To Die in Mexico by John Gibler

Author:John Gibler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780872865174
Publisher: City Lights Publishers
Published: 2011-05-18T10:00:00+00:00

THREE

The city belongs to them.

—Rafael

BEFORE THE COMANDANTE SAID, “Take these guys and ice ’em,” before they put a black hood over his head and closed the doors, before they forced him down and placed the barrel of a 9mm pistol against the back of his head, before that moment, Rafael still had hope. And hope is everything.

Everyone was talking about Reynosa, the city of half a million people across the border from McAllen, Texas. There were tales of roadblocks and gun battles, tales of executions, of bodies in the streets. It was February 2010 and gun battles, executions, and dumped bodies had become the norm in many parts of Mexico. Something different was happening in Reynosa. All the talking took place inside a chamber of silence. There were no official statements, no local news reports, and no national or international correspondents on the scene, no photographs, no radio interviews, no documentation, only talk. A friend said the city was under siege. A friend of a friend said people were afraid to go outside. Someone heard that the schools were empty; parents terrified that their children would get caught in the crossfire on their way to school were keeping them at home. In late February 2010 the U.S. Consulate in Reynosa closed its office until further notice. Reynosa residents anonymously posted accounts of gun battles on Twitter. Everyone was talking about Reynosa, but the talk was all off camera, off the record. The governor of Tamaulipas said that “collective paranoia” was to blame. A woman then posted a video recorded with her cell phone to YouTube. Off camera the woman said, “The government says it is paranoia.” The video showed two lifeless bodies, shot-up SUVs, hundreds of bullet casings on the pavement, deserted streets and stores, and in the distance Mexican soldiers standing by. A reporter told me that the woman was later dragged from her home and killed.

Rafael is not given to paranoia. At 30 he carries himself with an unusual air of sustained concentration. When you speak with him, you can see him thinking. He works for Milenio TV in Mexico City and is an exhaustive reporter. He is in Monterrey, Mexico’s northern financial capital and the city where he earned an undergraduate degree in journalism and worked for several years. He is on vacation; his mobile phone rings, and he answers. His boss is on the line and says, “You know what, man, there have been a bunch of shoot-outs in Reynosa, but nobody knows what’s going on. We want you to head over there and document what you can.”

Rafael takes a bus to Reynosa. On the way into town the bus stops at a police roadblock. Several officers board the bus and scan the passengers. The only person they speak to is Rafael.

“Identification, please.”

Rafael hands them his ID and press credentials. He thinks, “Why just me? Is it the way I look?”

The police hand him back his ID and press card, get off the bus, and wave it on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.