Julián LeBarón: Drug Traffickers Are Everywhere, It’s Impossible Not To Have Contact

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Julián LeBarón affirmed that the issue of violence is a social problem that should concern and occupy Mexican society and lamented that drug trafficking has managed to position itself in each branch of the population.

Julián LeBarón affirmed that at present "it is impossible" to live in a society without having some type of contact with members of drug trafficking or members of organized crime, after the American Sally Denton affirmed in her new book, the LeBarón family had dealings with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera before the massacre that occurred on November 4, 2019, when gunmen attacked and killed women and minors in the vicinity of the community of La Mora, municipality of Bavispe, Sonora.

“Of course there is this correlation with the drug traffickers, they put checkpoints everywhere, it is impossible to live in society without having contact with these people,” the activist said in an interview with Álvaro Delgado and Alejandro Páez on the Los Periodistas program that is broadcast by the YouTube through SinEmbargo Al Aire channel.

When asked about her opinion regarding the publication of the book The Colony: Faith and Blood In A Promised Land in which, in addition to addressing the Bavispe massacre, the author describes the LeBarons as a "perverse, corrupt, Mormon family, violent and with a relationship with the drug cartels”, Julián LeBarón rejected the accusations and assured that Sally Denton never sought an approach with them.

“She has never approached […] We have paid in blood to defend our freedom, our rights, they have slandered us that we steal water, that we steal land. It is quite outrageous that we raise our voices, that we walk all over the country and that we live by our hands from our work and we teach anyone to work who slanders us as drug traffickers, there is no proof of that and if it were true I imagine that we would already have been in jail a long time ago. 

The Colony: Faith and Blood In A Promised Land, by Sally Denton.

Julián LeBarón highlighted the work that his family has done in Chihuahua and throughout the country for several years. He feels annoyed that they try to justify the murder of several members of his family by linking them to organized crime groups.

"The truth is that it does cause quite a bit of trouble that it is intended to justify the murder of a mother of 13 children, a mother of 7 children and a mother of 6 children by saying that we are drug traffickers, they fired more than 1,500 shots at her," he said in relation to the Basvispe massacre.

Sally Denton, author of The Colony: Faith and Blood In A Promised Land, stated that behind this event, there was "a great message, not for women and children, but for their husbands and fathers." In her book, the writer assures that after the capture and extradition of Guzmán Loera to the United States, the rival groups of the Sinaloa Cartel began to dispute the seats, a situation that put the Mormon community at risk.

“This all fell apart when 'El Chapo' was extradited to the United States and sentenced to life in prison, after which rival groups began fighting over the Sinaloa drug empire, putting the lives of Mormons in danger. ”, said the author in an interview for Daily Beast.

Experts from the Sonora Prosecutor's Office lifted the burnt-out car where several members of the Falimia LeBaron were murdered. 

After the massacre, the then President of the United States, Donald Trump, condemned the events and pressured Mexico to clarify the matter.

"If you need or request help cleaning up these monsters, the United States is ready, willing and able to step in and get the job done quickly and effectively," he said. The massacre meant enormous pressure for the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In a text published by the journalist Lewis Beale in the Daily Beast, details of the book are given and the LeBarons are seen as a family group that has been involved in various violent events for years.

Given the accusations made in the book against his family, Julián LeBaron attributed them to the authorities, as he said, they are in collusion with organized crime groups.

“I attribute it to a political class and some institutions that sell the plaza, that betray us all and sell our freedom, sell our lives and those who pontificate on a daily basis about sovereignty and that now things are different from what they were before. The truth is they betray us day after day”.

In November 2019, nine people from the LeBaron family died in an attack.

Julián LeBarón recalled that the issue of drug trafficking in Chihuahua dates back more than 15 years and assured that the problem of insecurity is not an issue that a Governor can solve.

“Drug trafficking has always been in Chihuahua, in the northwest there are at least 15 towns that have already lost their inhabitants because the laws and institutions of the three government powers have been absolutely and totally incapable of defending our people […] I do not think that a Governor is capable of changing this problem because it is a social problem, a person with the power that a Governor has cannot resist the onslaught of crime, which is aimed only at him because he has no allies in society”.

LeBarón affirmed that the issue of violence is a social problem that should concern and occupy Mexican society and affirmed that in a certain way the author is right in saying that there is a relationship between all Mexicans and “El Chapo Guzmán”, since drug trafficking has managed to position itself in each branch of the population.

"We are so fought and divided between slander, lies and half-truths that it is impossible to face this problem from politics, I believe that this problem is a social problem and that all Mexicans are responsible and in that sense, the writer of this book that we have a relationship with 'El Chapo Guzmán', well, let me tell you, there isn't a Mexican who doesn't have it, we have them deeply embedded in all the institutions and survival requires coexisting in this barbarism because we haven't learned to be united as a society and hold accountable those who betray us from politics”.

Sin Embargo