The San Fernando Massacres

Part One

 In 2010, 18-year-old Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla began heading north from his native Ecuador, towards the United States. Sadly, though, the bus that Luis Freddy was on - along with at least 72 other undocumented migrants - began crossing through Tamaulipas in August of 2010. At the time, this Mexican state had become ground zero for an escalating conflict between the prominent Gulf Cartel and their vicious adversaries, the Los Zetas...

San Fernando is a small city in northeastern Mexico, which rests quietly in an area known primarily for fishing and hunting. For decades, this setting made it a popular tourist attraction for not only those already living in Mexico but many in the United States, who crossed the border to take advantage of its scenic nature approximately one-hundred miles south of the southernmost tip of Texas.

This also happens to be an area commonly frequented by migrants from Central and Southern America, who are attempting to make it to the U.S.; seeking new opportunities to enrichen their lives and/or perhaps provide money for their loved ones back home.

Approximately 30,000 people live in San Fernando, which is essentially split in half by Mexico's Federal Highway 101, known colloquially as "The Highway of Death." If you aren't already knowledgeable of Mexico's infamous Drug War, then descriptions of this highway would sound like something out of a hellish warzone, not an area that runs parallel to the U.S.-Mexico border. Travelers along Highway 101 have often discovered wrecked vehicles along their route, abandoned along the side of the road, either burned out or riddled with bullet holes. Oftentimes, bloodstains litter the vehicle's interior or the ground beside it... and it's become a common sight to find the former inhabitants of the vehicles left where they had been killed. Sometimes, these poor souls are missing their heads, with their decapitated remains left behind to send a message.

For years now, travelers have reported being stopped along Mexico's Federal Highway 101 by men dressed in dark colors, who often pull up in one or several trucks or SUVs - oftentimes, armed with military-grade rifles. While these men are more often than not just hoping to extort those inside the vehicles they stop for money or valuables, it's a common practice for them to rape women and younger girls with impunity, knowing that they'll face no consequence for their actions. The victims of these vile and degrading acts are often left naked, stranded along the side of the road... if they survive these horrific encounters at all.

A school employee, who spoke anonymously to the publication La Vanguardia back in 2012, stated about the world they lived in along this highway, in San Fernando:

"Now there is fear for everything you do. The fear of going out, to drive, to get out of the car, to go to a party. We no longer trust anyone."

You see, in the years before this quote, San Fernando had become ground zero for Mexico's bloody Drug War, with several discoveries bringing international attention to this small city... which just-so-happens to lie in the middle of a contested territory being fought over by a few different cartels at any given moment. At the time, it also happened to be on the brink of being declared a ghost town in the middle of a failed state, with the residents not knowing that they could rely on their own government to keep them alive.

This is the story of the San Fernando Massacres.

The Gulf Cartel was founded in the 1930s by Don Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, widely regarded as the "godfather" of Mexico's numerous illicit cartels.

The Gulf Cartel operated out of Tamaulipas, one of Mexico's 32 states, which is located right across the border from the southern tip of Texas, bordered by the Gulf of Mexico to the east. There, the Gulf Cartel rose to prominence throughout the 20th century, originally designed as an operation to smuggle alcohol across the border to Texas during America's prohibition. Soon, however, the Gulf Cartel began dipping toes into other illicit activities, such as gambling, prostitution, theft, and smuggling.

Taking advantage of their early foothold into these various areas, the Gulf Cartel rose to prominence throughout the 20th century. Despite being known nowadays as a drug cartel, they didn't start trafficking drugs until the late 1970s; even then, they just dealt in marijuana, which wasn't combated as heavily as other narcotics. However, throughout the 1980s, they began to traffic other substances such as cocaine and were now overseen by the nephew of their founder, Juan Garcia Abrego.

By the 1990s, the Gulf Cartel had trafficked billions of dollars of cocaine from Columbia's Cali Cartel and had become a full-fledged criminal dynasty.

Having bribed his way through the prior decade, the Gulf Cartel's newfound leader, Juan Garcia Abrego, was arrested in 1996 and sent to stand trial in the United States. He was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, a sentence he is still serving to this day.

While Juan Garcia Abrego had been groomed for leadership by his uncle, there was no heir apparent for this newfound incarnation of the Gulf Cartel. Control of the organization would begin to trickle through various lieutenants and associates, with each vying for power. Among those that were in contention were Abrego's brother, Humberto Garcia Abrego, but the scrutiny brought by his brother's arrest ensured that he would never marshal enough strength to lead the organization.

