- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN Spanish) - Nine members of a family with dual citizenship, American and Mexican, were killed in northern Mexico on Monday, said Alex LeBaron, a member of the Mormon community's family to CNN from Mexico on Tuesday.
Speaking to CNN via Twitter, LeBaron said that among the "burned alive" were three women, four young children and two babies.
“Women and children were slaughtered, burned alive. Mothers shouted for the fire to stop, ”he said.
Seven other children injured in the incident were transferred from Mexico to Douglas, Arizona, to be transported to Tucson hospitals, Lebaron added.
The family was traveling to pick up a family member and take him back to Mexico for a family wedding.
They were allegedly attacked "separately but simultaneously by two different groups of the same cartel," LaBaron told CNN. "Probably by accident, confused with their rivals."
On Monday, the Attorney General of Chihuahua deployed an operation in a border area of Sonora for actions to search for people belonging to a Mormon community who were victims of an aggression in the municipality of Bavispe.
The entity adds that they have submitted a significant number of items that add to the search. According to relatives of the victims, the events occurred when families moved from Bavispe, Sonora, to Janos, Chihuahua, through a gap.
MIRA : Mexico: Is drug violence a threat to investment?
The attorney general, César Peniche Espejel, explained that due to the complexity of the area, communication with the personnel deployed in the region has been difficult, so, so far, it has not been possible to specify an official figure of the total number of victims
Preliminarily, the Prosecutor's Office confirms that there is information on three vehicles that were targeted by the aggression by criminal groups in which there would be victims, mainly women and children. Meanwhile, minors who were placed with various injuries.
The US ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, wrote on Twitter that he is following the situation very closely and that "the security of our nationals is our top priority."
The security of our nationals is our top priority. I am following the situation in the mountains between Sonora and Chihuahua very closely.
- Ambassador Christopher Landau (@USAmbMex) November 5, 2019
For its part, the governor of Sonora, Claudia Pavlovich, repudiated the act on her Twitter account.
“I don't know what kind of monsters dares to hurt women and children. As governor all my collaboration so that it does not go unpunished and those responsible pay, ”he wrote.
As a mother I feel courage, repudiation and a deep pain for the cowards made in the mountains between Sonora and Chihuahua. I don't know what kind of monsters dare to hurt women and children. As Governor all my collaboration so that it does not go unpunished and those responsible pay.
- Claudia Pavlovich A. (@ClaudiaPavlovic) November 5, 2019
News in development.