Cruz Soto Had Ties to CDS, the Other Side of the Story

"Yaqui" for Borderland Beat

According to investigations by the State Attorney General's Office, regarding the deprivation of liberty and subsequent lifeless finding of Cruz Soto Caraveo , they have determined that the deceased had a threat and his death is related to a betrayal he made to "El Chueco", Jesús Noriel Portillo Gil, a criminal leader of the Gente Nueva, armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel in the Sierra Tarahumara, to whom he had "rented" some land in 2013.

Among the information given by the State Attorney General's Office, it was that in that year, Cruz Soto handed over some hectares of land located in Monterde, to his cousin Carlos Hugo Soto Lucero known as “El Calín”, so that they would rent them for the drug sowing and harvest, especially marijuana and poppy, and they would have a series of monthly payments for "lending" that space to the criminal group that operates in that area.

Both Cruz Soto and his cousin Carlos Soto Lucero, received several payments for lending these spaces to the criminal group, since they reached that agreement in which Cruz decided to give the space to his cousin so that he in turn rented it to "El Chueco" Noriel PG who was harvesting several hectares of drugs.

At that time Cruz Soto abandoned his lands and changed his domicile to the city of Chihuahua, while his cousin Carlos “El Calín” took over the land lease, where “El Chueco” and his people were producing drugs for a few years, until Cruz and his cousin had a conflict for which Cruz wanted to end the deal.

Among the information obtained by investigating agents of the State Attorney General's Office, it was that Cruz wanted to undo the agreement they had with organized crime, even to end the presence of drug traffickers, he  denounced the criminals before the Army, for which reason they destroyed all the fields of “El Chueco” in this space that the Cruz family had rented to them.

Gente Nueva convoy in the Sierra Tarahumara

                                            

From that moment Cruz Soto was listed as a “traitor”, according to some messages and various accusations made by the criminals and that the authorities documented the facts, where he asked the military to destroy the drug of the Sinaloa Cartel, for  which he decided not to return to Monterde located in the municipality of Guazapares, where he was originally from.

For the fear that he maintained by the threats of the criminal group for having “betrayed” them, Cruz Soto began to seek support in human-right organizations to seek protection for alleged displacement of lands by criminal groups, to which the CEDHEM and he included it in a request to be considered as "displaced".

However, within the private archives of Cruz Soto it was not documented that he was an activist or that he carried out any activity related to the protection of human rights, so the State Attorney General's Office did not consider him as such and only investigated the deprivation of the freedom that emerged on October 13.

On the other hand, in the year 2018 Carlos Hugo Soto, “El Calin”, 39 years old, was killed by a group of armed subjects, and was also already being searched for by security elements, since he had an order of apprehension against him, however, the criminals decided to end their lives because of the differences that arose at the end of the business relationship they maintained.

That same year, the same criminal group attempted to assassinate the nephews of Cruz Soto, Ricardo Quezada Valenzuela and Raúl Quezada Agüero, on August 28, who were accused of being thieves and treacherous, according to reports concentrated by the State Attorney General’s Office Once. They abandoned a message explaining that the attack was due to “ratas and treacherous mitoteros”, followed by a direct threat to Cruz Soto, which on October 19, 2019 which had an effect on Temoris.

On October 12, Cruz Soto and another companion departed from the city of Chihuahua to Témoris, to attend a meeting in the Municipal Presidency on the 13th, with staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where the related issue of  the delivery of supports would be discussed. ( In Mexico often these types of "supports" are called, appropriately,  "dispenses", which are a monthly supply of basic foodstuffs for the family ).

When trying to return to the city of Chihuahua, and the criminal group when obtaining the information that Cruz Soto had returned to the mountains, 6 subjects were transferred to Témoris, where they managed to intercept his vehicle, they took him in handcuffs and after eight days of not knowing anything about him,  his body was found 10 kilometers from Temoris.

