美国国家公共电台 NPR Last Year, A Retired Mexican Schoolteacher Vanished. His Family Still Seeks Answers

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LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

I'm Lulu Garcia-Navarro in Mexico City, where an election is about to take place in a week.

SUSAN DAVIS, HOST:

Lulu, I spend so much time thinking about what's driving voters here in America. Tell me what is driving voters down in Mexico.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. It's not President Trump's immigration policies. It's not even the economy. It's actually violence, Sue. More than 29,000 people were killed in this country last year.

DAVIS: Wow.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I know. That's been a record. And this year, it's on track to be even more. And people are just tired. They're scared. More than a hundred candidates and election workers have been assassinated¹ in this election cycle alone. And, you know, everyone I've spoken to said it's out of control.

DAVIS: What are the forces driving that level of violence in the country?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, as you can imagine, it's the drug war. But the thing that's really been interesting is that even people who are not connected to the drug trade have been touched by violence. You know, 96 percent of reported crimes in Mexico go unpunished. There's complete impunity², and it's shaping this election. So I'm going to tell you a story that really illustrates³ this problem. It's a story about a retired⁴ schoolteacher who is missing and presumed murdered. His name is Albino Quiroz Sandoval, and his disappearance⁵ took place in the quaint⁶, cobblestone village of Tepoztlan about two hours from Mexico City.

(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We arrive at a modest, whitewashed⁷ home with mango trees in the yard.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Hola, Juan Carlos. (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Juan Carlos Quiroz is the missing schoolteacher's son. He takes us inside, where we meet his family. And over breakfast, he tells us that his father was out running an errand and never came home.

JUAN CARLOS QUIROZ: He disappeared last year in March 16, 2017.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Quiroz says as the hours ticked by, his first thought was that his father had been kidnapped.

Why was your initial impression that it could be a kidnapping? I mean, for people who don't live in Mexico, why did - why would your thoughts go there?

QUIROZ: People may think that kidnapping targets the rich. But it actually targets everyone. You could be a professional or a retiree and still suffer these things. So that was just my instinct.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: His fear is actually based in fact. The Mexican government says that since 2007, at least 37,000 people have disappeared here. So the family went out into the town to look for the missing dad and found his parked car but no sign of him. They filed a police report and asked the neighbors for help. But people in Mexico these days are afraid.

QUIROZ: People are not trusting everybody. It's very strange. But there is distrust in this community. It indicates that the community is broken, and people don't feel compelled to share what they know. They don't know if they are going to get into trouble.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: They're afraid to speak out because...

QUIROZ: They are.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...They don't know the consequences because...

QUIROZ: They don't know the consequence.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: They don't know who might be behind a certain action, that...

QUIROZ: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...They might become implicated⁸.

QUIROZ: Yes. Or they don't know who did it and if whoever did it has any power to harm more people or come after them.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The Quiroz family was relentless⁹, though, in trying to gather information.

Just to be clear, you had to do the investigation¹⁰ here. And you sort of had to put the pieces together.

QUIROZ: Mostly, yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Quiroz says the evidence he found points to a local lawyer, an ex-cop who had been targeting many older people in the community with a sob¹¹ story about an injured child in the hospital. Quiroz says his dad had given money to the man several times, apparently¹² touched by his story, because their family had lost a child to a house fire many years ago.

Quiroz believes his dad went to ask for the money back right before he disappeared. And a witness did come forward to say they'd seen his father being beaten by the lawyer. The lawyer was eventually arrested. But he hasn't even been charged, and he's appealing his detention¹³. He claims he's innocent. Quiroz says the prosecutor¹⁴ in the case has been incompetent¹⁵, and the family is wondering what has happened, as no body has been recovered. Quiroz says he only wants the trial to start so that everyone can have their day in court.

So let me ask you - what does this tell you about the situation in Mexico writ¹⁶ large? You've lost...

QUIROZ: Yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...Your father. He's missing...

QUIROZ: Missing for 15 months.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You think you have a suspect in custody¹⁷, but you haven't...

QUIROZ: Yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...Been able to present any of the evidence against him.

QUIROZ: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What does this say to you?

