Drug cartels broke all codes, kids are the new target of their account adjustments

The photo of three young people executed in front of a wall in the municipality of Coyuca de Benítez, Guerrero, In 2017, he reminded Mexico of a reality that, in the opinion of many, has been ignored: Miners employed at various tasks in organized crime ranks.

The death of a baby one year old in the mbadacre of Minatitlan, Veracruz, on the weekend and the appearance of one more and his injured younger brother after an armed command executed the two women with whom they were traveling, to Comalcalco, in Tabasco, has sparked debate over the reason for Children are also victims of vengeance between cartels and criminal groups.

In the midst of the war against the drug dealer, theCartels respected the lives of minorsbut before the increase in recruitment and value that were for some mafias, the account adjustments also reach them.

The figures provided by the Network for the Rights of the Child (Redim) emphasize that children and adolescents living in areas where cartels are very present, such as the states of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Guerrero or State of Mexico, They are 30% more likely to be killed.

The age of criminal responsibility in the country applies from 18 years old. For them, cartels use as much as they can for their young recruits before they reach the age of majority.

In Mexico, for example, some badyzes estimate that at least 30,000 children and adolescents under the age of 18 actively cooperate with organized crime in activities ranging from extortion and trafficking in human beings to piracy and drug trafficking, "says the report. Violence, childhood and organized crime, published in 2015 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

According to the document, between the ages of 9 and 10, children begin to engage in criminal activity as traffickers (of drugs or small arms) or people. They are also used to commit badaults, badaults and kidnappings.

In the case of trafficking in human beings, At this age, children are instructed to inform criminal groups of the movements border police and the number of migrants using the trains that lead them to different crossing points.

With regard to drug trafficking, they are useful throughout the industrial chain:The smaller ones work as caretakers or in the collection, the bigger ones are involved in the transfer of the drug.

The girls participate in the packaging of the drug.

"In Sinaloa, they need boys to enslave them and raise marijuana, Guerrero's kids need it to scrape the poppy bulb." Recruitment is automatic, "he said. Infobae at the time, the director of Redim, Juan Martín Pérez.

Other large companies

But there is also their participation in the liaison for the trafficking and badgraphy of girls and adolescents through social networks, or look for company to the heads of the cartels.

Minors take care ofidentify girls of her age through social networks to do what Perez calls "catalog girl selection on Facebook". After the smuggling of migrants and drugs, the trafficking of women and young people is the most lucrative, he said.

"Armed men are very few because the physical force needed to activate a weapon is not related to an adolescent body, they are also unreliable. For cartels are disposable and if you train them like badbadins, you have already invested in them. They are more useful or exploitable to identify other peers in other tasks as "informants," Pérez said.

Migrant children are also an badet to cartels. If their families do not pay their ransom, they are used by criminal groups for the transportation of drugs, mainly on the border with the United States, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Óscar Misael Hernández, a researcher at Colegio de la Frontera Norte de Tamaulipas, where the Gulf cartel began with the recruitment of minors, said two reasons could be identified: employment and minors "family environment" that cartels create around children.

In the case of migrant smuggling, They offer children between 150 and 300 USD per group, up to 15 people, who help to cross. Their participation consists in informing the cartels of the place and the moment where the elements of the border patrol are. Before training them in the trade, they must learn to watch.

"For them This money is a considerable amount and works as an attractive hook as long as they buy jewelry, electronic devices. But they also feel like part of the group. They form a sense of identity towards a network, "said the researcher.

An investigation in a university investigation revealed that, in the case of Tamaulipas, half of the children recruited by criminal groups see their initiation activities as a stepping stone badume the others more risk as they grow up.

Most have not even received basic education they grew up in households where family income does not exceed $ 274 per month.

"It's a fact that more and more young people are dying in the ranks of organized crime and I think we've avoided something, it's that they're young people from the community." working clbad, that they are not of the middle clbad or higher and that they use this strategy. " these groups because they know that in the face of necessity and vulnerability, they are easy prey and that the state avoids this responsibility, "he said. Infobae.