A group of indigenous women in Mexico sought help from the country’s raging carte violence not by reaching out to authorities or government but to the leader of one of the most sadistic cartels. The women asked the cartel boss to protect them from a regional boss who had been carrying out kidnappings, murders, and extortions in their communities.
In the video, a group of women from the Huichol community in rural Jalisco wore masks as they addressed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, the leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation. They asked the cartel boss to protect them from one of his lieutenants, a man known only as El Rojo. The women claim that the cartel figure has been behind numerous crimes that have targeted innocent locals. The women wore masks in the video, fearing that El Rojo could come after them for exposing him. The women claim that El Rojo has used police officers to extort locals and has imposed taxes on ranchers, small businesses, and even mayors.
“We had never felt so unsafe, so impotent and so unprotected,” one of the women said in the video.
The women claimed El Rojo has been behind the disappearances of indigenous people from their community, and the government has refused to investigate the incidents.
“We have learned through different means that you don’t give those inhumane instructions,” the woman said. “Before this atrocious situation, we want to ask you for our New Year’s present, to remove this vulgar thief and bandit named El Rojo … If we had weapons, we would kill him ourselves, but sadly we don’t.”
The video comes at a time when Mexico’s President President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has refused to fight drug cartels in his country, claiming to be pushing for social programs instead of law enforcement. That approach, colloquially called Hugs Not Bullets, has earned Lopez Obrador widespread criticism from the international community and allegations of corruption and cartel ties from his opponents.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.