Mexican Army Captures 14 Year-Old Insurgent Assassin
Dec 3, 2010 1 Comment ›› Pat Dollard
CUERNAVACA, Mexico (AP) – The skinny boy in a long-sleeved T-shirt and cargo pants looks younger than his 14 years as he stands surrounded by three Mexican soldiers in ski masks and camouflage, armed with automatic rifles.
Authorities say the curly-haired teenager, a U.S. citizen, is the alleged child assassin, “El Ponchis,” made famous in a YouTube video a month ago — and that he deserved a captured capo’s escort when he was picked up Thursday night.
El Ponchis told reporters on Friday that he was kidnapped at the age of 11 and forced to work for the Cartel of the South Pacific, a branch of the splintered Beltran Leyva gang, and that he had participated in at least four decapitations.
He was detained with his 16-year-old sister at an airport near Cuernavaca in Morelos state with a paid tickets to flee the country and carrying two cell phones with photographs of tortured victims.
“I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat that if I didn’t, they would kill me,” the boy told reporters calmly when he was handed over to the federal prosecutor Friday morning, showing no remorse.
A 16-year-old sister detained with him says they were headed for Tijuana, where they planned to cross the border and seek refuge with their stepmother in San Diego. Their mother sent them money for the tickets, she said, but it was not clear where their parents are.
The army did not say whether the children had passed security when they were detained.
The two allegedly worked for Julio “El Negro” Padilla, who has been fighting for control of the drug trade in Morelos since the leader of the Beltran Leyva gang, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed by Mexican marines a year ago. The battle against another remnant of the gang, once headed by Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez — another U.S. citizen detained in August — has caused an unprecedented spike in violence in Morelos just south of Mexico City, and in neighboring Guerrero state, where the resort of Acapulco is located.
El Ponchis’ sister said she was the girlfriend of Padilla and part of a group of girls called Las Chabelas, who helped dump the bodies on streets and freeways in and around Cuernavaca, an upscale weekend getaway about 56 miles (90 kilometers) south of Mexico City. She said her brother introduced them.
A third teenage sister picked up at the airport appeared with the two Friday, but authorities said she has no ties drug trafficking.
The story of El Ponchis is the most shocking involving youngsters in drug cartels, but even President Felipe Calderon has acknowledged “in the most violent areas of the country, there is an unending recruitment of young people without hope, without opportunities.”
Figures obtained by The Associated Press from Mexico’s attorney general’s office show that the number of youths 18 and under detained for drug-related crimes has climbed steadily since Calderon launched his assault on cartels in 2006. There were 482 that year and 810 in 2009. There were 562 in the first eight months of this year, on track to surpass last year.
Authorities in Morelos said last month that they had detained two other minors, one a pregnant girl.
Stories of a hit boy, maybe as young as 12, spread after a YouTube video appeared last month with teens mugging for the camera next to corpses and guns. One boy on the video alleged that “El Ponchis” was his accomplice. State and federal authorities refused to confirm El Ponchis even existed.
In the video, the youth told an unseen questioner that his gang was paid $3,000 per killing.
“When we don’t find the rivals, we kill innocent people, maybe a construction worker or a taxi driver,” the youth is heard saying.
Morelos Gov. Marco Adame Castillo said that the captured 14-year-old identified as El Ponchis was born in San Diego, California.
“We’ve seen press reports. We’re looking into it and we have not confirmed his citizenship,” said a U.S Embassy official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to embassy policy.
Mexican officials are researching whether El Ponchis has dual nationality, Castillo added in a press conference. Although state courts handle crimes by juveniles in Mexico, authorities in Morelos have asked the federal government to take over the case because of the gravity of the crimes.
Unlike the United States, Mexico has no system for trying juveniles as adults, though a bill that would establish such a provision is before the Mexican Senate.
Neighbors said the siblings were living in a cartel safehouse in a poor neighborhood of Jiutepec, a working-class suburb of Cuernavaca, known as a weekend getaway for Mexico City residents. The area has an industrial area with Nissan, Unilever and other factories, rustic single-level concrete homes and some farms.
