[T]hey gave [Trevio] a quota of 10,000 pesos [about $850 USD] every 20 days, and he did not get involved in what [deleted] was doing. Nearly all of those interviewed agreed that the surge in violence and the general pattern of police cooperation with the Zetas was evident for at least a year or two before the March 2011 massacre. . The missing from the Allende massacre are among the 13,000 the . He said he recognized many of the Zetas gathered there.[13]. . "How the U.S. And he told me to get out of the house and to go to my moms house [W]hen I got to my moms house, my husband called again to tell me that things were getting really ugly; that they had broken into my house and stolen our truck.- Complaint of Sarah Angelita Lira, November 11, 2014. The Tamaulipas massacre: how the American Dream dies in Mexico [T]hey brought them there to the Los ngeles Cemetery near the Piedras Negras city seminary, and also more people. Few had the courage to defy Los Zetas. 2018 is on track to be Mexico's deadliest year on record with over 20,000 homicides so far. December 9, 2020, Advirti EU riesgo ante mandos mexicanos corruptos The Massacre In Allende | VICE on HBO (Extra) - YouTube During Mexico's unknown massacre, Los Zetas carried out a systematic extermination by killing and incinerating more than 400 people in Allende and the surrounding towns. [A]nd how the Zetas were shouting at them and hitting and mistreating them, the then-chief of the department told investigators in his 2014 statement to state prosecutors. I didnt know which of them woke me up with cold water since Id been asleep. In 2011, Drug Enforcement Agency officials informed Mexican . Warning: violence in San Miguel de Allende : r/digitalnomad - reddit Where did your husband leave my husband? one asked. [7] GAFE stands for Grupo Aeromvil de Fuerzas Especiales (Airmobile Special Forces Group). There was a fire coming from a small building inside the ranch alongside armed men who did not seem like they were police, according to the former volunteers statement. American authorities eventually helped Mexico capture the Trevios but never acknowledged the devastating cost. At that moment, I also realized that near a large bodega that was about 70 meters away from where I was there were various people from the town, who the Zetas were shouting at and mistreating, and who I knew because they were from the [deleted] family. He said that Los Zetas commanders then forced him and another Zeta, who he identified as Chucho, to kill two of the hostages, including Everardo Elizondo, the ranch hand who had stopped by the ranch to prepare for the cockfight. How DEA Informers Sparked a Massacre in Mexico - The Daily Beast To date, only a handful of Zetas and corrupt police officials have been convicted in a case that involves dozens of crime scenes, hundreds of victims, and the documented participation of numerous Zetas and public officials. Lilianas husband, Arturo, had also been unable to reach his wife or her parents. After three days of abuse, on the night of March 20, the Zetas took him to the Garza ranch and put him to work managing the incoming truckloads of corpses along with a few living hostages. The targets included the families of Juniors father, Jos Luis Garza y Garza, and his unclesVctor, Rodolfo, and Sergio. Tagged: Allende best of vice news 2014 Border CARTELS Coahuila crime & drugs Diego Enrique Osorno Drugs garza massacre mexico moreira the five springs villanueva zetas VICE News Get the latest . "Nos rene la necesidad de enfrentar como pas y como Estado . Mauricio, the infant son of Liliana lvarez and Arturo Espinoza, was never seen again. premiering June 30. It is not clear why members of the the military unit thatexamined the ranch did not secure the property or, evidently, take any additional steps to comprehend what was happening in Allende. The town's mayor believes 30 to 40 Allende families were exterminated, and he has a list of 34 houses that were destroyed. An important moment seems to have come in March 2015, when state investigatorssaw a familiar patternemerge in three seemingly unrelated cases. And the mayor commented on what was happening in the city, but never said if he was going to ask for help or if he had advised anyone of what was happening. The National Security Archive is committed to digital accessibility. THE DOCUMENTS. [5]More recently, Lpez Obradorsignaled his intentionto eliminate the autonomous state organ charged with guaranteeing access to human rights documents like these, the National Institute of Access to Public Information and Personal Data (INAI). When the Zetas arrived in Allende a decade ago, they infiltrated the very . Remembering the Allende Massacre - BlogTest Three and a half years later, what stood out to these firefighters was the conspicuous police presence, the brutal treatment of the captives, and the threats directed at them by Zetas members. Prosecutors said at least a dozen specially trained police officials may also have been involved. And after five or six hours during which the corpses were cooked it was then around five or six oclock in the morning. When we arrived at the ranch, they went inside the houses and I began to hear many shots fired and people shouting, and they began to throw the bodies of dead people in the bed of the truck, and later they tellme Get down here, asshole, and tie up this fucking bitch I tied up a man who seemed to be a worker at the Garza ranch, but I did not know this person. But a few minutes later he called me saying that neither his father nor his sister were answering and that there were many trucks and armed men guarding the entrance to the ranch. She toldProPublicathat, after separating the children from their parents, the kidnappers held them for several days before leaving the two older kids at a park. