In the Sierra de Chihuahua poverty and misery are breathed. It smells like wood, Pino and smoke from chimney. The people are armed and the looks and faces are dry, Corted by the cold that is coming short and that will bury them under the snow. It is also land of Swammerras Indians and its particular worldview of the world. Security forces have been deployed, Beyond capturing the media Chapo, that could walk through these thick and immense forests, To recover a piece of dignity and freedom within Mexico itself. The battle, Beyond weapons and drugs, It has to do with school, Misery and corruption. This is where you have to stand up to win the narco.
The battle narco in the Golden Triangle
-Do you feel that every day can kill you? "I care for will not happen, but it will always be probable ", Eden responds Leopoldo Molina, mayor of Guadalupe y Calvo, Municipality of the Sierra de Chihuahua.
-Are you afraid? “We are afraid, That is what keeps us alive ", Jorge Borunda responds, State Police Commander in the Sierra de Chihuahua.
-Do you remember the faces of the two people who died? "I don't remember your faces, But now that I have just spent the day of the dead I have thought about them ”, Joel Olivas responds, Native to Guadalupe and Calvo, imprisoned and condemned 14 years and 8 months for participating in a double homicide.
-Are you winning or losing the battle with the narco in the mountains? “If you are controlling, Drawing, closing. It is a very difficult activity to avoid, But we can remove municipalities in which they previously acted unpunished ”, Octavio Ledesma responds, Tax of the zona on de chihuahua.
To the four characters mentioned above, an immense succession of mountains converted into a battlefield: The golden triangle. A corner of the Mexican map nestled between the states of Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua, Poor and thick mountains, With high rate of indigenous population and enough shadows to hide from life and death. There is planted, dry, stores and transfers the drug on the way to the great supermarket of the United States (Always unscathed country of criticism, In Mexico the faults are over, Despite being the reason for the whole business). "The golden triangle is a narco -esteem, an area where narcos are the ones that govern ", Francisco Rivas says, Mexican Security Expert and Director of the National Citizen Observatory. Maybe that statement is too much or you may need nuances. At least today it seems that there is battle by the State.
The world has been there, In the Sierra, and has built a story with four protagonists: a mayor and a police commander who have tried to kill, an imprisoned hitman and a prosecutor determined to stand the narco in his own fief. They are the ones who relate this struggle to recover freedom.
The mayor
The night of the 10 June 2013, Leopoldo Eden could not imagine that he was about to become a candidate for mayor of Guadalupe and Calvo. That night, who was then a PRI candidate for mayor, Jaime Orozco, He was kidnapped at his own home in the midst of the electoral campaign. His body appeared days later abandoned in the middle of a mountain gap, They had executed it. "They told me they needed someone from the game, local, that was not a stranger. They could have sent someone from another city, But sometimes one here is selfless, Can you imagine external?”, Eden explains, that until then was responsible for the security of the municipality. "When there was the homicide of the previous candidate everything referred to security and that was my matter for what made me easy for me", The mayor explains today.
What was already more predictable for Eden was what happened 8 September 2014: “A former municipal policeman was allegedly bribed and tried to kill myself with two other shots. I knew how it moved and placed me. They wounded the municipal treasurer and one of my bodyguards. I managed to shoot and hit the main shooter. When they saw that we were repelled they ran out, Everyone fears death. Then they were arrested, They were all from the town ", The mayor explains.
I managed to shoot and hit the main shooter
Eden, that ended secondary and pilot its own plane with which we landed in the mountains, Never do the same route, by land or air, nor has foreseeable schedules. Your family, married and with four children, Live in another city, And he in Guadalupe and Calvo moves with six heavily armed escorts and a rifle on his legs. Do you trust your surroundings? “No, I don't trust my surroundings. There are too smart people on the other side and can infiltrate. I try to see anything strange ", responds.
The councilor, that has a salary of more than 60.000 Monthly pesos (about 3000 EUR) for playing life and appeasing one of the most famous peoples for their violence worldwide, has opted to stand up to the narco. The one who governs is the narco and you do not paint anything? "It is possible that in previous years it was in a percentage. Since I assumed responsibility two years ago that is negative. When I entered it complicated a little, We made several arrests even there were clashes. There was a confrontation that lasted nine and a half hours and ended 4 Dead of the criminals and one of the State Police. It was very strong. The narco is not eradicated by please ask. It is eradicated being strong. Processing them. Before they let them go ", The councilor responds.
The narco is not eradicated by please ask
Little by little, Palm in Palm cases, The battle are winning in part. The people, Guadalupe and Calvo, He has recovered life, some freedom. Their deaths are today more related to the immense municipality and sometimes they occur to 20 Municipal Header's car hours. “The media do not come here and they put everyone in the same bag. Guadalupe and Calvo today is calm although in the war to the narco there is much to do ”, Recognize Eden.
School is the other great battlefield. “We have opened one hundred primary and secondary schools in the municipal area. We explain to boys who can devote themselves to other things. A hitman wins 1500 pesos a week, Like a peasant, But his life is very short: or end up dead or ends in jail ".
About the future, Eden has an objective: "That there are decent housing for all the people and that we are 100% free, that we are not "today". Is your rifle entrusted to save yourself? "My rifle will not save me. I entrust myself to God, To my faith and my philosophical rules (Profess the Yoruba African religion). Death for us is a blessing, Not a misfortune. He who comes later should know that there are risks, that life is not pink color. The problem is that a ruler is comfortable, stay at home and not face. There should be no comfortable rulers ", concludes.
