A man from Utah who helped his mother and other relatives
flee from northern Mexico after the recent killing said Sunday that most
escaped to Arizona with what he could get into their cars and trucks and will
probably never return.
More than 100 people left their rural community in
northern Mexico on Saturday in a caravan of 18 vehicles after Monday's attack,
in which nine women and children were reportedly killed by drug cartels hired
assassins.
"I
went there to get my mother and my family, my brothers and many children",
Mike Hafen said Sunday in a telephone interview from his sister's house in
Phoenix.
“They lived there 47 years. They left with the minimum, which they could
put in the bed of my truck”, he said. "After living there 47 years, they had
to leave almost everything".
Hafen said many of his family and friends believe they
will never return to Mexico due to drug cartels.
"It is getting worse. There is nothing but
corruption. You don't know who
you can trust”, he said. "Some members of my family say they will never
return".
“It's pretty hard for everyone and it's sad. I grew up
there. It was a wonderful place to live. I love the place. Growing up there wouldn't change it for
anything”, said Hafen, 54, who moved to Utah 15 years ago. “But what he
is doing is not safe. We have noticed".
Monday's deadly attack occurred while women traveled with
their children to visit relatives. Eight children, some infants, survived the
ambush.
The extensive community dates back more than a century,
when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put an end to polygamy,
forcing polygamous Mormon families in the United States to seek other countries
to live.
SOURCE: El Nuevo Herald
