generalspeaking

It's Not A Pretty Life

"With time, you come to learn how to hurt people, to get the information you need. Of the people who have information you want, 99 percent will give you that information."
"[With the information in hand, the job of killing is seen to.] Usually with a gun."
"They do it [confess to guilt even if not true] in hope that you will stop hurting them. They think it's a way to get out of the situation."
"It's not a pretty life."
"For them [Mexican authorities] these [killings] are not justifiable under the laws we have, but my conscience -- how can I put this -- this is something that I can justify, because I am defending my family."
"If I died in a shootout, for example [rather than at the hands of a rival gang], the suffering wouldn't be as bad."
"Over time, you forget [how many people you kill, where they are buried]."
29-year-old cattle rancher, hired cartel killer:Anonymous

A man claiming to be responsible for kidnapping, torture and killing on behalf of a drug cartel speaks to The Associated Press in the Costa Grande region of Mexico. Dario Lopez-Mills/The Associated Press

Officially, 26,000 Mexicans were reported missing across the nation since 2007. Roughly one thousand of those missing come from Guerrero, along the Costa Grande, the southwestern state of Mexico where Acapulco is located. There also is where farmland growing heroin poppies and marijuana is located. And where large areas of the state are controlled by violent drug cartels moving opium paste onto the black market.

The young man being interviewed, made available courtesy of a cartel boss to accommodate requests by the Associated Press, began "disappearing" people at age 20. With the passage of nine years, he believes that he has been responsible for the elimination of at least 30 people. Among whom he reckons three were disappeared in error, because in all likelihood, under torture they confessed guilt, when they were innocent, yet desperate to stop the torture.

He believes what he does is a public service in defense of his community, keeping outsiders out. If rivals to the controlling cartel entered, the result would be destructive chaos. He is helping to prevent that from happening, so although some lives are lost, many others are defended by him. He kidnaps, tortures and kills. Once someone is "disappeared" it is forever, the body disposed where no one might ever discover it.

He does have his standards; so much for honour among killers. For he declines to kill women or children, nor will he force victims to dig their own graves. He is not a drug trafficker. He is not a professional killer. He does not do drugs himself. He learned how to effectively "disappear" on the job. There is a slight discrepancy in his description of himself; someone who is paid to do something is a professional; he would be an amateur, so to speak, without pay to credit his actions.

If the target is not armed, he explains, two men carry out a "pickup", the victim taken to a 'safe house', or into a secluded area where they will not be heard "getting information out of them by torture". The methods this young man who insists he is not a killer, but proudly defends his people against the incursion of other cartels, are various, but restricted to beatings, waterboarding and electric shocks to testicles, tongue and the soles of the feet.

He guarantees success.

"A lot of times your neighbours your town, your city is being invaded by people who you think are going to hurt your family, your society. Well then, you have to act, because the government isn't going to come and help you."
"I can't say that I am a vigilante, but I am part of a group that protects people, an autonomous group of people who protect their town, their people."
Whatever you want to say, you're hurting someone and in the end, you kill them and that leaves people hurting, the family hurting. It's the kind of thing that causes stress and remorse, because it's not a good thing."

Simply put: a necessary evil. Right!

Labels: Crimes, Drugs, Mexico

posted by Pieface @ Friday, December 18, 2015