“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
A woman, known as “La China,” recounts her experience working for Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s most violent cartels.
Male newscaster: In the prisons of San Luis Potosí there is a civil association that helps women behind bars. They managed to document that at least 80% of the women are imprisoned for crimes linked to drug traffickers. Rocío López has the details.
La China: I was imprisoned for the crimes of kidnapping, homicide, auto theft, criminal association, and weapons charges. I worked with a criminal group.
Rocio Lopez: ‘I lived though four years of hell’. That’s how this woman nicknamed La China describes the experience of having worked for the Los Zetas, one of the most bloodthirsty cartels of the country. She lived in fear of being executed at any moment if she made a mistake. She also witnessed cold blooded murders. That’s why the day she entered prison she was relieved.
La China: I’m going to be honest with you. I felt like my arrest was a salvation for me because I knew that sooner or later they were going to kill me. I have three children and I was in a financially bad situation. I was invited to work there because the pay was said to be very good. And so I started to work with them due to economic reasons and the fact that everything was so easy.
Rocio Lopez: The Nueva Luna civil association that supports incarcerated women in San Luis Potosi has documented that up to 80% of women in prison who are behind bars worked for drug traffickers.
Nueva Luna President Marcela Garcia: It’s normally through romantic affairs, amorous relationships, that these men who are involved in criminal organizations hook up with women.
Rocio Lopez: According to the association these women occupied minor positions in the criminal structure. They rarely achieved a position of being in charge of a place or leading a regional area.
Nueva Luna President Marcela Garcia: They play the role of spies and drug dealers. In the case of kidnappings, they take care of the abducted individuals, they feed them. And in many cases there are often the ones who also collect ransoms generated from these kidnappings.
Rocio Lopez: What worries the civil organizations is that even though there haven’t been any cases found in which women are leading criminal gangs. The judges are sentencing them without giving any consideration to gender.
Nueva Luna President Marcela Garcia: If you’re a woman the penalties are harsher if you commit this type of crime because you as a woman should be taking care of children.
Rocio Lopez: La China was sentenced to 49 years in prison. But she appealed and only served a 3 year sentence for home burglary.
La China: I have a lot of people pointing at me right now because they think I killed, that I participated in kidnappings. But that just wasn’t the type of work that I was doing.
Rocio Lopez: The Nueva Luna association details that women are ensared or abducted by the cartels at an early age. Girls as young as 12 years old who live in marginalized areas who are fleeing violence in their homes are preyed upon. They are easy prey for criminals.