After a brief power vacuum, power would finally settle into the hands of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who began to consolidate power with the creation of a private military... forever changing the landscape of Mexico's feuding cartels, and leading to the constant escalation of violence that endures to this day.

Following a contentious period of infighting, Osiel Cardenas Guillen assumed control of the Gulf Cartel. However, in doing so, he had burned many of the bridges he'd taken to get there and earned himself the nickname of "Friend-Killer" (after assassinating one of his closest allies, the narco known as "El Chava").

Fearing reprisal from the other drug lords vying for his throne, Cardenas solicited help from an ally of his: Arturo Guzman Decenas, who at the time, was a member of Mexico's GAFE, Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales, an elite counter-insurgency military squad. At the time, Guzman was serving as the security chief for Ciudad Miguel Aleman, a city in northern Mexico, located just across the Rio Grande from Rome, Texas. While in his position there, Guzman had accepted bribes to "look the other way" on Gulf Cartel shipments and was now asked to take a more direct role in the organization. Specifically, he was asked by Osiel Cardenas Guillen to begin recruiting men to serve as his personal bodyguards. In return, he would become one of Cardenas' most trusted lieutenants and would be well-compensated (far beyond any compensation the Mexican government could guarantee him).

Arturo Guzman Decenas accepted his offer and knew exactly where to look to help bolster his newfound militia. Guzman began to recruit men directly from Mexico's military, starting with some of his fellow GAFE members; those that had received specialized commando and urban warfare training from U.S. and Israeli special forces. Within months, approximately 38 soldiers had defected to work with Guzman and the Gulf Cartel, becoming known as the Los Zetas. Their name came about from a lettering system that stuck, with Guzman becoming known as "Z-1."

The initial mission for the Los Zetas was to protect Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen. However, over time, their mission would begin to change, with the group beginning to carry out enforcement missions for Cardenas. The dozens of soldiers in the Los Zetas began to eliminate Cardenas's rivals throughout Tamaulipas and ensure the Gulf Cartel's success along Mexico's Gulf Coast. They became known for an intense level of brutality in the crimes they carried out, operating under a mentality of:

"If you frighten your enemy enough, you may defeat him without having to fight."

Within months, the Mexican Defense Department would recognize the Los Zetas as:

"... the most formidable death squad to have worked for organized crime in Mexican history."

During these vital years - during which, the Los Zetas began to rise to prominence as a standalone wing of the Gulf Cartel - the leadership that guided them began to crumble. Arturo Guzman Decenas, the leader and founder of the Los Zetas, died during a firefight with Mexican soldiers in November of 2002. Then, the leader of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was arrested in the city of Matamoros in March of 2003. He would remain in control of the organization behind bars but would begin to hand off power to other members of the organization, such as his brother, Antonio Cardenas Guillen, as well as lieutenant Jorge Eduardo Costillo Sanchez ("El Coss").

With Cardenas behind bars (and awaiting extradition to the U.S.), the Gulf Cartel would begin to weaken. As these cracks in the foundation became more apparent, members of the Los Zetas began to think beyond the scope of their original mission.

Heriberto Lazcano, also known as "Z-3", had become one of the most feared and powerful members of the Los Zetas while they operated as the paramilitary wing of the Gulf Cartel.

Like Arturo Guzman, Lazcano was a former member of Mexico's GAFE and deserted from the Army in March of 1998 to serve as an original member of the Los Zetas. Over the next several years, he would become known for his brutal methods of torture, which included dumping victims alive in barrels of acid or boiling water, beating victims with wooden boards, cutting out the hearts of live captives, kidnapping rivals and letting them starve to death, or simply feeding prisoners to the lions and tigers that he kept on his ranch. These tactics, along with his brutal efficiency, earned Lazcano the nickname of "El Verdugo" ("The Executioner").

Following the death of Los Zetas founder Arturo Guzman Decenas, Lazcano assumed the group's open leadership position. He quickly began to think of ways for the Zetas to break out on their own, away from the fractured foundation of the Gulf Cartel.

Before he could do that, however, Lazcano began to recruit additional gunmen to his ranks, which included members of the Mexican military as well as members of Guatemala's special forces. They were then put through the Zeta's rigorous military training, which instilled a new promotion system, which included ranks such as "Lieutenant" and "Commander".

Lazcano also began to expand the Los Zeta's scope, moving them outside of the purview of the Gulf Cartel in specific areas. Now they were not only the military wing of a prosperous drug trafficking ring but were claiming new turf outside of the Gulf Cartel's ground... not all of which was geographic. The Zetas began to dabble in human and sex trafficking, weapons and people smuggling, oil theft, extortion, and every other kind of illicit enterprise you can think of. This ensured a continuous money flow, which meant that the Zetas were no longer reliant upon their parent organization.

