Mica for cartelinsider.com
Nowadays, activities such as job searching, walking with friends, or leaving home to do some shopping can end in tragedy. This has been the case for thousands of young people who were doing any of these actions before being recruited or “picked up” by one of the most dangerous organizations in Mexico: the Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).
Although some of the methods that organized crime uses to recruit people – either voluntarily or forcibly – have been known for years, parents, mothers, brothers and children have faced the harsh reality on their own, as authorities often ignore complaints or start investigations too late.
Such was the case of Alejandrina Orozco Romano, mother of Joaquín Gómez Orozco, a 17-year-old high school student who disappeared in Tepic, Nayarit. On March 30, 2023, after going out to look for a job during the Holy Week season.
The case of Gómez Orozco, one of the more than 14,000 for which there is information in the National Register of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO), became relevant at the time because of an unusual fact. One week after his disappearance, the young man managed to make contact with his mother to inform her that he had been kidnapped.
However, the authorities did not help Alejandrina, who still does not know her son’s whereabouts.
According to an investigation carried out by Milenio. Before Orozco Romano found out that his son had been “taken” by organized crime, the woman went to the Nayarit Attorney General’s Office (FGE) to request help.
The complaint was also sent to Zacatecas. The response, like in other cases, was to disclaim responsibility. “When I filed the report, they told me at the Tepic Prosecutor’s Office: ‘Maybe your son went on vacation,'” Alejandrina told the media above.
The answer about her son’s whereabouts arrived while she and other family members were placing search posters on the streets of Nayarit. On Mexico and Allende Avenue, a young man approached her and revealed that people had taken her son from the CJNG to Tala, Jalisco.
Survivors’ testimonies about recruitment by the CJNG. revealed in 2017 the practices and methods commonly used by the organization, led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, to maintain stable ranks. These include false job offers and communication with victims through social media.
The reports indicate that, in that year, the age of the victims ranged from 20 to 25 years old. They had two options after being deprived of their freedom. Either they worked for “El Mencho”, or they and their families faced the consequences. This was the case of Gomez Orozco.
“I am very afraid and I was told that if I betrayed them, they would kill me or you. Come for me, please. They left me in a square with their drugs.”
Those were the words with which Alejandrina Orozco learned that her son had been kidnapped and was found in El Obraje, Zacatecas.
“They asked for my help. They told me they were terrified. They were able to call me because the people who were keeping them captive had gone down to buy something at an Oxxo (…). We talked for about 15 minutes. They called me from an unknown number, and we talked at different times that day, but since then, I haven’t heard from them again,” Alejandrina told Milenio.”
Even though he asked for help from local, state, and federal authorities – including President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as he stated – his pleas were ignored, and, to this date, he still does not know what happened to his son.
“I requested that they intervene in the call log of the phone that the cartel gave to my son to ‘work’ and they replied that they couldn’t do that, that they couldn’t violate their rights (the criminals’). But the rights of my kidnapped son, those could be violated,” she accused.
According to data from the Government of Mexico and the National Search Commission (CNB), as of January 8, 2024, Jalisco – a stronghold of the CJNG – ranks as the state with the highest number of disappearances, totaling 14,930.
Next is Tamaulipas, with 12,951, and the State of Mexico, with 12,221.
“Nayarit, Zacatecas, Michoacán, and Aguascalientes, other areas with high presence of the CJNG, add up to 1,890, 3,779, 5,627, and 328, respectively.”
Thanks for reading!
Mica
Email: mica@cartelinsider.com
Follow: https://twitter.com/cartelinsider1
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