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico, by Ginger Thompson, ProPublica, June 12, 2017. Closer look at massacre in Mexico reveals glimpse of corruption Descendants of 1918 Porvenir Massacre Fight For Recognition - Time Is Netflix drama Somos. based on a true story? - Radio Times Despite the brutality of the case, major U.S. TV and print outlets have largely ignored the kidnapping and murder of hundreds of people from Allende, Coahuila. Did United States Trigger a Drug Cartel Massacre in Mexico? Warning: violence in San Miguel de Allende. Gunmen Storm Wake in Mexico, Killing at Least Nine He didnt have anything to do with crime, nor did his family, since they were kidnapped by mistake.. [14] In many cases, the names of the people identified by firefighters Lpez Tamez and De Len Ramos are legible behind clumsily applied redactions. An Army unit was sent to Rancho Garza to investigate. And he was waiting for his brother-in-law [Later,] he told me that they spent the entire night looking for his family; that he had entered the ranch from the back through an opening, and that he realized that he was alone in the ranch house, and that he was there with the expectation that they were holding his sister and his niece and nephews all with the last name Espinoza Garza, who on the day of the acts were seven months, three years, and six years of age.- Complaint of Sarah Angelita Lira, November 11, 2014. Schamus presents the trailer and key art for his new drama series Somos. Rodolfo Snchez Robles, who worked as a chauffeur and mechanic for the Garza family, seemed to know something was wrong on the day he disappeared. The slowly unfolding investigation of the Allende massacre finally gained some momentum with the establishment of a special task force in 2014. An Allende police radio operator who worked closely with the shift commanders said in his declaration that a ranking Zetas member[17]would sometimes come by the police station and take people from city jail cells with the full knowledge of the police director and commander, both of whom, he said, were paid by the Zetas. Contemporaneous records from the Mexican military, obtained through a separate access-to-information request, confirm that the Army receivedmultiple reports about the ongoing violence in and around Allende. But he did not say anything to me. State investigative police in Coahuila said her testimony pointed to the method of operations of organized crime at that time in relation to the kidnappings in the northern region of the state of Coahuila and was one of the first clear signals that the Allende massacre was connected to many other cases around the region. [13] Bracketed items identified in portions of the Herrera Estrada declaration published by Zcalo. Hours later, his daughter was one of the last people to see him alive. To me in particular they gave me 2,000 pesos [per month].-Declaration of former Allende police official, July 22, 2014. In towns like Allende, Los Zetas relied mainly on local recruits and corrupt officials to protect their narcotics operations, shake down local businesses, and keep watch for rival gangs and other threats. 1:07. That things were going to get ugly.-Declaration of former Allende police shift commander, September 18, 2016. There were not many of us. Fax: 202/994-7005Contact by email. He told her about other people from the region who the Zetas had kidnapped and killed, including a pregnant teenager and the nephew of the former mayor of Piedras Negras. Photograph via . Bri Rooke. [6]In January, the bodies of 19 Central American migrants werefound in Tamaulipas, a neighboring Mexican border state and the site of hundreds of still largely unexplained migrant murders over the past eleven years. The Archive pried open the files using a special provision of Mexicos access law requiring the release of information relating to human rights violations. 'Somos.', the fictionalized retelling of the massacre that took place in the town of Allende, is now streaming on Netflix (Netflix) 'Somos.', which began streaming on Netflix on June 30, may involve a fictionalized perspective of the victims of the shocking massacre that took place in the town of . In 2019, the state had a homicide rate of about 61 . Netflix series inspired by story of 2011 massacre in Allende, Coahuila Many of the nine women and children killed on a remote stretch of highway in northern Mexico Monday were shot at point-blank range -- victims of a targeted assassination that Mexican authorities . How one reporter uncovered the U.S. role in a massacre in Mexico Because if you dont [keep quiet] theyre going to kidnap you too.. April 16, 2018, US: Mexico Mass Graves Raise "Alarming Questions" about Government "Complicity" in September 2014 Cartel Killings [4]Mexicos National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) has sinceposted the declassified volumeson its website, but they are not easy to find without a direct link. 'Are.' from Netflix: learn the true story of the Allende massacre When the Zetas became aware of our presence, and that we were there to put out the fire, they said to us: You guys get the fuck out of here! The National Security Archive marks this grim anniversary by publishing an evidentiary history of the Allende massacre focusing on key documents and testimony from a 4,000-page dossier of investigative records compiled by Mexican prosecutors in the state of Coahuila.