After nine women and children were shot dead by cartel gunmen in the barren hills of Mexicos Sierra Madre Occidental, 100 members of their fundamentalist Mormon community fled the country for the United States.
Cousins Julin and Adrian LeBarn lost nine close relatives in the ambush, but they never considered leaving the country of their birth. Instead, they have launched a quixotic campaign for justice not just for their slain kin, but for the many thousands of people murdered or vanished amid Mexicos cartel violence.
We have to overcome our fears and do whatever we can to put a stop to this shit, Julin told the Guardian.
The two cousins nut farmers from the high plains of Chihuahua state make unlikely anti-crime activists. But they hope that they can help persuade others to rise up and pressure their public officials to put an end to the bloodletting.
It is no small ambition in a country which last year saw its highest number of homicides since records began and where mass killings fall quickly from the news cycle. Victims of the drug wars are often seen as complicit in their own deaths, and their families left to suffer in silence.
But Julin LeBarn argues that Mexico has endured enough suffering and has precious little left to lose. People have to experience enough fear, enough pain, in order for them to say: what else can they do to me? He added: Its happened to me.
In Mexico, victims relatives and anti-crime activists often end up being targeted themselves, but the LeBarn clan has stubbornly refused to keep quiet, speaking out against both organized crime and the security policies of President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador.
LeBarn recognizes that such outspokenness is only possible because of his familys binational status: their ancestors moved to Mexico in the late 1800s to avoid US polygamy laws, and almost of all of the clan retains US nationality.
Partly because of that, the massacre dominated headlines around the world and prompted the US president to call on Twitter for WAR against Mexicos cartels.
We have dual citizenship. We have the protection of the FBI and Donald Trumps tweets that scare the bejesus out of some people. Who the hell else is going to say something? he said, between sips of macchiato in a crowded Mexico City Starbucks.
They kill four women yesterday in Ciudad Jurez and tomorrow its not going to be news. [But] they killed three women and some kids from our family and its international news, he said.
But the familys relative privilege, also brings responsibility with it, he argued. Were the face and the voice of those women and everyone thats suffering in Mexico.
The LeBarn family first rose to national prominence in 2009, when they refused to pay a ransom after a 16-year-old from their community was kidnapped. The boys elder brother Benjamn LeBarn led a brief campaign to demand action by the authorities and encouraging others to resist extortion before he and his brother were murdered.
Two years later, Julin joined an anti-violence caravan led by the poet Javier Sicilia who hoped the cross-country convoy of victims would force Mexicans to face up to the devastating impact of the violence.
On Thursday, LeBarn will march again with Sicilia who has called for new peace caravans across the country which will converge on the national palace this Sunday.
The new campaign is itself a bleak indicator of the limited progress successive governments have made towards establishing rule of law. Crime statistics have continued to break new records every year: 35,588 people were murdered in 2019 and some 62,000 people have vanished since the current war on drugs was launched in 2006.
Sicilia confessed that he had never planned to organize another national protest, but told the Guardian: I just couldnt take so many more deaths, especially what happened to the LeBarns women and children murdered in such a repugnant, outrageous way.
Lpez Obrador, or Amlo, promised to end the militarized strategy of his predecessors in favor of a vaguely defined strategy of moral renovation and addressing what he considers the root causes of violence: poverty and corruption.
But so far, his promise of hugs not bullets has proved ineffectual: the massacre of the Mormons came just days after gunmen from different groups massacred 13 policemen and besieged an entire city. Meanwhile a new national security force has focused more on stopping Central American migrants than catching drug traffickers.
Caldern sends in the army
Mexicos war on drugs began in late 2006 when the president at the time, Felipe Caldern, ordered thousands of troops onto the streets in response to an explosion of horrific violence in his native state of Michoacn.
Caldern hoped to smash the drug cartels with his heavily militarized onslaught but the approach was counter-productive and exacted a catastrophic human toll. As Mexicos military went on the offensive, the body count sky-rocketed to new heights and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or killed.
Kingpin strategy
Simultaneously Caldern also began pursuing the so-calledkingpin strategyby which authorities sought to decapitate the cartels by targeting their leaders.
That policy resulted in some high-profile scalps notably Arturo Beltrn Leyva who wasgunned down by Mexican marines in 2009 but also did little to bring peace. In fact, many believe such tactics served only to pulverize the world of organized crime, creating even more violence as new, less predictable factions squabbled for their piece of the pie.
Under Calderns successor, Enrique Pea Nieto, the governments rhetoric on crime softened as Mexico sought to shed its reputation as the headquarters of some the worlds most murderous mafia groups.