Soon, under Heriberto Lazcano's leadership, the Los Zetas had outgrown the Gulf Cartel, which was still struggling to find its path forward with fractured leadership.

In January of 2010, a disagreement between the Gulf Cartel and the Los Zetas would begin to spiral out of control. Some say that a Los Zetas leader was kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel, and then asked to renounce his role to serve the Cartel. When he refused, he was tortured and killed as a result. Others say that the Los Zetas had simply become too powerful, and didn't trust in the Cartel's current leadership, leading to a violent shootout. Regardless, what followed was full-on civil war.

On January 30th, 2010, sixteen members of the Gulf Cartel were kidnapped and murdered by Los Zetas. Because the Zetas didn't have the capital or influence to strongarm any of the other cartels, they had to rely upon what they did have: military tactics and precision, as well as an eager willingness to indulge in the type of violence that other cartels had shied away from in the past.

In the months ahead, both sides would end up allying with other drug cartels. The Gulf Cartel reached a temporary peace with the Sinoloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, both former rivals, in an attempt to take out the Los Zetas - whose reach was beginning to extend throughout Central America. The Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest criminal organizations in human history, had long since coveted this territory and undoubtedly viewed the Zetas as a threat to their future ambitions.

Not to be outdone, however, the Los Zetas reached agreements with the Beltran-Leyva, Juarez, and Tijuana Cartels, creating an armed conflict that spanned most of Mexico and threatened to drench the rest of the country in innocent blood.

In the months to come, the violence between both sides began to escalate, primarily in the state of Tamaulipas, which both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas called home...

In April of 2010, an article titled "All Tamaulipas, a War Zone" appeared in the publication Borderland Beat. An excerpt of this article, which detailed the level of bloodshed that had started months prior, reads:

"Well lately it has been very depressing here in Tamaulipas, I just get so tired of reading and watching the news on television, death and suffering everywhere. You can't get away from it. Out on the streets it's even worse, people are afraid, very afraid.

"Everyone knows someone who has been killed or someone who has disappeared never to be found. It is so surreal, people just try to carry on with normal business of life, but Tamaulipas is not the same. The drug cartels are affecting the whole state in a dramatic way.

"The war between drug cartels in Tamaulipas has reached unsustainable levels: the sicarios fight at all times and in all places. They take over entire villages to use as battle grounds and nothing stops them to conceal themselves among the population.

"The war between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas has spread from north to south in this state without local and federal authorities showing any effectiveness in protecting civilians who are increasingly fearful of being victims of shootings or abuses or excessive violence committed by the criminals or from elements of the armed forces.

"The federal government contents that the highway narco-blockades or the massive assisted escapes of prisoners or the constant attacks on police & military installations occurring regularly here are 'desperate reactions' from organized crime because they are in 'a terrible crisis.' However, the facts seen here is that these criminal groups are engaged in a struggle for control of plazas and have taken the state of Tamaulipas hostage."

Mexican President Felipe Calderon came to power in 2006, vowing to use his authority to combat the rising tide of cartel prominence throughout the country. In doing so, he was backed by the U.S. government, who supported Mexico's Drug War... not only spiritually, but to the tune of more than a billion dollars each year.

While many applauded President Calderon's efforts to use the full might of the government to crack down on the cartels, others critiqued the Mexican government's heavy-handed approach, which seemed to transpose the declining murder rates of the prior seven years. Thus, Calderon's efforts seemed to turn Mexico into one of the most dangerous nations in the world within a few short years.

In 2007, Calderon's first full year in office, approximately 3,000 people were murdered in all of Mexico. By 2008, the murder rates had climbed to 5,000. By 2009, the number was nearly 10,000 (approx. 9,600). By 2010, more than 15,000 murders were reported throughout Mexico. These numbers didn't take into account many of the warring cartel members, who were often taken care of by their own, with their bodies taken away before government officials dared respond to the crime scenes.

It quickly became apparent that the government's hostile response to the nation's narcotraffickers was only leading to a rapid escalation in violence, as the cartels became more and more reliant upon violence to impose their will in their various plazas.

In 2010, DEA Special Agent Zoran Yankovich spoke to NPR, claiming that the rapidly-escalating level of violence from the cartels was just beginning to spread throughout the country:

"They're positioning themselves. I think they're still preparing... still arming themselves, bringing additional reinforcements, and I think eventually it will probably be even bloodier than what we're seeing now."

