Violence intensifies in Mexico City with the discovery of two dismembered children in the center

Investigative Police of the FGJCDMX carried out an operation in the Centro neighborhood to investigate the death of the two minors who were dismembered in the same neighborhood Luis Carbayo / CUARTOSCURO

The criminal brutality that has gripped Mexico for almost 15 years has once again been shown in all its harshness in the capital.

Two children, ages 12 and 14, who disappeared on October 27 were found dismembered, according to the local prosecutor's office.

Police found his remains when a man was transporting them in a wheelbarrow through the center.

Investigators have not given too many details about what happened, but the leaks paint a picture known to public opinion: children were part of the criminal world.

This Tuesday, the head of government of Mexico City regretted what happened.

"It is something that hurts and we need to attend to urgently," he said.

Claudia Sheinbaum pointed out that "until now a case like this had not been presented" and added that the matter "seems to have to do with a drug dealing issue."

The president did not elaborate on her explanations.

The prosecution has barely disclosed details of the investigation.

His spokesman, Ulises Lara, simply confirmed that the remains found are those of the boys, but did not say whether or not the killings had to do with street drug sales.

The violence used against these children is linked to other events that have occurred in the city in recent years, the latest being the shooting attack on the capital's police chief at the end of June.

It is not that both events are directly related, but they confirm the criminal reality of Mexico City.

For years, Sheinbaum's predecessor at the head of government, Miguel Ángel Mancera, denied that organized crime acted in the capital.

Sheinbaum did acknowledge the presence of crime in the city, but it is not clear that the change in discourse generated a consistent response.

Juan Martín Pérez, head of the Network for Children's Rights, criticizes that "practically nothing has been done" against crime.

"They do not dare to touch the networks of criminality," he adds, "they do not touch the networks of corrupt officials, nor the sources of income from crime, and impunity is guaranteed."

Martín points out that “the case of these two children fits into a problem of recruitment of minors in the center of Mexico City and the surrounding areas.

It is what the police call the diamond: the Cuauhtémoc, Venustiano Carranza, Iztapalapa and Gustavo Madero mayors in the capital and the suburbs of Chalco and Nezahualcóyotl ”, he specified.

The murdered children were named Hector and Alan and they were of Mazahua origin.

They were 14 and 12 years old and disappeared on October 27 in the center of the capital.

According to the prosecution, the last time they were seen was in Eje Central, a road that connects the south with the center.

Journalistic versions indicate that the children sold sweets in the area, where they also lived.

Local media indicate that the last time they were seen was actually at the corner of Allende and Donceles streets, near the Zócalo.

It is not clear who took them, or why.

The journalist and writer Héctor de Mauleón has written that a man took the children on a motorcycle.

He and other reporters with a red note point in various reports that the disappearance of the children coincides with several murders and disputes between two groups of drug dealers with a presence in Mexico City, the Unión Tepito and the Anti-Union Force.

De Mauleón suggests that the children worked for a member of the Union who had recently switched sides and who was assassinated the day before the disappearance.

According to reporter Míriam Moreno, from RadioFórmula, the boys' families contacted Héctor's cell phone on October 27.

The children and their families lived in a humble downtown neighborhood, on the other side of the Central Axis.

A man answered but immediately hung up and unplugged the phone.

For some reason, the authorities did not issue an alert about the disappearance, a common procedure, until two days later.

The children were not heard from for several days, until November 1.

In the early morning of the day of the dead, their bodies appeared, dismembered, in several black plastic bags, piled up in a barrel and a plastic box.

There is no official version of how it happened, but local media point out that a man was loading the packages on a little devil, a common cargo truck in many parts of the capital's old town: the center is a large commercial swarm during the day.

It seems that the man overturned the car and some bags fell to the ground.

Policemen who were nearby came to help him and then they realized that there were human remains inside the bags.

Yesterday, the prosecution confirmed that the remains belonged to Alan and Hector.

Given the information gap, the press has given all kinds of details about the alleged whereabouts of the boys from October 27 to November 1.

Various versions suggest that they were held in a downtown neighborhood, not far from where they lived.

There they would have been murdered.

It is not known what the man who transported his remains in the center intended to do.