But Calderns policies largely survived, with authorities targeting prominent cartel leaders such as Sinaloas Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn.
When El Chapo was arrested in early 2016, Mexicos president bragged: Mission accomplished. But the violence went on. By the time Pea Nieto left office in 2018, Mexico had suffered another record year of murders, with nearly 36,000 people slain.
"Hugs not bullets"
The leftwing populist Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador took power in December, promising a dramatic change in tactics. Lpez Obrador, or Amlo as most call him, vowed to attack the social roots of crime,offering vocational trainingto more than 2.3 million disadvantaged young people at risk of being ensnared by the cartels.
It will be virtually impossible to achieve peace without justice and [social] welfare, Amlo said, promising to slash the murder rate from an average of 89 killings per day with his hugs not bullets doctrine.
Amlo also pledged to chair daily 6am security meetings and create a 60,000 strong "National Guard". But those measures have yet to pay off, with the new security force used mostly to hunt Central American migrants.
Mexico now suffers an average of about 96 murders per day, with nearly 29,000 people killed since Amlo took office.
The president has every right to hug people who are attacking him, but he has a monopoly on the use of force and the tools of security, said LeBarn. He has absolutely no right whatsoever to ask any citizen to embrace people that are murdering his family.
He is at pains to stress that he is not an opponent of Amlo, who has twice met members of the LeBarn family since the massacre, and promised that the case will not languish in impunity.
But the familys activism and speculation that Donald Trump might push some kind of intervention against Mexican cartels has stoked a visceral reaction from the presidents most ardent supporters. Hashtags telling the LeBarns to leave Mexico have surged on social media.
Adrin LeBarn, whose daughter Rhonita Lebarn was killed in the Sierra Madre ambush, said he was long used to being labelled a vendepatria or traitor.
Im a nobody over there [in the US] and Im a nobody over here. Im a vendapetria both ways, he said, switching between Spanish and halting English.
Both LeBarns argue that any attempt to confront Mexicos security crisis needs to start at the bottom, unpicking the networks of corruption which have contaminated government at all levels.
And they are skeptical at the idea that any further US involvement could help. If the US were to send a drone to kill [senior Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael] El Mayo Zambada that wouldnt solve a thing, said Adrin.
Read more from the original source:
The Mormons standing up to Mexicos drug cartels: 'We have to overcome our fears - The Guardian
- Chasing the Scream | The First and Last Days of the War on ... [Last Updated On: January 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: January 24th, 2017]
- The president of the Philippines admits his war on drugs has been dirty - The Economist [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- PDEA: Army to play support role in war on drugs - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Ruto camps in Mombasa, says war on drugs intensified - Daily Nation [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Words won't win war on drugs - The West Australian [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Letter: The failed 'war on drugs' divides country - Rockford Register Star [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Congressmen: Let's take a new look at the war on drugs - AZCentral.com [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- War on drugs not war vs poor: Cayetano - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- President Duterte Threatens to Extend Drug War and Kill Korean ... - Newsweek [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Magufuli adds weight to war on drugs - The Herald [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Philippines: Duterte must end his "war on drugs" - Amnesty International [Last Updated On: February 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 8th, 2017]
- Seares: Branding the war on drugs | SunStar - Sun.Star [Last Updated On: February 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 8th, 2017]
- Opposition against President Duterte's war on drugs mounting: UN investigator - WION [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- WANG: War on Drugs requires smarter, more realistic approach - RU Daily Targum [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Shahbal to introduce tough laws to curb drug abuse - Daily Nation [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Trump Watch: Emboldened cops and border patrol agents, a more 'ruthless' war on drugs, and threats against the ... - Washington Post [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Palma: Church leaders will continue to oppose bloody war on drugs ... - Inquirer.net [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- In Trump's 'ruthless' vow, experts see a return to the days of the drug war - Washington Post [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- DERMODY: War on Drugs requires more than 'quick-fix' - RU Daily Targum [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Rights agency calls for sober talk in war on drugs - Daily Nation [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Mexico Should Ask Trump to Pay For The Drug War - AlterNet [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Trump on Drug War: 'We're Going to be Ruthless ... We Have No Choice' - CNSNews.com [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Why war on drugs fires up our soft political underbelly - The Standard (press release) [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- President Duterte Changes and Defends Philippine Drug War - Voice of America [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- War on drugs has left us with a latticework of crime - The Boston Globe [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Increasing opposition in Philippines to war on drugs: UN official - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Unnecessary fighting south of the border: Mexico should ask Trump to pay for the drug war - Salon [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Trump Goes Full Nixon on Law-and-Order Executive Orders, Vows 'Ruthless' War on Drugs and Crime - AlterNet [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Death of a businessman: How