The State Attorney General from the beginning of his disappearance knew that the person responsible would be "El Chueco", who more than three years ago was waiting for him to pay with his life for the betrayal he had done and the lies he had told the authorities and public opinion, when trying to expose themselves as a victim displaced from the mountain area.

Cruz Soto's body presented firearm impacts, and during yesterday it was handed over to relatives, who will take charge of the funeral ceremony and organize the last goodbye in Monterde.

338,000 people, mostly indigenous, have fled the region ONLY between 2016 and 2018 (CHDH figures) mostly because of expropriation of their lands by cartels for growing drug crops.

He filed complaints against drug trafficking:

Cruz Soto Caraveo and his family fled their land in 2014, when a criminal group murdered Monterde's ejido commissioner Alejandro Soto, who was Cruz's brother. After this homicide about a hundred people left their homes. They became displaced by violence, after having filed a complaint about the situation that deprives Tarahumara at the hands of organized crime groups.

The last occasion, when Cruz Caraveo, like other families in forced displacement demanded the apprehension of the criminal group that operates in the area, was on March 22, 2019, in the framework of the review of precautionary measures of El Manzano, where he denounced the threats suffered and demanded the attention of the case of Monterde and El Manzano in Uruachi.

The complaint was made to the head of the Unit for the Defense of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior, staff of the General Secretariat of Government of Chihuahua and the State Attorney General's Office.

Cruz Soto was a member of the Group of Forcibly Displaced Families of the Sierra Tarahumara:

CEDEHM Human and Women's Rights Organization who also helped Displaced persons and families

                                                                       

On Saturday, October 12, Cruz Soto traveled to the town of Témoris, in the municipality of Guazapares. He left the city of Chihuahua, where he is supported with his family with temporary housing. The next day, after meeting with staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the federal government, in the Municipal Presidency, he was deprived of his freedom along with another man who accompanied him.

Both were traveling in a van to the Los Llanos community, in the same municipality, when armed men who did not identify themselves, forced them to get out of the vehicle, handcuffed them and took them away, the Women's Human Rights Center (Cedehm reported) ), organization that takes the case of forced displacement.

Cruz owned a ranchland where they used to harvest apples, one day the members of organized crime arrived demanding the land for drug cultivation. By refusing, he signed his death sentence.

His brother was kidnapped and subsequently killed in 2014, since then the threats grew and one day at night they fled the ranch, took refuge in Chihuahua. A year later they filed a complaint with the FGE, hoping that it would be acted upon and that their assets could be restored.

Cedehm recalled that in August 2018, members of the communities of Monterde and El Manzano, of the municipality of Uruachi who are also displaced, returned to their homes with shelter from the Chihuahua State Police. 

A little more than 24 hours later they located the body of a man who was familiar with Soto Caraveo's wife. The body of the murdered man had a written message, threatening Cruz Soto Caraveo with death, for actively accusing the criminals and informing the authorities of the situation in the Tarahumara area, a death sentence that was fulfilled.

The American citizen Patrick Braxton-Andrew was killed Sunday, October 28, 2018 in a place known as La Playita, in the municipality of Urique, at the hands of drug trafficker José Noriel Portillo Gil, aka "El Chueco."

The governor of Chihuahua, Javier Corral , said that  Patrick Braxton-Andrew , a native of the state of North Carolina, and Spanish teacher ,was killed by drug trafficker José Noriel Portillo Gil, aka "El Chueco" , while traveling through Copper Canyon. Patrick was fluent in Spanish and liked to hang out with locals and have cultural experiences. This time he hung with the wrong crowd who mistakenly thought he could be a DEA agent, so well spoken was his Spanish. Patrick was a victim of the criminal's paranoia.

Gov Corral said the aggressor would pay dearly for the crime, so the Federal Police mounted a giant  operation searching for him. More than one hundred police and volunteers searched the area for clues after Braxton-Andrew disappeared on October 28, 2018.

The body of the 34-year-old Spanish teacher was buried, then exhumed and abandoned by his assailants, the governor added nearly one year ago. Corral said it broke his heart to give the news to his relatives.

Sources: ElSol