In response to the rising level of unchecked violence throughout Mexico, the federal government dispatched hundreds of troops to Tamaulipas, which was seeing the brunt of the new violence (due to the bloody civil war between the Gulf Cartel and the Los Zetas). However, even after this decision was made, vulnerabilities in the state's strategy became apparent, with members of the cartels beginning to target military members for the first time... not only attempting to fight back against the Mexican government but trying to send a message to any competitors.

In addition, the cartels seemed to be more open to leveling threats of violence at anyone that dare speak up against them: not only Mexican armed forces, but journalists that reported upon the carnage left behind, or politicians that seemed poised to change things. During this cartel civil war, the mayor of Santiago was brutally killed by cartel members, as was a gubernatorial candidate for the state of Tamaulipas, in addition to a truly senseless number of journalists.

As a result, people that lived in the region were essentially living in lockdown, afraid that violence could show up at their doorstep at any time of the day or night. Many were unable to go to work because of the spreading violence, and as reported by the Borderland Beat article I quoted from minutes ago, schools in Tamaulipas were seeing upwards of 60% absentee rates, with parents not even letting their kids head to school... fearing that if they let them out of sight, each day could be their last.

To make matters even worse, the response from the government was doing nothing to stop the flow of drugs reaching the United States, with the cartel power dynamic shifting, but someone always managing to fill the gap in the narco ecosystem... whether it be the Gulf Cartel, the Los Zetas, or any other number of aspirational groups.

Public advisories were made for people to avoid major highways in Tamaulipas, as they had become the prime hunting grounds for cartel enforcers, who were setting up armed checkpoints to either rob, extort, rape, or kill unsuspecting travelers. Many were doomed to be kidnapped and ransomed for family members back home. If their demands were not met, death awaited.

It was not uncommon for travelers to be beaten and tortured by members of the cartels, and it was even advised that women traveling along Tamaulipas highways bring along contraceptives with them before heading out on any lengthy trips... just in case the worst came to pass.

Those that refused to meet the demands of the cartel members were often shot and killed, with their bodies left exposed as a warning for others that felt similarly bold. Those that were killed by the Los Zetas were often left with large "Z's" painted on their clothing... or worse yet, carved into their skin. This practice would be copied by other groups, who similarly wanted to inspire fear among the general populace.

Sadly, many of the men, women, and children that disappeared along these busy roads were never found, with their disappearances not even reported by their loved ones, fearing that the cartels were directly in control of the police force itself.

Speaking to CNN, Alex Poser, a technical analyst for Stratfor (an intelligence firm with knowledge of cartels), said during this brutal period about the ongoing conflict between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas:

"Both sides are amassing numbers of personnel in preparation for an ongoing conflict."

In June of 2010, 18-year-old Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla began heading for the United States in search of work. An Ecuadorian hailing from a remote town in the Andes Mountains - so small that it doesn't even appear on maps, and is almost entirely inaccessible to outsiders - Freddy had worked as a farmer and part-time construction worker when times were good.

Sadly, though, the good times were few and far in between.

The region that Freddy lived in was in the midst of a major economic downturn, with many of its residents attempting to find better opportunities in foreign lands, such as the U.S.

Months prior, Freddy's parents had left Ecuador for the U.S., and had been sending back money each money to help support Freddy and his eight siblings. With opportunity proving elusive for them in their nation of birth, Freddy's parents now resided in Newark, New Jersey, having paid an exorbitant sum for coyotes to smuggle them across thousands of miles. They had traveled to the U.S. in hopes of finding opportunity but found that times were tight there, as well, and the opportunities available to them - illegal immigrants - were not nearly as prosperous as they'd imagined. However, they still owed thousands of dollars to the coyotes that had smuggled them to the U.S. and knew they'd be unable to return home because of this outstanding debt.

Because of this debt, Freddy had decided to head to the U.S. and work on their debt for them, beginning what he knew would be a long and grueling process to support his family. This sacrifice meant that he would end up freeing his parents by amassing a debt of his own, a vicious spiral that engulfs many who choose to seek opportunity in the U.S.

Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla was the oldest of nine children, and in the absence of his parents, acted as the caretaker for almost all of them, as well as his elderly grandmother. To make matters even more complicated, he had a pregnant wife in Ecuador that he was hoping to provide for, with whom he had shared a small one-bedroom home. After making it to the U.S., he planned to make arrangements for her to join him in the U.S. and hoped that they'd be able to raise their child there in the future.