[3]. Senior officers, including the police director, commander, and shift commanders, were paid more handsomely than regular cops. And out of fear that they would do something to me if I disobeyed orders, I had to kill a person, that being Everardo Elizondo, who was about 30 or 35 years old, to whom I gave a shot in the head. I recall that he was light-skinned, thin, of medium height, around 20 or 25 years of age, and they brought him in with his hands and feet tied up and with his face covered with tape.- Declaration of Zetas safe house guard, part 2, March 2, 2016, After a few days, he said, members of Los Zetas came and took him away in the bed of a pick-up truck, adding that he heard that they were going to turn him into roast beef, which is to say, that they were going to cook him.. The above account was confirmed by several others, including one of the shift commanders. Others were simply picked up off the street. That is to say, the [Garza] ranch. Please do not fill in this field. Edited by Michael Evans. The official, town council secretaryEvaristo Rodrguez Chapa, said he called police director Trevio to let him know what was happening, to which he replied: Dont even fart, you asshole. On the evening of March 20, 2011, Yuliana Lpez Ibarra heard the sounds of gunfire and the desperate cries of her mother-in-law coming through the tiny speaker on her husbands cell phone. What they saw, before fleeing for their lives, was the beginning of the grimly methodical process often used by the Zetas to destroy the bodies of their victimsto eliminate the primary evidence of the crime. [H]e was telling me that he wanted to look for the Zetas to see what they were asking for the return of his family. They watched as gang members led their victims into a larger shed near the back. From the highway, smoke could be seen coming from the interior of the ranch. [3] Some portions of these files have been excerpted elsewhere, including in reports from the CNDH and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), which cites many of these same records. This was the brutal and forgotten Allende massacre in Mexico portrayed Hundreds Believed Disappeared in Allende Massacre - Al Jazeera [17] The Zetas member is not identified in the text but from context appears to be El Canelo. La masacre de Allende, Coahuila, forma parte de la historia ms siniestra de Mxico. SALTILLO, Mexico In the waning days of January 2014 state and federal security forces along with military troops fanned out across the scrubland of Coahuila in northern Mexico, reportedly in search of human remains.. Over 20 days, some 250 masked agents combed the ranches and towns of Allende, Nava, Acua and Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, for the victims of a . In March 2011, gunmen from the Zetas Cartel slaughtered innocent men, women and children in the small Mexican town of Allende in retaliation for the betrayal. "This new law is requiring all foreign agents to report any interaction with Mexico. For this reason, it can be inferred and there exists reasonable certainty that the disappeared people given the time and the place where they disappeared, have been kidnapped by people linked to organized crime, specifically by [deleted] and using the same operational methods. jschwartz@statesman.com. Texting with her husband throughout the night, Sarah learned bits and pieces of what he and Arturo were up to. Netflix drama series Somos. In the latter group was Csar Alfonso Garca Ramrez, who had just returned home to Coahuila for a visit from his job in Texas. Eastern District of Texas | High-Ranking Member of Los Zetas Cartel They began to see Allende not as an isolated spasm of violence but rather as one of the most explosive episodes of a wider problem of criminal violence and systematic subversion of legal authorities throughout the region. Family members lost contact with Rodolfo and his daughter, Liliana Garza de la Torre, on the night of March 18. Allende massacre. Go fuck your mother! He told her to cancel the birthday party they were planning for her the next week. The recent violence is also a reminder that Mexican authorities have largely failed to protect the countrys civilian population from historically high levels of violence or to alleviate the effects of an ever-deepening security crisis. Yesterday I heard machine guns right outside my door on Independencia. For reference to U.S. training and other background, see our previous Electronic Briefing Book, especially Document 1 and Document 2. (AP) MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash . The Allende massacre - in which, according to the families of the victims, there were more than 300 people dead or missing - remained hidden for almost two years. In November 2019, CDN gunmenriddled the city hall with gunfireand engaged in a gun battle with federal forces that leftat least 21 dead. Allende massacre Archives - JUSTICE IN MEXICO 6/27/2017 (written by Lucy Clement La Rosa)- Over six years ago, a small ranching community near the Texas border of Mexico bore witness to the vengeful assault of Las Zetas, one of Mexico's historically violent drug trafficking organizations. For which reason I left the circus and I parked about two blocks from the house And outside the house I saw a red, four-door, Chevrolet pick-up truck with a bull bar [tumba burros] on the front. They had brought people from Sabinas, among others an ex-federal highways official and other people from the municipalities of Zaragoza and Morelosthis was weeks after what happened in Allende.