It was Close
Juan Josue Monteverde Luna
Mexico has always been a safe haven for me, at least until recently that the insecurity has significantly grown. These past 2 years there has been a raging war between two mafia cartels, mainly taking place in my town, Magdalena de Kino. The count of deaths and gun wars on the streets are uncountable at this point, including innocent lives.
Today I will be talking about an incident that happened to me and two friends on my last vacations. It was a Friday; my parents did not want to let me go to this town due to the same insecurity reasons. I kept trying to convince them, since my girlfriend was living there. I ultimately ended up convincing them of letting me go for the weekend and that Id be back by Sunday. I got there early Friday, I went to visit a friend and he asked me if I could help him take some hay to his ranch and come back real quick. I agreed, we went to pick up another friend and then headed off.
We went to buy the hay, loaded it up on the truck, we stopped at a gas station for some capri suns, and then took off. Arriving at the ranch, we unloaded the truck, organized the hay, put water for the horses and ate with the man who takes care of the ranch. Maybe 45 minutes, maybe that’s what we were there for, and started to head back. Passing the gate of the ranch, I got off to close it and everything seemed normal. My friend started to do donuts and caused a major sand storm following us when we were heading down.When going down the hill, I was on my phone and all of the sudden the friend in the middle of the truck seat put his hands up. I thought he was playing around, and when I looked in front, there was 2 cars full of sicarios blocking the street pointing their guns and screaming at us. None of us could talk, but all of us had our hands up and out of the car. Two men approached screaming and running, opening the passenger door where I was at, and kept pushing the rifle on my head telling us to identify ourselves.
We kept telling them we were from there and told them the truth about how we were only delivering hay to our friend’s ranch. They seemed very tense and even scared. One of them kept shaking their hands with their rifles. They decided to let us go and told us to hurry. I kept having a pain in my chest, the one in the middle kept hysterically laughing and the one driving started to twitch his leg. If not obvious, we were shitting ourselves. Later on, that day, we found out on the news that on that exact same spot there had been a gun battle. The people that stopped us were waiting for their enemies at the same exact time we were arriving from the ranch. If we would have taken literally 3 more minutes to leave the ranch, we would have encountered the crossfire and well obviously they were going to shoot us thinking we were there to battle. From there on, I have been prohibited to go to my town until further notice.
Today I will be talking about an incident that happened to me and two friends on my last vacations. It was a Friday; my parents did not want to let me go to this town due to the same insecurity reasons. I kept trying to convince them, since my girlfriend was living there. I ultimately ended up convincing them of letting me go for the weekend and that Id be back by Sunday. I got there early Friday, I went to visit a friend and he asked me if I could help him take some hay to his ranch and come back real quick. I agreed, we went to pick up another friend and then headed off.
We went to buy the hay, loaded it up on the truck, we stopped at a gas station for some capri suns, and then took off. Arriving at the ranch, we unloaded the truck, organized the hay, put water for the horses and ate with the man who takes care of the ranch. Maybe 45 minutes, maybe that’s what we were there for, and started to head back. Passing the gate of the ranch, I got off to close it and everything seemed normal. My friend started to do donuts and caused a major sand storm following us when we were heading down.When going down the hill, I was on my phone and all of the sudden the friend in the middle of the truck seat put his hands up. I thought he was playing around, and when I looked in front, there was 2 cars full of sicarios blocking the street pointing their guns and screaming at us. None of us could talk, but all of us had our hands up and out of the car. Two men approached screaming and running, opening the passenger door where I was at, and kept pushing the rifle on my head telling us to identify ourselves.
We kept telling them we were from there and told them the truth about how we were only delivering hay to our friend’s ranch. They seemed very tense and even scared. One of them kept shaking their hands with their rifles. They decided to let us go and told us to hurry. I kept having a pain in my chest, the one in the middle kept hysterically laughing and the one driving started to twitch his leg. If not obvious, we were shitting ourselves. Later on, that day, we found out on the news that on that exact same spot there had been a gun battle. The people that stopped us were waiting for their enemies at the same exact time we were arriving from the ranch. If we would have taken literally 3 more minutes to leave the ranch, we would have encountered the crossfire and well obviously they were going to shoot us thinking we were there to battle. From there on, I have been prohibited to go to my town until further notice.
My name is Juan Josue Monteverde, I am from Sonora, Mexico and I am of 21 years of age.