Despite reluctance from his family members - many of whom warned him not to make this trip - Freddy moved forward with plans to illegally enter the United States. He told no one ahead of his expected departure date in June of 2010, other than his young wife, who was four months pregnant at the time. He knew that his loved ones would try and stop him if he did, but with his parents trapped in a never-ending cycle of indentured servitude, he felt as if he had no other option to rescue them than by sacrificing his own well-being.

In June of 2010, Freddy boarded a bus along with dozens of others, with travelers amassing along the route throughout Central and South America. Passengers on the bus hailed not only from his native Ecuador, but from nations such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil. Like Freddy, each had promised to pay approximately $15,000 for a smuggler to take them to the U.S., most of which they would take on as a debt to be paid back over time... with interest.

In the months prior, Freddy had saved up approximately $4,000, which he gave to a human trafficker named Jose Arcesio Vasquez Marin. He promised to pay back the other $11,000 after reaching the U.S., trapping him in a similar cycle as his parents.

Over the next several weeks, Freddy would update his family members and friends when able, but updates came to an end in August of 2010, shortly after Freddy told his young wife that the coyote in charge of his trek was beginning to move towards the U.S.-Mexico border.

Freddy's aunt, Maria Udulia Lala, spoke to El Mundo, stating:

"We are sad, worried. They say something has happened to him and we don't know what."

On Saturday, August 21st, 2010, the bus that Freddy was traveling on - along with dozens of other undocumented migrants - was stopped by a group of armed men on a rural road just outside of San Fernando, Mexico. The passengers were then driven to a ranch in an isolated location nearby, where the armed men presented them with options.

The passengers aboard the bus could pay a ransom to be released, which for all of them, wasn't an option. These were all poor migrants hoping to earn money at their eventual destination, they were unable to pay ransoms. So, they refused.

Another option presented was that those involved could become drug runners or sicarios (hitmen). They were told that they'd be paid reasonably well but knew that the tasks they'd be assigned would all but assure their death... and quickly. Again, they all refused.

The women aboard the bus were then presented with an option to work in a "household" role for the Los Zetas. To many, this seemed to be a fate worse than death itself, so again, the armed men were rejected.

The men and women aboard the bus were then blindfolded and bound and held inside of the ranch for the next day or so. As recounted by Freddy himself:

"On Saturday night, around ten o'clock, three cars surrounded us, about eight well-armed people came out. There they all surrounded us, got (us) out of the (bus) and put us in another... They took us to a house, there they tied our hands behind us four by four, (and) they held us (for) one night. Then they threw us face down and I heard that they were shooting."

Having been blindfolded with the rest of the migrants, Freddy was unable to see what was happening. He heard the gunmen shooting the rest of the captives - men and women alike - many of whom screamed and pled for mercy. Then, finally, he felt a bullet pierce his neck and the warm sensation of blood pooling around the wound. According to Freddy:

"They shot my friends, then (they) came shooting at me and killed all the others. They finished shooting and they left. They killed everyone."

Instead of attempting to immediately seek help - which he knew would result in his immediate death - Freddy decided to play dead. Still blindfolded, he only had to hope that the gunmen weren't going to be checking for any survivors, and he waited... and waited... and waited. Long after he heard the gunmen flee the scene, Freddy decided to pull himself up, removing his restraints and blindfold, and ran away from the ranch as fast as he could. As he later remembered, he came upon others who were likely afraid of getting involved in anything cartel-related, and ignored him:

"I asked for help, two men came out but they did not want to help me."

"I ran about ten kilometers. I walked in pain asking for help (but) no one wanted to help me."

Eventually, after traveling alongside the road for some time, Freddy came upon a military checkpoint, where he sought refuge with the Mexican military, with a bullet still lodged in his bleeding neck. He was taken to a nearby hospital to recover under armed guard, while authorities began scouting for the ranch Freddy had described to them.

On August 24th, 2010, members of the Mexican military finally made it to the ranch, about 14 miles outside of San Fernando (and about 85 miles south of Brownsville, Texas). With a helicopter scoping out the area from above, members of the military carried out a raid on the ranch, which they quickly discovered was not empty.

At least four members of the Los Zetas were at the ranch at the time of the raid, having likely returned in the hours between the massacre and this raid. A shootout would ensue between the Zetas and the military, with one Marine and three members of the Los Zetas being shot and killed in the process. Another gunman was taken into custody; a teenager named Eduardo Rico Perez, who had been enlisted by the Los Zetas a short time beforehand.

