COLONIA
LEBARON, Mexico (AP) — Family and friends prepared to bury on Saturday
the last victim of a cartel ambush that slaughtered nine American women
and children from a community of U.S.-Mexican dual citizens in a corner
of northern Mexico where having gangsters in their midst has long been
an unavoidable fact of life.
Christina
Langford Johnson jumped out of her vehicle and waved her hands to show
she was no threat to the attackers and was shot twice in the heart,
community members say. Her daughter Faith Marie Johnson, 7 months old,
was found unharmed in her car seat.
Her
burial ceremony, the third in as many days, culminates an outpouring of
grief in the closely knit community with family ties in two Mexican
states and across the border in many western U.S. states.
The
shocking attack has many in the small farming town of La Mora,
established in Sonora state by their Mormon ancestors decades ago,
wondering whether they should stay or leave to flee the cartel threat.
On
Friday, the bodies of Rhonita Miller and four of her children were
brought from La Mora to Colonia LeBaron in neighboring Chihuahua state
by a convoy of pickup trucks and SUVS that followed the same
dirt-and-rock mountainous road where they were killed. Many residents of
the two communities that lie a five-hour, bone-jarring drive apart are
related. They are not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints.
The
three simple wooden coffins arrived at the cemetery about a mile east
of Colonia LeBaron off a rural road flanked by cotton fields and were
lowered into three graves under white tents set up to guard from the
intermittent rain.
“Nita,”
as she was affectionately known, was laid to rest in the middle grave
with the remains of her 8-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, in her arms.
Twelve-year-old Howard Jr. and 10-year-old Kristal were buried in their
own coffins on either side.
Kenny Miller, Rhonita Miller’s father-in-law, said she was “like an angel” and the children “little angels.”
Miller
said that with the eyes of the world upon these communities, he hopes
their deaths may not be in vain and can spotlight what he deems a
nationwide concern with thousands of Mexicans mourning missing and dead
loved ones amid record-setting homicide levels.
“We’ve got terrorists here,” he said.
“I would like this to be used for people who have no voice,” Miller said, “and I think ‘Nita’ would approve wholeheartedly.”
What
had been a largely peaceful existence in a fertile valley ringed by
rugged mountains and desert scrub about 70 miles (112 kilometers) from
the border with Arizona became increasingly dangerous in recent years as
the cartels exerted their power and battled each other in a region that
is a drug smuggling hotbed.
But
La Mora, a hamlet of about 300 people where residents raise cattle and
cultivate pomegranates and other crops “will be forever changed”
following the killings Monday as the women traveled with their children
to visit relatives, a tearful David Langford told mourners at the
funeral for his wife, Dawna Ray Langford, and their 11-year-old and
2-year-old sons.
“One
of the dearest things to our lives is the safety of our family,” said
Langford. “And I won’t feel safe. I haven’t for a few years here.”
On
the other side of the mountains in Chihuahua, Colonia LeBaron has been
largely peaceful since the 2009 killing of one of its members who was an
anti-crime activist prompted Mexican authorities to establish a
security base. But the police presence in La Mora was negligible until
the women and children were killed and authorities sent a swarm of
soldiers and state and federal police officers to the area.
How long they stay could be crucial to the community’s future, residents said.
The
governments of Chihuahua and Sonora said in a statement Friday that an
“important number” of security agents had been deployed to the state
border region that the road traverses since the “lamentable” attack,
resulting in arrests and seizures of weapons, drugs and stolen vehicles.
“We
will not waver, I reiterate, not a single step backward,” Sonora state
security commissioner Óscar Alberto Aparicio Avendaño was quoted as
saying.
The
motive in the killings still isn’t known, though Mexican authorities
have suggested the victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time as
competing cartels fought over turf and may have mistaken the SUVs the
women and children were in for rivals who travel in similar vehicles.
Residents of La Mora dispute the theory that the victims were not
targeted.
Joe
Darger, of Salt Lake City, said his daughter who lives in Utah but
maintains a second home in La Mora won’t be spending more time in a
place that had been part of her family’s life, at least for now.
“Until there’s answers, she’s not bringing her kids,” Darger said in La Mora after traveling there to attend the funerals.
The
biggest concern for residents is finding out why the women and children
were massacred. The answer will help them decide whether to stay or
leave.
“I just
think the innocence is gone,” Darger said. “And so unless people feel
safe, they’re going to look for other places they can feel safe.”
He added: “It’s a matter of what do we do going forward? That’s the question.”
___
Associated Press Writer Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
