A Right to Kill?
Jul 10th, 2009 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Politics
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THE BORDER REPORT
The government of Chihuahua seems to find it appropriate to turn its Anglo residents into weapon-toting vigilantes and let them deal with any future kidnappings or murders that come down on the Mormon communities in the state.
The attorney general stepped up to offer training in the polygamist community of LeBaron after a brutal execution earlier this week. Benjamin LeBaron was kidnapped along with a relative, taken from his home under threat of a grenade attack. He was beaten of his family, some reports say the killers attempted to rape his wife; the two bodies were found on a dirt trail outside of town on Monday. In response, his brother Julian says the community’s cut a deal with the state.
“The governor is telling us that he can make it happen if we give him people that know how to use weapons. … that if they already have a knowledge of how to use weapons that he could train them and give us at least a couple of guys in 30 days,” LeBaron told The Associated Press.
Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez says: “We are taking the necessary steps to make them community police.”
It’s a deadly crucible and one, I predict, that’s going to turn sloppy fast. The Mormon community is spoiling for a fight, the problem is the whack-jobs who are giving them one are feral and violent, backed by a corrupt police force and an apathetic government that’s done little to stem the flow of violence anywhere else in Mexico’s biggest state. As some of you astutely noted, those being blamed for the murder job are members of La Linea. The obvious question needs to be raised, why aren’t Mexicans who deal with the same type of situations every day, in Palomas, in Nicolas Bravo, in Ciudád Juárez, having the same courtesies extended to them? Mexico has some of the toughest gun restrictions in the world, it’s illegal to carry more than a .32 caliber pistol or a hunting rifle and even for those, you need stringent Army permissions. The Anglos receive blessings from the government to arm themselves and mobilize. Mexicans are simply cursed.
The message I’m getting is loud and clear: Mexicans caught up in violence, kidnapping and murder probably deserved it. It’s the same rationalization we hear every day: the cartel violence only affects those who are involved, wealthy and powerful Anglos with dual citizenship cannot possibly be involved.
I’ve often wondered at Mexico’s relationships with the Mormon communities in Chihuahua and Sonora. Colonia LeBaron was founded nearly a century ago by Latter Day Saints churchmembers who wanted to continue practicing polygamy. In 2002, the state of Arizona raided the small northern state community of Colorado City, searching for Mormon leaders wanted on child polygamy charges. Some of those fled to Chihuahua where, we’ve always been told, they weren’t accepted because polygamy is one thing and child exploitation an entirely different matter. Some 15 percent of Colonia LeBaron’s married folk are in polygamous relationships, a status that is as illegal in Mexico as it is in the U.S. Yet the communities are mostly left alone, untouched and unmonitored, its populace working as farmers, businessowners and ranchers.
Two months ago, a 17-year-old from the community was abducted for ransom. That led to some 25 arrests in nearby Nicolas Bravo. Then Meredith Romney, a powerful maquila owner and LDS leader, was kidnapped about two weeks ago. That little piece of news was kept out of the media until BorderReporter.com readers dragged it out of the shadows. The Mormon community, perhaps not realizing the level of corruption and ineptitude they were dealing with (??!), staged protests, demanding better security measures from the Mexican government. That’s something Mexicans have screamed ad nauseum from Baja California to Nuevo León to D.F. – and mostly ignored. Here’s a story out of Culiacán from today’s protest of an unsolved massacre of nine people a year ago. Benjamin LeBaron led many of those protests; his murder was the result.
What we’re left with is an enraged community of Mormons with powerful allies north of the border and the backing of the state government preparing to defend itself against armed gangs. And if that’s not the beginning of a new chapter in this desmadre of a drug war, I’m not a border reporter.
O los estan aventando al matadero.
Who thinks that this people can even do something with arms?.
They would not fix anything with going armed.
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I read this story yesterday in another news sources, as too I read a couple articles from other sources today. You raise an interesting point, and to large extent I have the feeling. To answer your question as to why the government would arm the Anglos and not the Mexicans: I believe the answer lies with the government’s long held fear that if the ‘people’ were armed they would not be so submissive, teven to the point of overthrowing those in power. Personaly I see only good to come from their decision to arm these Mormons for this reason: it now gives the Mexican people a stronger voice should they in fact use it, to gain arms themselves.
Harry
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Those 25 sicarios arrested was being said that they were Chapo’s people and that El General was there main man in that group, but its being kept out that they belonged to Chapo’s crew and now they throw the blame that it was La Linea that killed these 2 people out of revenge for dropping the dime on those 25 sicarios…. I just know that the stories coming out of this whole story is fookED!!!! Someone or everyone hasthis story all jacked up, why would La Linea take out these 2 people if the 25 that were captured were Chapo’s people… makes no sense at all……
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they are not referring to the 25 sicarios as chapo’s guys anymore, now they are a “paramilitary group”, and as right now there is a video on youtube saying that they were not even sicarios or paramilitary, they were a group of youg guys whe were going to support the local mayor because they had no police force at that time because the local cops were arrested by the army, and on top of that, they are accusing la linea of organ trafficking, here is the link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD_HwRSK9AQ
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I think the community should be allowed to arm and defend itself against these
ruffians/mobsters/kidnappers/cartel members or just plain crooks. If they can do this with success then maybe other communities will follow their lead. It is about time Gonzales did something that we can actually see happening. From what the people of Col.Le Baron say, they feel they are Mexicans, not Americans. The fact that some hold duel citizenship and have relatives in the USA, has helped the situation gain prominences in the eyes of Mexico and the world press. With out this prominence the whole thing would probably been swept under the carpet and soon forgotten. I think this in combination the the Day Care deaths may make Mexico wake up and try and improve itself, at lest I hope so.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/611248.html.
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Huera….I am grateful for your comment. Something has to be done and I feel it starts now. The Mormon section is one of the few that visually you can tell who the citizens are. Thats not racist , its a fact. Part of the ongoing problem is, no one can tell who the good guys are, the bad guys, the cops, the army. I am normally not for vigilante uprising, but reality dictates that enough is enough. Mexico’s gun laws are like Mexico’s laws on the ‘death penalty’ it is a joke. It only applies if you follow the laws of government. That means getting to a fair trial, receiving a sentence and the death penalty not being an option. For most, they are dead before they ever get to trial. I am so tired of hearing how innocents are not part of this massacre, like anyone takes the strategic time to protect innocents and children when they start spraying bullets. Lets deal with the reality of the way things are.
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i think arming foreigners is a bad idea. texas anyone?
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Texas has other options, like 911….Mexico does not.
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Better look a little closer at some of the Lebarons. Some of them have been trafficing for 3 decades.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/59038_4.htmlhttp://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/59038_4.html
Read the 5th paragraph in above link. Daniel Lebaron Melchor was from Col. Lebaron as are his primos the Lebaron Sotos. The Lebaron Melchor Matriarch was originally from Puebla. The Lebaron Soto Matriach was originally from Gomez Farias, Chihuahua.
Daniel was killed in Magdelena, Sonora. He was a thug and a bully.
el valiente vives hasta el cobarde quire
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