QUIROZ: It's a terrible situation. Over a hundred thousand murders over the last decade. We have close to 40,000 disappearances¹⁸. And in the vast majority of these cases, there are no leads to bring the culprits to justice. And that's a huge crisis, and that's terrible. But we're leaving this on the other side. We are in a situation where we have a lot in our favor. We identified a subject. We have witnesses. It just takes forever because there are too many cases in the system and because the people - the police, the judges, the lawyers - they are not doing their job. So it turns into just moving papers along. And they don't look at what's at stake. And that just complicates¹⁹ getting justice.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This election has been called the anger vote. People here are tired of the spiraling violence and a government that seems unable to stop it. And if the polls are to be believed a 64-year-old leftist leader who's run for the presidency²⁰ twice previously²¹ is set to win. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, nicknamed AMLO, is promising²² dramatic change.

(SOUNDBITE OF BAND PLAYING)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: At a recent rally in a dangerous neighborhood in Mexico City, AMLO said violence is out of control.

ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: "We must change strategies," he said, "so that there will be peace. It can't just be the use of force. You can't fight fire with fire," he said, "violence with violence. The most humane²³ and efficient way to deal with violence is by combating poverty." It's a message that resonates with voter Lucia Cardomo, who was at the AMLO rally.

LUCIA CARDOMO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: She says, "We want radical²⁴ change. We are tired of the same old thing."

CARLOS BRAVO REGIDOR: People believe. And people also want to believe in him.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Carlos Bravo Regidor is a political analyst²⁵ and an expert on AMLO. AMLO has been talking about these same issues since he first ran in 2006. And Regidor says it's a message whose time has come.

REGIDOR: He has been, you know, saying over and over again that the three main problems in Mexico are corruption²⁶, violence and poverty. It's surprising in a way that, you know, in 12 years, Mexico has changed a lot. But Lopez Obrador has been, you know, talking about these issues ever since. Well, this was Lopez Obrador's time to be right.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So AMLO has diagnosed the problem, but what are his solutions? Alfonso Durazo is AMLO's top security adviser²⁷. In an exclusive interview with NPR, he told us first that the drug war up until now has been a failure.

ALFONSO DURAZO: (Through interpreter) The idea's been to use the military to target cartel leaders, the big fish. They've captured 120 cartel leaders. And yet security has not improved. In fact, it's gotten worse because the cartels have fractured, and they're fighting among themselves over territory.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: AMLO wants to get the foot soldiers out of the drug war, so he's proposed an offer of amnesty. Durazo said it won't be extended to the drug dealers²⁸ but, rather, the hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers who cultivate drugs and the drug mules²⁹ and the kids who act as lookouts³⁰. And, in what could signal a more combative³¹ stance towards the United States, Durazo also faults America for Mexico's violence.

DURAZO: (Through interpreter) The United States must control its demand for drugs and also stop the illegal trafficking of guns from the U.S. to Mexico, which is what gives firepower to organized crime. These are high-caliber weapons that exceed those used by our own armed forces. Mexico is paying the highest price in this drug war, which is the blood of its people.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Ultimately, he said, it's not only about the drug war but, rather, everyday crime and a culture of impunity in this country.

DURAZO: (Through interpreter) We have to help our police forces with training and equipment, too, because the vast majority of violence in this country is not caused by organized crime. It's assaults, extortion, robbery, kidnapping, vehicle theft.

MARICELA: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Back in Tepoztlan, Juan Carlos Quiroz's mom, Maricela (ph), points to pictures of her missing husband.

MARICELA: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Maricela still wonders if he's alive.

MARICELA: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: "I don't know what they did with my husband," she said "where he is. I don't know if he's afraid, if he's alive, if he's hungry, if he's cold." She's left, she says, with a terrible yearning³² and a dread³³ that keeps her waiting.

MARICELA: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: With tears running down her face, she says, "this house no longer has a soul. I stay here, but I prefer to be anywhere else. I can't lie underneath³⁴ the sheets. I lay on top because before, he covered me. I felt the heat of his body. And now, even if I hug one or two or three pillows, there's nothing. Those are my days and nights. It's agony and despair."

I ask her son, do you think you can get justice in Mexico today?

QUIROZ: It's very difficult. We have trusted the system over these past 15 months. I mean, yeah. We don't have a perfect situation, but we have a lot of things that can work. If we demand that the police, that the prosecutors³⁵, that the judges do their job, I think we can change things.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: He says he doesn't believe any of the candidates will bring that change. He believes that it has to come from the people pushing things forward. He says his mother, though, takes a different view and will be voting for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador because she wants something new.

MARICELA: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: She tells me quietly, "My son trusts in the law and believes there will be justice. But the way things are going, I don't believe. I just don't."

(SOUNDBITE OF DR. TOAST'S "LIGHT")