Public officials and activists are sounding the alarm that more than 300 children were murdered in the Mexican border state of Baja California during a five-year period. In many cases, those victims were killed as gunmen targeted a loved one nearby.
According to information released by the Baja California State Human Rights Commission, between 2017 and 2022, there were more than 300 underage murder victims in Baja California. The group’s leader, Miguel Angel Mora Marrufo, told the local news outlet AFN Tijuana, that the rise in murders is alarming and he was reaching out to the United Nations after seeing no real response from Mexico’s government.
Mora stated that children are innocent victims and should not be considered collateral damage as government officials have been doing.
The statements come soon after a group of gunmen shot and killed a four-year-old child and injured his mother and 12-year-old brother in Tecate, Baja California. The attack took place last week when the family was driving along a city street and a van pulled up next to them, Mexico’s N+ reported. The gunmen began shooting at the woman and children and chased them down as she tried to flee. Once the woman managed to drive away, she sought medical attention for her children. The gunmen also shot a 24-year-old man who was described as a bystander.
Just days before that murder, gunmen shot and killed two boys, ages 11 and 13, as they slept in their mobile home in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico’s Proceso reported. Since then, authorities arrested one individual and continued to search for several other gunmen who are believed to have shot at the house from outside. Authorities have not revealed if the gunmen were targeting a relative or if they shot at the house by mistake.
The murder took place earlier this month in an area that has been plagued by cartel violence as rival organizations, including the Tijuana Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Cartel Jalisco New Generation, fight for control of lucrative drug corridors and various other businesses such as casinos and brothels.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas.