Just a few miles west of the desert and is New Mier Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas. Is another population that has remained outside the organized crime violence and also live their own exodus.
The picture in Guerrero is not very different from Wed. Both fields are converted to war with burning houses, fighting everyday, armed civilians and even military Apocrypha.
talked with Michael, a descendant of a family of Guerrero and spent much of his childhood in the village. Several years ago he went to America, but every November 2 go religiously to the pantheon of the municipality to enter and leave flowers to their dead ancestors.
"We have many people in the cemetery," he says. "And despite the uncertainty, we retain the customs and traditions going to leave flowers."
This nostalgic Guerrero offers testimony anonymously, so simply call Miguel. For him, Guerrero again for the first time since the outbreak of the Gulf War and Zeta has been painful. He found nothing of what both enjoyed as a child.
The first surprise on entering the village was to see the large number of houses burned.
"ladies were home!" Exclaims Michael. "A 'casononas' and now they are burned. If I say 50 I saw houses burned (in town) will make me slim. "
And in Guerrero has always operated the drug trade, says Michael, but" did not get into you. "
were members of a local family that used to operate the movement of drugs but with the outbreak of war between cartels this year, they began to kill and burn their houses.
"Here in Guerrero who started it all were members of one family," explains Miguel. "With these shootings started and burned houses. But what helped them? A few already killed them. Those who remained alive, they are gone. And besides, I have been burning their property. "
In short, the cartels have imposed their level of violence in the area that is usually referred to as territory of the Zetas and the Gulf cartel raids trying to destabilize it for months, but could not gain control the square.
Upon arrival to the cemetery waiting for more surprises. He was surrounded by more than 10 army trucks and a number of troops stationed there. However, the military were false or "cloned" as they have been given to call.
"It was very obvious," stresses Michael. "When you see soldiers running shoes I wear when running? Although we are at 40 degrees Celsius bring his uniform and military boots. Do not you see that walk-shirt or sandals. "
were about 10 military trucks circling the block from the pantheon igualitas the soldiers," according to Miguel, but did not bring the code number on the doors as required by law to carry military units.
And this is not strange or new. On September 3, members of the Army gunmen shot dead on a ranch 27 near Ciudad Mier. In the place were two trucks, "cloned" Army with false plates. In late July, in the same town had been seized two others with the same characteristics. "clone" vehicles and military uniforms is a common practice in the region by criminal organizations.
Upon arrival to the cemetery, the thing was not like other years.
"There were few people," says Miguel. "In previous years, the custom was to stay and chat with acquaintances. But people like me who felt tense atmosphere, merely doing his thing and leave."
or graveyards are now free territory. In Ciudad Guerrero when there is a death the emissaries of the criminals make an appearance on the site.
"I have to say who will attend the cemetery," said Miguel. "You have to give the number of license plates and list of persons from outside. If you miss one, do not let him enter. They have control in the pantheon. "
addition, the funeral of the town was burned.
No wonder then that the people of Guerrero, like that of Mier, have decided to leave their land and go somewhere else. The Warrior is an exodus that has garnered national media as if they did the moving pictures recent Mier, but the situation is less severe.
On his return to Guerrero, Miguel and did not see many faces for years and years was in the village.
"Almost no one lives there," he explains. "Most went to Zapata, Laredo in Texas or Rome. Families hence, the center of Guerrero, are already scarce. "
Miguel has no qualms in acknowledging that long since Guerrero is ghost town. The school schedules are irregular because they must be stopped when flare up raids rival cartel and multiply the fighting.
"The last school year completed it after Easter. We only offer ballots collected at the end. Kindergarten, primary and secondary students have almost no because they had school age were taken to the other (American). Most houses are single. "
Guerrero Ironically today is a ghost town because just the greatest tourist attraction are the ruins of Guerrero Viejo, the original settlement of the town, located several miles from where the village is located today.
Guerrero The original settlement was founded in 1750 under the name of Revilla but almost 200 years later, in 1953, its inhabitants were switched to another settlement which is where today stands the New Town Guerrero. This was due to the construction of Falcon Dam and the original settlement was prone to flooding by the waters of the dam, so they abandoned their homes and moved to the new city. That was the first exodus.
Guerrero Viejo was alive for 200 years then became a ghost town. Their houses wasted away by the waters of the dam, and in ruins, were an ecotourism destination for both hikers and for practitioners of the thriving fishing in its waters.
But all this ended with the arrival of organized crime to haunt the place.
"In the ruins of the Old Warrior and only lived a family of fishermen who were of succession," explains Michael. "But they ran when they got 'them' (criminals) to dig." He
destination was already in the hands of the criminal organization still controls the town. Even Michael says that many people in the village has learned that the ruins of Guerrero Old is already a camp where they train assassins and stored weapons.
For this reason, the passage of the inhabitants of Nuevo Guerrero, tourists and fishermen have been prohibited. The huge dam is binational Falcon, ie, which marks the border between Mexico and the United States as its importance as a road map on the transfer of the drug is evident. So drug dealers jealously guard its waters.
lapidary Proof of this was the murder of American David Michael Hartley, who with his wife Tiffany enjoyed jet skiing on the Falcon Dam and had the unfortunate idea of \u200b\u200bgoing to see the ruins of Guerrero Viejo.
Their bikes were intercepted and in Mexican waters by the guards of the cartel and Michael was killed. His body was never recovered and his wife let her go.
This caused a lot of attention from major news networks in the United States who, naively, suggested that the wife was lying and that something had to do with the disappearance of her husband.
The U.S. government pressed diplomatically to submit progress since the Mexican researchers are wary of entering such designs that they knew prohibited.
"We can not go without the support of the Army or the Navy," said the Texas newspaper The Monitor, Rolando Villegas Flores Mexican researcher charge of the case. "We can be ambushed there."
Given the diplomatic crisis continued research. And what was so feared, happened. Eight days after the above declaration Villegas Flores, his severed head was left in a bag outside a Mexican Army garrison.
That was enough. The case has not made any progress since then. Doubts about the wife of David Hartley dissipated and there was no question about who the authors. The media ended up dropping the case forgotten. Guerrero
So today, the new and old, because the old each time becoming closer to the new. And the two ghost towns.
This picturesque destination that came to receive the visit of then U.S. president, Dwight Eisenhower or Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, is now a forgotten people in the temperamental girl Tamaulipas border.
a town totally outside the control of the Mexican state, where even the Mexican Army runs a high risk to attempt a raid.
And for Michael and very little remains of that Guerrero where he grew up. Since tourism is not, nor peace, nor small-town faces.
For him, now more than ever was Day of the Dead in New Town Guerrero.
Program Meridiano X made in Guerrero Viejo and Nuevo several years ago when you could still touring and invite passersby to do so. Today unthinkable.
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