Choix, Sinaloa: Under The Dominance Of 'Don Rafa'.

 "Ivan" for Borderland Beat 

No authorities provide relief to the inhabitants of the highlands.

In recent weeks, the population of the Choix highlands had denounced an intense hunt for civilians to evict ranches.

They denounced that gunmen loyal to Adelmo Núñez Molina, known as the Lord of the Sierra, 01 or Don Lemo, had allied with the commanders of the State Preventive Police, National Guard and the Army to maintain this forced exile, which began to worsen in 2021, when a tenant known as Don Rafa settled in that part of the sierra.

Villages such as Los Arenales, Los Parajes, El Barranco de los Ruelas, Los Cedros, Cañas Viejas, La Cumbre, La Joya, La Sidra, La Rondalla, Vinaterías, El Pichol, Yecorato, La Cumbre, Real Blanco, Corral Quemado, La Judía, El Saucillo, Huillachapa, La Culebra, La Mina Fría, Los Llanos, were evicted by the villagers, abandoning their homes, cattle herds, timber forests, mountains and streams. Fear invaded them and to save their skins, they left everything behind.

The unions of Aguacaliente Grande and Baymena report a voluntary exile of more than half of their inhabitants.

In the last two years, more than 100 civilians have been killed or disappeared. About 30 of them belong to a single family, and another thirty belong to Lemo Núñez's hired killers.

One of the last cases was that of Abel Enrique "M", a young man who was presumably killed by the trio of hired killers-state police-military, and whose body was dragged through the ranchers' villages as an example to the villagers.

Days later, the body was taken down by the villagers so that the mourners could bury it, however, the body disappeared from the site, and so far has not been located.

Another murder occurred just at the beginning of the previous week, when an individual was shot in his home.

On many occasions, residents, who requested anonymity, denounced the outrages, but no one listened to them. Omar Gil Santini, mayor of Choix in the 2018-2021 triennium, ignored them and kept things as he received them, but with the arrival of the mayor, Amalia Gastélum Barraza, the situation worsened for the residents of the sierra, as the hired killers not only patrolled the area, but also had the luxury of stationing themselves near the main road.

The mayor of Choix never wanted to receive reporters from Ríodoce to give her version of the facts that the same population imputed to her and that had to do with her omissive policy to police abuse and the collusion of the government with the hired killings.

In this case, the secretary of the municipality, Othón Osuna, on only one occasion denied the versions of complicity with the mafia that governs Choix, and discarded that his boss was involved with the domestic clans. That occasion was the day before the Lobina fishing tournament in the "Huites" dam was suspended due to a shooting.

As a result of that shootout, the tragic incursions of the State Preventive Police into the highlands became more frequent, as well as more recurrent abuses against the civilian population, as well as more profound governmental abuse.

As a result, the gunmen began to appear in public. In this display, the gunmen began to fall victim to friendly fire. In Tabucahui, events of such magnitude occurred, and in that same town a police chief was captured, whom the mayor distinguished as the policeman of the year 2022.

However, the control of the rancherías was never just one side controlling the two access routes to the "Golden Triangle", as the confluence of the states of Sinaloa-Durango-Chihuahua is known, expanding from Bacayopa to Real Blanco.

The campaign of extermination of the civilian population continues to this day.

No one, no authority heeds the call for help from the civilian population.

But this weekend, after the capture of Rafael Caro Quintero in the limits of Choix, the calm returned to the roads, although there are still checkpoints of hired killers from El Potrero de Cancio to San Simon.

The locals say that the head of the gunmen, Adelmo Núñez Molina, went up the mountains, hiding in the vicinity of the place where the Narco de Narcos was captured.

Article published on July 17, 2022 in the 1016 edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

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