years of her son's search, Mirna Nereyda received information about places where her body could be and, with the support of other mothers who have missing children, and staff of the State Attorney General's Office, they started  the searching process but had not been successful.

United by the pain that hurts and embarrasses them, Las Rastreadoras inaugurated its management offices on July 1, 2016 to support those who are unfortunately in the same conditions and to be able to find a light that leads them to locate them. They settled on the Colonia Don Eme, located on Benito Juarez Street, between Santos Degollado and Emiliano Zapata, in the city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

"I do not know if we did not search well, twice they told me that he was in Hornillos, that he was in Vivajaqui and then in Mochicahui and then in front of a gas station near Guamuchil, I think he is between Mochicahui and El Fuerte, but I also resist the thought of him dead and I just want him to be alive. I will not rest until I find him, my son, wherever he is".

Mirna Nereyda is considered a woman with a lot of strength, but she says she does not know where her feet and head are. "I am crazy, losing your son is the worst thing that can happen to you, it's a very strong pain that you have inside, but that makes you fight, and even more if you have a lot of people behind you."

The families of the group do not cry for justice, although in the end they say:

"We know that justice will come from the actions of everyone, but now we only want to rest from this pain that we can not describe, because not knowing where to cry for our own flesh leads us to live a miserable life, without rest. There are just too many missing to stay a day without thinking about them."

The group of women has been so committed to the group that if one of them dies "of ​​circumstance", the others will not forget their sons and continue with their search. They also promised that even if they find the body of their loved ones they will continue to support the others until the end.

"They call us 'the trackers' because they say that we are like bloodhounds, because we give and we give and yes, it is true," said Mirna, who in turn expressed that she no longer had a life, since it was over when they took her son.


Mirna Nereyda Medina Quiñónez burst into tears when she found bones, nails and other parts of her son Roberto's body in the pit where his executioners buried him, located near Ocolome, El Fuerte.

Last July 14 of this year, three years of the disappearance of Roberto Corrales were commemorated.

The women of Guasave, Juan Jose Rios, Los Mochis, Choix and El Fuerte, helped Mirna that day more than ever to look for the remains of her son, they searched without fatigue for some indication that would help them find the whereabouts of bodies; In total there were more than 60 people between men and women who helped to track/ rake/ search and dig that day.

Skeletal remains were located in Ejido Ocolome, El Fuerte.

From a very early hour they joined together with mixed feelings and tears in their eyes, Mirna thanked all those people for the unconditional help they had given her on that day, since three eternal years had passed and the remains they found were those of her Robert.

Each shovel of earth that was extracted from the pit was passed to a strainer to try to recover any remnant of his blood.


"Do not let anything happen to you Liliana," Mirna suggested to the person who was casting away the earth and who quickly answered: "How do you think I'm going to get something, its as if I'm looking for my own son, her  friend worries ".

The search became tense and dramatic at times because Mirna suddenly would burst into tears, but immediately her companions approached to embrace her and ask her for strength.

"It is painful, Mirna, but what more would I want than to find my son, even if it is in these conditions," one of her companions told her as she dug with her in the pit.

In that place they located more skeletal remains, the earth was impregnated of human fat, and it gave off a fetid smell.

Senora Mirna Nereyda Medina Quinonez
at the site where she herself found the remains of her own son

The days passed, and on August 25, 2017, the leader of las Rastreadoras received the news that the human remains found that day in Ocolome, El Fuerte, did indeed belonged to Roberto Corrales .........

With a firm step, Mirna returned to the place where her executioners buried Roberto, knelt, took her hands with some earth and burst into tears.  "Why did they do this to you? You did not deserve to go through this," she shouted as her inseparable companions surrounded her and gave her words of encouragement.

Mirna and her family placed a metallic cross with the name of their son Roberto Corrales Medina, which was nailed in the place at the end of the recovery of more skeletal remains.

"It is a place of pain, of mourning, it is a kind of tomb to honor where my son was. There Robertito will rest next to the grave of his grandfather, who loved him so much," said Mirna to those who accompanied her in the search.

INTERVIEW:

"I thought I would die without finding him."

Roberto Corrales Medina disappeared on July 14, 2014 and was also located on July 14, but in 2017.

Curiously, he was born in 1993 and his body was number 93 located by Las Rastreadoras in the  tireless search by his  mother and her group of searchers in the north of the region.

Standing by the grave where her son Roberto was buried, Mirna confesses that in her mind that she knew he had passed away and she was going to die without finding him.

"It's a difficult situation, but yes, I finally found him; I thought that I was going to die without finding  him and I asked my companions to promise me that if I died they would continue to look for him. I'm going to take some time, it would be very cowardly of me to leave many mothers alone who are looking for their children and I will continue to support them, they have the confidence that together we are going to achieve our goals''.

When did you know that the remains located here were those of your son Roberto?

"They tested the DNA for me and his dad and that tested positive, but from the moment we located the remains I knew they were his, my mother's hunch could not fail me. They are many years of struggle,  heartbreak, so many bad experiences to be able to achieve this.

"Yes, what they do to us is not worth living through, is a very tough fight, and yet in some ways I already won, but many are still fighting. This is very heavy for me, but I did it because on July 16, 2014 I made the promise to Roberto that I would find him and here he is, we will take every bit of him that we can find."