A 16-year-old Mexican boy had both index fingers amputated by a member. Organized crime group In the port city of Acapulco According to, after refusing to transport drugs for gangsters Report Last week by the ImagenTV network in Mexico.
“They put the board [under my hands] I hacked my finger in a machete, “the unnamed boy told Imagen. “They also put a board on my back and hit me.”
He was reportedly on his way home from his cousin’s birthday party when the taxi he was traveling on ran away and was stopped by another car. Armed men Then I forced him on board.
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“They held me a gun because I didn’t want to get in that car,” he said. He is said to have been driven to another part of the town, dragged out of his car, and punished for his rebellion in a double amputation.When it surpasses his perpetrator Abandoned A young man injured and beaten on a bridge.
It was journalist Umberto Padgett who had the amputation in October of this year. Broken the story He told The Daily Beast about Imagen’s popular Ciro Gómez program.Padgett said he found the boy and his family in TijuanaAfter being threatened with additional killings in the weeks following the first kidnapping and assault, they began looking for shelter in the United States.
“”[I] I traveled to Tijuana to learn about the situation of immigrants at the border, “Padgett said. “I’ve come to follow up on a series of reports I’ve made over the past year on how cartel violence has emptied the entire town …”
Padgett found a boy, his parents, and five siblings staying in a shelter. “They are very poor people who are just beginning to understand that they have rights,” Padgett said, and boys’ teenage and pre-teenage sisters also because of the unstable living conditions of their families. He added that there is a risk of being forced into sexual trafficking.
Cutting fingers has long been practiced as a method of torture and intimidation by Mexican drug gangs, and even celebrities have been targeted. The son of the famous crooner Vicente Fernandez, who died earlier this month, Kidnapped However, Padgett believes that practicing spoiling appearance as a way to force enlistment could represent a new step in the evolution of the cartel.
“I’ve been dealing with different types of violence in Mexico for 20 years, and I think this youth case underscores a new trend in criminal organization: slavery for criminal purposes,” he said. Said.
(Padget chose not to publish the names of the cartels and gangs that hurt the boy, fearing they could lead to further persecution of Tijuana’s family.)
“The inhumane practice of cutting the index finger from a teenager is obvious Mexican cartel, especially Jalisco New Generation CartelAs a punishment for refusing to work for them, “Mike Vigil, a former director of international operations at DEA, said in an interview with The Daily Beast.
“To expand and replenish their ranks, cartels are now using torture and demolition as a brutal method. Recruitment Conquer, “said Vigil. “Disconnection sends others a clear and vibrant message that if they refuse to comply with the cartel’s request, they will follow the same fate.”
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Vigil also explained why criminal organizations choose to take certain numbers, especially the index and thumbs.Because they are “important for performing work-related functions.” [the victims] You need to sell drugs and work for cartels because you don’t have to use their hands completely. “
Other techniques used for forced recruitment in a similar manner include torture and fractures for intimidation and for the partial crippling of victims, Vigil said.
“The cartel also uses threats of killing the victim’s family, which is one of the most devastating tactics,” Vigil said.
Despite the threats facing the family and the brutal treatment the boy has already received, it is unclear whether asylum claims will be formally granted through the US court system.
“Immigration courts are very unpredictable. People along the border are, in principle, particularly strict,” he said. An anthropologist specializing in Mexico at the University of Arkansas at Birmingham, he was a witness to several asylum hearings of hopeful migrants.
Kyle said today’s asylum law is outdated because it was first enacted after World War II to protect against threats from state officials.
“This is generally the most difficult hurdle to overcome for applicants from Latin America,” Kyle said. “Modern asylum seekers are most likely to be persecuted by criminal groups rather than state authorities, regardless of religion or ethnicity.”
Stephanie Brewer, a Mexican expert at the Washington office in Latin America, said outdated laws, often combined with unfair policies, further thwarted asylum seekers at the southern border.
“Family fleeing violence is now under the Biden administration Illegal and unjust use of title 42 To stop and expel many asylum seekers, “Brewer said.
Brewers said their inability to defend their proceedings and legitimate entry points often forced those fleeing violence to cross borders illegally and put themselves at greater risk due to the rugged desert terrain. .. Predatory human smuggler..
While US Republicans often try to describe Democrats as vulnerable to immigration, Mr Biden said President Biden aims to reduce border arrivals and immigration, regardless of labor costs.
“It has reached such a terrible level that some people in the administration simply resume access to the asylum system, in fact this is also the government’s most basic duty in the country. Nevertheless, it seems to believe that it is an excessive “magnet” for migration. And international refugee law, “she said.
Journalist Padgett said the disabled boy and his family had requested an asylum appointment and were still waiting for a date. He said they were “not optimistic” because the humanitarian visas they were given during the weeks they had already spent in Tijuana were so few.
“On the contrary, these people are seeing how the number of applicants grows every day and more people are deported every day,” Padgett said.
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