The hitman
To Joel Olivas, Native to Guadalupe and Calvo, Life was twisted at birth. “In my house there was violence since childhood by my father. Then my mother had a new partner who killed for a dispute in a dance ", Explain the today's prisoner 26 years in Parral prison, An international prison prison center and that has a program for prisoners to explain to young people their experience in the world of crime.
Joel tells his life between bars, His conviction is from 14 years and 8 months, With a certain precision until it reaches the moment in which the "event" occurred, name with which death softens on this earth. “I was in a car because I left my mother's restaurant ... Yyyyyy ... then I went with two guys that I didn't know and there was an event, A dispute and a struggle and one was shot ... and I wore a gun because in Guadalupe and Calvo all the boys give him a gun when they are young, a goat horn, And ... I don't remember the face of the people who died ..., But I just accompanied. I did not know that for not denouncing one he entered the jail ”.
I do not remember the face of the people who died
The reality is that Joel seems to accompany a team nicknamed "El Lobito" when they stopped an engineer's car, Carlos Villalobos, who worked in the mines of the Sierra and went with a companion. Both died shot, It seems he shot the wolf, And they stole the car.
“What gives me the most is that I ruined my mother's life, who has closed his negotia in the Sierra and moved to live to El Parral ”, explains. "She is paying for what I did".
The jail, in which he works in the kitchen, has calmed him a little. "Before I was very violent, I jumped with everything. Now I'm learning to calm down ". What would your life be like if you were out? "Probably if it were outside I would be dead".
The prosecutor
Octavio Ledesma, fiscal, The southern zone has touched him, The Sierra, Probably the most fucked area of ??the State, What is much considering that here they have such mythical places of crime as Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua (Things there have improved a lot in recent years). What has changed so that they now talk about the rest of the narco in the mountains? “Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua units were lowered. We have four operations now in the mountain area. If there is an event we are and we leave there in six hours ”.
On the violence of the mountain area, The prosecutor responds in this way: Is it safe in November 2015 The Sierra? “Sí, I go up regularly twice a month ". Do you go up without an escort? “No, I climb with escort, But an organized group does not stop for an escort ". Do you tell citizens that they can move through Guadalupe and Calvo in freedom? Yes. The media speak that in Guadalupe and Calvo there has been one dead and another. When we go up and investigate that Guadalupe and Calvo is the head of a very large area and the dead man is to 12 Hours of the town. Guadalupe and Calvo has been pointed worldwide as a dangerous area and people go up and down there. Is the golden triangle controlled by the narco? It is a zone traveled by the narco, not controlled. The three states converge and it is conducive to the gaps, lends itself to that. Controlled would be that we could not enter there, But we enter ".
It is a zone traveled by the narco, not controlled
Then, Ledesma also talks about the problem of corruption: "In Parral we purify the 40 the 50% of the agents for being involved with the crime. To be a municipal president in the Sierra, a election process is passed. Not for being the chief or the most famous can be mayors, There are intelligence controls for politicians and agents ".
Finally, The prosecutor speaks of improvement of material means (Something that some police officers complained about in the mountains) And who has better weapons for battle: "They can have units and pay shields, most sophisticated armament and areas of greater control, in front of us, that we do not have those same resources, But we have committed elements and training in weapons management and combat techniques. They don't have that. When we confront them in front they will not do anything to us, They only harm us when they hit us by surprise ".
The Police Commander
Jorge Borunda is an experienced police officer who has gone through several bodies. Today he directs his men in the Sierra de Chihuahua as commander of the State Police. We accompany a strong security device during a day, Seven cars, in which state forces are combined, Municipal and Prosecutor. “The state's cars always carry four foot handles prepared to cover all angles. We do vehicle and people controls ", explains Borunda. That day they have apprehended 55 Kilos of marijuana that have been found in a vehicle that has been abandoned by the proximity of the agents to travel through the mountains resembles when traveling in a conflict zone with a military convoy.
His words restorate and tranquility. Commitment to education and win the confidence lost in the police for citizens. “In the urban environment there is a lot of communication with the civilian, People in the rural area are less sociable. It is necessary a proximity police like the one you have in Spain. People are afraid to get to talk to us and see them ", says.
Last year when I left home I was shot eight times
Borunda has lived that foreground violence, He knows that life is played as his men: “Last year when I left home I was shot eight times. They succeeded in the thorax, But luckily I'm alive. I recently went to an act where I told 250 friends and colleagues who had been killed. That was in the wave of violence before 2010. Fear is the one that keeps us alive ", explains.
Your commitment to end the conflict, In addition to standing face the narco, It has a name: “The school, Teach the boys that there are other paths ". In fact, In his work he runs many times with teenagers turned into hitmen. “Many times when you stop them they break cry. They are boys from between 16 and 21 years come from disintegrated families, with a lot of violence and that take chemical drugs ".
Finally remember a recent anecdote that marked him: “Once we worked on a transvestite prostitution issue from 13 and 14 years. Cache.. My soul broke ".
The people
Practically all of the people we talked to pointed to an improvement in security, although always with a certain fear and the awareness that the battle has not ended, It is only starting, that is already something. Maybe who best defined it, Valga as an example, It was the owner of the cabins in which we stayed in Guadalupe and Calvo: “Sí, We are better than a few months ago where this was very strong. Well, that or that we get used to ".