Inside the ranch, members of the military would discover that Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla had not been embellishing the truth in any way. There, they were greeted by one of the largest crime scenes in Mexican history.

Inside the abandoned ranch, authorities discovered the bodies of 72 people, 58 men and 14 women, who had all been migrant workers from Central and South America. Some bodies were basically stacked on top of one another, but almost all of the victims were still bound and blindfolded at the time of this discovery.

In time, authorities would discover that all of the migrants had been taken to this ranch and given the option of signing over their lives to their killers, members of the Los Zetas. Authorities would also later learn that these killers, lowly members of the Zetas, had believed the migrants to have been smuggled by members of the Gulf Cartel, and their collective refusal to give in to any of their demands was seen as an affront. All had refused, and for that, they had been shot and killed, their bodies abandoned in the farmhouse that was as empty and desolate as their killers' souls.

At the ranch, authorities also discovered a small armory: at least 21 assault rifles, shotguns, and other firearms; 6,500 rounds of ammunition; numerous bulletproof vests and camouflage uniforms (made to look like military fatigues); and four trucks, which CNN would report had been disguised to look like trucks from the Ministry of National Defense (including forged army license plates).

At the time, the discovery of these 72 bodies in a rural farmhouse outside of San Fernando was the largest mass casualty incident recorded in Mexico's infamous Drug War. While other similar incidents had been recorded in the years before this, nothing approached this level of depravity. Other dumping grounds utilized by cartels had been discovered, but nothing close to 72 bodies... let alone 72 victims killed at the same time. Usually, when cartel dumping grounds were discovered, they contained less than a dozen bodies, most of them fellow narcotraffickers.

The response to this discovery was an overwhelming amount of shock, which came from not just those in Mexico, but from the rest of the world. Publications covered the story thousands of miles away, in major cities in the U.S., South America, and even Europe. While the cartels had been growing more emboldened as of late, this was a major escalation in the type of graphic violence used... which was not aimed at other cartels or even the government, but migrant workers simply passing through the Los Zetas' territory.

Alejandro Poire, Mexico's national security spokesman, tried to explain to reporters that this was the natural escalation that came about because of Mexico's successful strategy against the cartels, stating:

"Mexican institutions have hit the operational structures of these criminals and their income, and because of that, they turn to extortion and kidnapping of migrants, as well as recruiting them to force them to become part of their group of hitmen.

"It's absolutely outrageous and demands the full condemnation of everyone in our society."

Unlike other mass abductions, which were often carried out to extort the victims for ransom, this event had likely been a mass recruitment drive carried out by the Los Zetas. As their war against the Gulf Cartel carried on, they likely needed to bolster their dwindling number of gunmen. As detailed by Poire:

"What this episode reveals, with the information we have so far, is a form of forced recruitment. It is not even a kidnapping with an apparently (financial) intention, but rather to force them to participate in the structures of organized crime."

President Calderon stated publicly, during a meeting with other government officials on August 25th:

"We're in the middle of a criminal spiral we have to cut.

"I don't know of any crime that isn't organized. They are all very organized, and much more than the police.

"Yesterday's crime, for example, shows (cartels') beastliness, their brutality and their absolute lack of human scruples. I am sure we will still see a phase of very intense violence, principally among cartels."

Yet, not everyone was as quick to wave this massacre off as mere collateral damage in a long and bloody war. Others believed that the government's inability to stem the flow of the cartels' influence - which was as pervasive in Mexico's government as ever - was not a product of this escalating war, but rather, the apathy the Mexican government extended towards certain groups. This had led to certain cartels being favored by the government, and others being forced to resort to more brutal methods to get their point across. Reverend Pedro Pantoja, who had long served as an advocate for migrants, told reporters with the San Diego Union-Tribune:

"We disagree with the government that (this) is a consequence of battles between criminal groups. The permissiveness and complicity of the Mexican state with criminals... is just as much to blame."

Approximately four months before the 2010 San Fernando Massacre, in April of 2010, Amnesty International published a report detailing the perilous journey that migrants faced while traveling through Mexico in search of a better life. In particular, this report detailed the path through Tamaulipas, which they described as "one of the most dangerous in the world," responsible for an untold number of migrants disappearing every year.

After news of the massacre began to break worldwide, Amnesty International released a statement:

"This discovery once again demonstrates the extreme danger and violence that Central Americans face on their treacherous journey north, as well as Mexican authorities' abject failure to protect them. Mexico must immediately investigate this massacre, bring the perpetrators to justice and establish the identities of those killed so that their families can be informed."

