The transfer of drugs is the lesser of the evils that organized crime leads to a city like Reynosa.
And actually, clashes armed the tip of the iceberg. It's barely visible forms of a much bigger scourge lies beneath the surface. A nightmare that will not ground the figures, which spreads quietly, almost a whisper, the stories of the city desk.
are kidnapping, extortion and robbery. It is this anxiety that carry what is most frightening. Is the phone ringing with private number, the passage of the suspicious van in front of our sidewalk or unusual customer input to our business. Is that the real terror, not because the bullets do not kill, but because the terror kills more slowly.
The business of organized crime has branched out. Today drug cartels turn to stripping to continue enriching.
shed homes, ranches, land and premises. Force their victims to empty their bank accounts to stay alive. They have no qualms about leaving entire families in the street.
This is the testimony of two people who lived through that nightmare. The only thing not lost is what, for them, unless it: life.
For your own safety we will call Peter and John. Not address specific details and we will take some licenses in history to protect their identities. But they are two real stories from among the dozens of cases that are counted in Reynosa.
Juan
John is a merchant. Has a small business but a large group of friends, and that helped him to grow apace. Is charismatic, and relates easily and got a good number of customers. Their trade is 100% legal and over the years bought a house in a nice neighborhood median and a pair of Civic car, then took two tracts. Heritage forged a comfortable but not luxurious. His life profile could be categorized as upper middle class.
Until
organized crime laid eyes on him. One day a man came asking for the business owner. By identifying John as such, the subject was informed that his boss wanted him. John was reluctant to go talk to someone who did not know, but the subject was terse: "The boss will see, like it or not."
entered the business a couple of men with high powered rifles and John had to ; address one of the two luxury vans that roamed the gunmen.
This began to change a life.
"They blindfolded me and walked me through the city until I felt we were entering a dirt road. The vans stopped, I fell and my blindfold was removed just passed the door of the house, "says Juan.
"We entered a large room," continues John in his testimony. "I saw many people with hands and feet tied sitting with their backs to the wall. There were women and children. In total should be around 12 or 15 people that were there all quiet. And there were armed men at the entrance of the room. "
John acknowledges that he did not sense that he removed the blindfold from his eyes in that room, they allowed him to see all these people were also captives. Then I understood. Was to see himself that the situation was very serious. It was a form of psychological pressure, a tool of terror.
They put a small office within the same household. It was the boss's office. John does not remember much about the features of that person has chosen to delete it from your mind for your own safety, but do not forget that what struck him most was the intense smell of her perfume.
The aromatic chief was very concise. John would have to pay 5 million dollars or be killed, and disappeared. His family would not even have a place where things seem that mourn.
"I did not have that much," he recalled in his testimony. "Moreover, the bank did not have 300 thousand pesos. All I had were my property."
"We know what you, John," I chided the boss. "We want your business, your car and your land. Keep your home. "
In the following days, John was escorted by criminals to office to do paperwork and put their properties under the name of a person who gave criminals, as well as the transfer of your business. Legally, John stopped be the owner. There would be nothing to do.
Within days of work lost the fruit of many years but, above all, was losing his mental health. It was also losing his vision of the future he had envisioned comfortable for your family.
He became a victim of terror. Stopped walking the streets, stopped going to public places. He forgot about the movie, the game of baseball Carlitos.
"I was like in limbo. I was goofy, "acknowledges John. "My mind went crazy. I forget the simplest things. And had a load of fear to how the engine sounds of a truck, the phone ringing, or crap like that. Imagine! At home we answer calls from numbers we did not know. Change number, cellular Everything! "
But two months after returning offenders. They wanted more. Again, John was standing on a truck and taken to the office of a notary public to be legally stripped of its last asset: the house.
"Now. Was officially fucked. I had many feelings in me. Anger, helplessness, guilt, sadness, fear. A thousand things. I did not know what to do. If you move a contact and look cobrármela. I do not know. "
What I did know John was that his family had been literally on the street.
had nothing more to lose and, therefore, nothing to tie to Reynosa. On the contrary. He made the decision to go "the other side."
With almost 300 thousand dollars from the bank, somehow, had managed to retain. He left with his family to the valley of Texas. Went through the visa that only allows them to cross, but not live or work in the U.S..
So John and his family living illegally in Texas territory. Some of his friends supported him and was able to get a job with many Tamaulipas who have crossed the border in search of safety. To start all over again.
On 14 July, the newspaper El Universal published an article entitled "An exodus benefit Texas" which addresses the issue of Mexican families displaced by violence in the country at the border.
El Universal published a damning figure allows us to know the real dimension of kidnapping and extortion in Tamaulipas:
"Victor Castillo, a member of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, said that based on data from Affiliates real estate belonging to 400 families of Mexicans came to live in the past six months (February to July 2010) South Texas cities such as Mission, Edinburgh and McAllen. According to these calculations, a daily two Mexican families have bought or rented home in this region of the United States. "
These are the stories that spread, offenses are not reported, the tight-jawed faces with anger that is contained.
Pedro Pedro is another testimony of kidnapping and extortion. Is another chronicle of dispossession has left him, he says, and just waiting to die.
is a professional who works on their own. Remains unmarried, without children, and her only family are his brothers.
had a significant asset they had inherited from their parents and grandparents. Properties, ranches, land and money in the bank. It could be considered a wealthy person who lived comfortably but not luxurious or ostentatious.
Until one day was also lifted by a truck.
"I left my office," recalls Peter on that day. "I walked to my car and a truck, white Denali Tahoe or blocked my way. Fell on my side two types and felt a strong blow in the stomach that left me choked. I went and I put a dark cloth on his head. "
He was taken to a house in the city. Says that she was alone and there you had confined a few days, bound hand and foot, with poor feeding and defecating in the same place. "Worse than an animal," she describes.
As at 4 days heard the sound of several trucks arriving at the place and a person came to talk to him. Was identified as the man said, that "just sent their eggs" in the city.
Weeks later, when it was over, I saw a picture of this guy's face on a poster of the most wanted by the FBI. He even had a reward and all. "
was indeed an important figure in the hierarchy of criminal organizations operating in Reynosa.
propaganda cartels vying for control of Tamaulipas has been to distance himself of kidnapping and extortion, accused the rival organization to perpetrate these crimes and violations, say, the drug codes.
But the reality, based on testimony from many cities of northeastern Mexico is that both posters kidnap and extortion. No cartels "good" and "bad" in this war. All are the same slag.
Unlike John, Peter would not let him free. He was held hostage in that house for several weeks, while his brothers got rid of assets to pay the ransom.
But, as with John, Peter also "visited" a couple of times. Although Peter was paid ransom and released, weeks after he was returned to "lift" this time to take over properties that had been in his name.
They applied the same method of walking through the offices of notaries public to put the paperwork on behalf of third parties.
back to Peter the process has been different. Her face reflects courage. He refuses to leave town. Wants no part of McAllen, Mission or San Antonio.
But does his normal life. Walk. Going to coffee. Not afraid, because nothing is as for losing.
From the few assets that were less valuable it is, perhaps, his own life. Not afraid to lose.
"And now, what do?" Peter agrees. "I left almost in ruins, but what the fuck his mother. Me and will not get anything. "
Open the palm of your hand and shows a pill.
"I bring with me all the time. The day I want to take it up me and goodbye. A bitch. Better dead than keeping those bastards. "
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