- Complaint of wife of murdered Zeta, November 13, 2014. Among the evidence are the first complaints filed by the loved ones of those who went missing, the sworn declarations of Zetas members, Allende police and other city officials, the statements of firefighters and others who witnessed the violence, along with hundreds of pages of forensic reports, crime scene photos and related material. Through the gate, she could see what appeared to be bodies piled up next to a burning building. Of particular importance was the November 2014 testimony of a woman from Piedras Negras whose husband, himself a member of the Zetas, had been kidnapped, detained, and later killed by the group in 2010. That they will help us and will help the people. But this is the first time that images of records from the case file have been published in their original form (although many of the pages have been redacted by CNDH for public release). [At the meeting] were the mayor, the city council secretary , the person in charge of civil protection the police director and me. Audio series examines DEA culpability in 2011 Allende massacre. To date, prosecutors have managed only a handful ofconvictions in a case that involves dozens of crime scenes, hundreds of victims, and the documented participation of numerous Zetas and public officials. The wife of another victim, a heavy machinery mechanic who worked for the Garza family, also went looking for her husband on the morning of the March 19. They found that the Zetas committed numerous human rights abuses in Coahuila with impunity and that public institutions and officials played a role, by actions or omissions in the abuses (p.24). The truth is I accepted them, one said of the payments, because I needed to take care of my family, and also because they told us that we had to enter the ring, because if we didnt, they were going to harm us, or kill us or someone from our family. He explained why, after16 years on the force, he finally quit the Allende police late in 2011. In April of 2014 . The attack . For years after the massacre, Mexican authorities made only desultory efforts to investigate. The Allende Massacre in Mexico: A Decade of Impunity | National Is Netflix's 'Somos.' a true story? Horrifying Allende massacre still Herrera said he knew many of the victims as well. Somos ("We are" or "We Exist" in English) is a Spanish Television Mini-Series based on the ProPublica article " How the U.S. triggered a massacre in Mexico. Or do you want the same thing to happen to you or to your families?-Declaration of Allende fire chief, December 17, 2014. 2011 San Fernando massacre - Wikipedia Four years later, and ten years since the Allende massacre, the families of those victimized by the Zetas and other criminal groups in Coahuilaare still waitingto learn whether the ICC will take up the case. This article was posted in Borderland Beat mainpage on March 26, 2011. El Pjaro said that a group of victims that had been tied up inside the ranch house were later taken out back to the bodega where they were killed with a shot to the head. Arts & Culture. [T]he director, who almost never left his office, knew all about this. He always knew what was happening here.- Declaration of former Allende police official, November 12, 2014, 17:30. Most of them, he said, were killed and cremated inside the state prison in Piedras Negras. They erected a monument in Allende to honor the victims without fully determining their fates or punishing those responsible. How the U.s. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico Both in charge of Los Zetas, Allende's is a much less known story. And what I did, in that place, together with [Chucho] was carry containers filled with gasoline and diesel to the bodega, which was filled with hay. The newly released files on Allende, including evidence gathered in the weeks and months immediately following the massacre, show just how inadequate these investigations have been. For years after the massacre, Mexican authorities made only desultory efforts to investigate. [18]On homicide rate, see this report from the University of San Diegos Justice in Mexico program; On impunity, see, Mexicos bloody drug war is killing more people than ever, Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2017. The new Netflix series, "Somos.," (We Are), offers a respectful but powerful look at the Allende massacre, one of the most brutal episodes of Mexico's war on organized crime, which sets it apart from other narco-series. ALLENDE, Coahuila - Only abandoned and destroyed farms and the self-imposed silence of the inhabitants of Allende remain after the massacre perpetrated in this city in . Nine people, including three mothers and six children, lost their lives Monday when they were shot execution-style while traveling to a wedding in Mexico. [5] The Mexican government signaled its intention to soften some of the more severe restrictions imposed by the new law. Allende, el infierno: Los testigos de la masacre, Zcalo (Coahuila), July 10, 2017. He went on to say that now that Mexico has reformed its National Security Law, authorities from the U.S. could find themselves connected to another massacre similar to the incident in Allende. According to Thompsons reporting, [t]he wave of killings was unleashed after DEA agents shared the PIN codes with a specially vetted Mexican Federal Police (MFP) group known as the Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU), which had a record of leaking information to violent and powerful drug traffickers., That report was followed by the2018 convictionin U.S. federal court of the longtime head of the SIU, Ivn Reyes Arzate, who prosecutors say conspired with some of the very drug cartels he was to pursue as director of the specially trained, U.S.