Following this news, several migrants that were already traveling to the U.S. decided to turn back to their nation of origin, believing that their hope of a better life wasn't worth the risk... not if it meant crossing through the territory of a dangerous cartel. However, not all were deterred, including Wilber Cuéllar, a migrant from Belize, who promised to keep on. As recounted by the San Diego Union-Tribune:

"We run from the military, the authorities, the police and now the criminals, the Zetas. We are just poor people, we're just passing through. Why do they have to do this to us?

"I'm not afraid. I'm prepared to die. I'm tired of suffering in this world."

Following the massacre, the Mexican government sent refrigeration units to the site of the massacre to preserve the bodies of the slain. At the same time, they dispatched a dozen forensic experts to collect evidence at the expansive crime scene and to examine the bodies, in order to determine when, exactly, they had been killed. Since a couple of days had already passed, time was critical.

Diplomats were summoned from Southern and Central American countries, where the murdered migrants were presumed to have come from. These diplomats were flown up to Tamaulipas to help officials identify the bodies and arrange transportation back to their loved ones... many of whom were praying that their family member or friend was not among the fallen.

In the end, it would be discovered that the victims hailed from numerous countries: 25 were Hondurans, 14 were Guatemalans, 14 were El Salvadorians, 5 were Ecuadorians, 4 were Brazilians, and 1 had originally hailed from India. Despite these geographic differences, each had been aboard a bus headed for the southern United States when their stories came to a tragic and unceremonious end.

As we'll learn later on, however, the identity of several victims remains contested years later.

Sadly, the investigation into the 2010 San Fernando Massacre would be marred by additional violence and bloodshed, most of which seemed to be carried out by the Los Zetas.

The prosecutor in charge of investigating the massacre, Roberto Suarez Vazquez, was reported missing just days after beginning his investigation, August 27th. He had been spotted in the city of San Fernando just days prior - August 25th - along with a security official with who he'd been partnered with, Juan Carlo Suarez Sanchez.

The bodies of both would be found approximately two weeks later, in September, in a field about thirty miles northeast of San Fernando. The details of their disappearance and subsequent murder remain murky to this day.

As if that wasn't enough, the same day that Vazquez was reported missing - August 27th - two car bombs would explode. One blew up in Ciudad Victoria, the capital city of Tamaulipas, outside of a Televisa TV station, which had been airing news of the massacre. The other car bomb exploded outside of a police station in San Fernando itself.

Mariana Sanchez, an Al Jazeera correspondent, said about these car bombs:

"It happened just days after the massacre. It appears to be a message from the perpetrators, the Zetas, that they are in command here and they don't want any investigating to be done in Tamaulipas state."

After seeking help at the military checkpoint outside of San Fernando, Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla was taken to a hospital nearby, where he began the long road to recovery after being shot in the neck and left for dead. Soon thereafter, he was able to contact some of his worried family members, who had heard about the migrant massacre and had seen his name in the press but had been unable to get in contact with him in the days since.

Despite attempts by the Mexican government to protect his identity, Freddy's name was published by the media early on, an action that was decried by President Calderon, who claimed that he personally ordered the name to be withheld from all publications. Because of this apparent failure, Freddy was taken into federal protection by the Mexican government, along with members of his immediate family, who started to receive death threats from the Los Zetas and other cartels shortly after the massacre.

Days later, Freddy would refuse a humanitarian visa from Mexico, instead opting to return to his native Ecuador... where he believed he'd be far safer.

Weeks later, Freddy returned to his small community in the Andes mountains, where he continued to live in fear. For several months after his return, armed Ecuadorian guards were posted at the entrance to his town.

It would later be revealed that Freddy was not only receiving threats from the Los Zetas - the narcos that had carried out the massacre - but the coyote that had been responsible for smuggling Freddy into the United States. Jose Arcesio Vasquez Marin had leveled threats against Freddy and his loved ones after the massacre, warning them against talking to authorities about his involvement. Thankfully, though, he was later arrested and sentenced to twelve years in prison, having been identified as one of the nation's most prominent human traffickers.

Shortly after his return home, Freddy would give a televised interview, during which he pled with those interested in illegally traveling to the United States. He insisted that they don't, as the Los Zetas were ready to kill anyone they could get their hands on, and did not discriminate for any reason.

In the years since the massacre, Freddy has attempted to readjust to his life in Ecuador, where he continues to live in a state of poverty. He feels betrayed by his government, who offered protection early on - likely for some good PR - but have failed to live up to the rest of their promises. Now, he says, it seems like they just don't care.