the Philippines drugs war was slowed - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- President Trump Signs Executive Order Ramping Up The War On ... - TheFix.com [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Sh170m heroin recovered in war on drugs at Coast - The Standard (press release) [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Duterte militarises the war on drugs in the Philippines - World Socialist Web Site [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- After war on drugs, it's 'war vs illegal gambling' for PNP - Rappler [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- President Trump Just Renewed the War on Drugs - MERRY JANE - MERRY JANE [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Is Ending The War On Drugs A Panacea? - Modern Times Magazine [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Scott Pendleton: Civil forfeiture is an important tool in fighting the war on drugs - Tulsa World [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Vows 'Ruthless' War on Drugs and Crime - The Daily Chronic [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Simonson: The war on drugs - La Crosse Tribune [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- History of the War on Drugs - About.com News & Issues [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Trump goes full Nixon on law-and-order, vows ruthless war on drugs and crime - Salon [Last Updated On: February 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2017]
- Go whole hog in war on drug lords - The Standard (press release) [Last Updated On: February 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2017]
- Duterte's 'war on drugs' in the Philippines - Deutsche Welle [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- A man of God in the Philippines is helping document a bloody war on drugs - Columbia Journalism Review [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Reckoning with the Addict and the U.S. War on Drugs - OUPblog (blog) [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Duterte calls for stronger AFP support in war on drugs, terror - Inquirer.net [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- In Manila, Catholics March Against War on Drugs Tactics - Voice of America [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Losing the war on drugs - The Review [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Why we can't seem to end the War on Drugs | TheHill - The Hill (blog) [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Philippine's Rodrigo Duterte urged to drop charges against leading war on drugs critic - Telegraph.co.uk [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- HRW on war on drugs: PH needs 'international intervention' - Rappler [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Napolcom: Police need to regroup, rethink role in war on drugs - Inquirer.net [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Study: Mexican Military Should Not Have Intervened In Country's ... - Fronteras: The Changing America Desk [Last Updated On: February 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 21st, 2017]
- The 'War On Drugs' Has Been A Deadly Failure - Huffington Post Australia [Last Updated On: February 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 21st, 2017]
- Senator fighting Philippine president's war on drugs charged without 'iota of evidence,' lawyer says - CBC.ca [Last Updated On: February 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 21st, 2017]
- Thousands of Filipino Catholics march against death penalty, war on drugs - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Our Aggressive "War on Drugs" Is Not Actually About Drugs - AlterNet [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- War on drugs: a failing battle against suffering - The Suffolk Journal [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Shots fired in war on drugs - Commonwealth Journal's History [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Ureport: WAR ON DRUGS NOT ABOUT PERSONAL FIGHTS - The ... - The Standard (press release) [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Philippines to defend Duterte's drug war at UN rights body - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Hidden victims of war on drugs - The Phnom Penh Post [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Palace: Arrest order vs De Lima a 'fulfillment' of war on drugs - Inquirer.net [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Trump administration signals new war on drugs, crackdown on marijuana use - ThinkProgress [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Opponent of Duterte's drugs war arrested in Philippines on drug charges - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Philippine citizens protest Duterte's drug war on anniversary of dictatorship overthrow - Deutsche Welle [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- How Rodrigo Duterte's War On Drugs Looks In Colombia - Worldcrunch [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Dela Rosa hopes PNP can focus on drug war anew - Banat [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
- Philippine police say ready to return to war on drugs as dealers return - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
- Our View: White House plan reignites wasteful war on drugs - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
- Engaging With The War On Drugs In Ubisoft's Wildlands Documentary - TheSixthAxis [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- There's one last big-ticket item on Trump's agenda: A war on drugs - Raw Story [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- No need to relaunch war on drugs: Duterte aide - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- The Junkie and the Addict: The Moral War on Drugs - Harvard ... - Harvard Political Review [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Duterte orders return of police to war on drugs - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Yasay: Flak on war on drugs, De Lima arrest just 'partisan politics' - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Duterte brings back police into war on drugs - Banat [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Philippine president to bring police back into war on drugs - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Bands I Pretended to Like for Boys. Part Ten: The War on Drugs ... - TheStranger.com [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Donald Trump Drug War Strategy | National Review - National Review [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]