-funded intelligence unit. The study sought to determine the treatment and reparations of the State to the victims of the massacre of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, in August 2010, and the disappearance of an unknown number of people in Allende, Coahuila, in March 2011. Soon, Coahuila state authorities discovered links to other violence in the regionin Piedras Negras, on the border, and across the Cinco Manantiales (Five Springs), a group of neighboring towns in northern Coahuila that includes Allende, Morelos, Nava, Zaragoza and Villa Unin, site of numerous cartel attacks in recent years. For years after the massacre, Mexican authorities made only desultory efforts to investigate. And there were approximately from seven to ten people that we tied up with rats tails. Remembering the Allende Massacre. " We will try to look upon those individuals who caused the Allende Massacre. People from the town stole the furniture, vehicles, and machinery [from the houses] and sold it for scrap metal.- Declaration of Germn Zaragoza Snchez (El Canelo), April 8, 2014, 10:00am. The horrifying persistence of brazen cartel attacks like these is a reminder of how little has changed in Mexico, especially in the border states of Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Len. The Zetas organizational structure includes counterintelligence, intelligence and tactical enforcement units.. -Declaration of Allende volunteer firefighter, December 17, 2014. De Len also remembered the moment, as they were leaving, when he saw the Zetas lead the victims into the bodega. And this began to occur more or less in the years 2010 and 2011, which was about when Los Zetas got started in the region.- Declaration of former Allende police official, November 12, 2014, 15:20. And that if we didn't obey, they were going to fuck us and our families. Many of the victims were ordinary laborers at the Garza properties. [16] Exoneran a ex alcalde de Allende, Coahuila, ligado a masacres de 2011, El Financiero, Feb. 10, 2017. The plan, he said, was to kidnap and kill everyone. When more Zetas and various patrols of the municipal police arrived later they knocked down the main gate of the Garza ranch by ramming it with a truck, according to Jimnez. In fact, the meeting only lasted around ten minutes.-Declaration of Juan Ariel Hernndez Ramos, Allende police commander, August 18, 2016. Child survivors of massacred family spent 10 hours hiding in Mexican This story was originally published by ProPublica. How the U.S. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico ProPublica [W]hen the Zetas realized that we were there, they said to us, Youd better get the hell out of here, motherfuckers! Prosecutors disagreed, arguing that Lozano collaborated with Los Zetas, was aware of the attacks before they began, and had failed in his obligation to protect the people of Allende. Justice in Mexico 5998 Alcal Park, San Diego, CA. She told investigators what she learned from a series of telephone conversations with her husbands captor. Germn Zaragoza Snchez, better known as El Canelo, was a top Zetas boss in Allende and managed a group hawks who monitored and reported on the movements of state and federal security forces. Zetas - InSight Crime What Do American Officials Know About the Allende Massacre? Mexican Federal Police collect ashes, bone fragments and other bits of evidence from the Garza Ranch on January 28, 2014 (Source: Document 40: Field Criminology Opinion Report, January 28, 2014). Also the commander, [Hernndez Ramos], who never did anything since he also was working for the Zetas and received money, but I dont know how much And [an unnamed Los Zetas member] would come in like he was in his own house, without anyone saying a thing about it.- Declaration of former Allende police official, November 12, 2014, 17:30, Multiple witnesses said that Trevio called them to a meeting three days before the massacre began on March 18, 2011, telling them that he and Lozano had met with Los Zetas and had agreed to stand down municipal authorities for the criminal group. One U.S. law enforcement officialsaid that [Reyes] Arzates corruption as the highest-ranking officer in the MFPs Sensitive Investigative Unit allowed violent cartels to continue the flow of drugs through the region without consequence.. Las Cruces bowling alley massacre still unsolved after 30 years No one is sure exactly how many were killed, and the methods used by the Zetas to dispose of the bodiesincinerating them in barrels of gasoline and diesel fuelmake it unlikely that there will ever be a definitive count of victims.[2]. On March 20, 2011, my husband and I went to the Garrison of Kilometer 53 to talk with the military officials and we told them what had happened. And as there were three barrels we put one dead body in each barrel. She learned that her husbands friend, Hector, had also been called away and picked up by the same white truck that came for Rodolfo.