To this day, Freddy remains nervous that the men who once tried to kill him will eventually return to finish the job. And he's not just worried about himself... he was once little more than a kid, but is now a man grown, with a wife and children he's sworn to protect. However, until the Los Zetas and their associates are officially done away with, he knows this fear will never fade. Even then, the trauma of his ordeal can never be forgotten.

Freddy has attempted to seek political asylum in other countries, like the United States, but these requests have been rejected, with the rest of the world trying its best to forget about the tragedy of the 2010 San Fernando Massacre... and turning a cold shoulder towards its only known survivor.

In early September of 2010, an anonymous caller reached out to Mexican authorities, letting them know the location of three additional bodies. These bodies, the caller claimed - and as reported by the BBC - were three men that had been responsible for carrying out the mass killing weeks prior. The deceased were found and were apparently identified as men that had helped carry out the massacre. It was believed that they had been betrayed by their fellow narcos, sacrificed in order to satiate the public, who demanded answers.

These three men - paired with the four men that had gotten into a shootout with authorities at the ranch - pointed to at least seven men being involved in the migrant massacre. But as you'd imagine, this was just a drop in the bucket. Many more had likely been involved or had helped the others as lesser accomplices.

Pressured by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to get results, authorities identified 83 people as having been involved in carrying out or helping cover up the massacre outside of San Fernando. This included at least 18 municipal police officers, whose inaction had either directly or indirectly led to the Los Zetas seizing power in the region.

Despite this, however, only 15 members of the Los Zetas were apprehended as part of this investigation, with the details of their detainment kept under wraps. Their criminal cases were labeled confidential, and to date, none of their names or statuses have been revealed to the public; with the Mexican government insisting upon this secretive investigation, likely not wanting to inflame tensions after decades of fighting.

In August of 2010, as reported by the Seattle Times, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes would state about the ever-evolving war on drugs:

"This war is not going to be won using the tools and methods traditionally used to fight crime. The challenge posed by the criminals requires other responses, other weapons, and intelligence."

As it stands now, the war on drugs has not been won by either side, order or disorder. Yet, it seems to many that disorder has definitively become the favorite in the years since, with the specific cartels changing prominence almost every other day, it seems, but the tide of illegal drugs continuing to fuel their operations... which have expanded far outside of narcotics. Now, many facets of the Mexican economy are heavily controlled and operated by the cartels, ensuring that their existence will continue long after drugs are decriminalized or legalized... and that their prominence is unlikely to fade any time soon. Some would even consider Mexico to be a "narco state," but that's a conversation for another time.

Sadly, the practices seen in this brutal massacre - the abduction and mass murder of undocumented migrants - were only an aberration in that dozens were killed at once. This type of extortion-and-kidnapping is still a routine practice throughout large parts of Mexico, where the cartels monitor the highways and train routes.

In many cases, the types of people targeted by these narcos are desperate migrants, literally traveling to a brand new world with little more than the clothing on their back... they are often helpless to defend themselves, or even negotiate, with armed gunmen demanding thousands of dollars to not pull the trigger. If these victims of extortion are not shot on the spot, then they are often kept hostage until they - or their loved ones in another country - can wire money to their abductors. Sometimes, though, even that's not enough, as we've seen with this case.

Many of the victims' family members have not been given closure in the decade-plus since this massacre was carried out. Even though many of the victims' bodies were returned to their nations of origin, many family members were instructed not to look at the remains, simply assured that the remains they were putting to rest were those of their loved ones. However, at least eight families insist that they were sent the wrong set of remains.

In the years after the massacre, at least thirteen victims were listed as unidentified, due to a variety of factors. At least one has been identified in the eleven years since: Wilmer Gerardo Nunez Posadas, a 28-year-old Honduran man who was attempting to flee gang violence in his home city in order to get to the U.S. to be with his wife and newborn baby, only to fall prey to the Los Zetas. One other victim may have been identified in the years since, but those details remain murky at best.

However, the other eleven remain unidentified, unlikely to ever regain their names or identities. They were buried together in a mass grave in Mexico City in July of 2011.

While many would go on to label this massacre as "the biggest single discovery of its kind" in the long and bloody Mexican Drug War - as well as "the worst known atrocity committed by Mexico's drug trafficking organization(s) to date" - this story would be eclipsed by additional discoveries made the following year.

That's on the next episode of Unresolved.

Episode Information

Episode Information

Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on November 20th, 2021

Music Credits

Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music

Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

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