"Justice for Daniel and Perlita": the murder of two child brothers that shocks Mexico

The brothers Perla and Wilbert Daniel, aged 9 and 6 respectively, were buried this Monday in Oaxaca (Mexico) after a large funeral procession where relatives and friends of the children demanded justice for the double homicide that has shaken the country.

The children were found dead on a highway in the south of the country in El Espinal, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

.

The investigators assure that both died between two and four hours before the discovery of the bodies.

The father of the minors, whose last names were not revealed, was detained by the authorities when he went to identify the bodies and has been accused of double homicide, in a case that keeps the community of Juchitán de Zaragoza upset.

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The children lived in a marginalized situation and worked on the streets selling sweets, according to the newspaper El País.

Court records consulted by the EFE news agency indicated that no family member reported their disappearance before they were found dead.

His mother had not lived with them for more than three years.

Mariachis say goodbye to the brothers Perla and Wilbert Morales in Oaxaca, on February 20, 2023. Milenio

Family and friends placed an altar with candles on Monday for the children to receive the rite of post-mortem baptism, according to EFE.

Accompanied by musicians from one of the traditional Oaxacan wind bands, those attending the procession cried out for justice.

“We ask for justice for Daniel and Perlita.

They owed no one.

They were loving children, only someone without a heart, without mercy, could have taken their lives.

They did not deserve that, ”said a neighbor quoted by EFE that she preferred not to be identified.

The procession toured the main streets of Juchitán led by the students of the Saúl Martínez school, where

, respectively.

The students dressed in white and in their hands they carried flowers and balloons of the same color.

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The children's teacher held a roll call, where all the children responded when they heard the names of their murdered classmates.

The brothers were buried in the Palm Sunday cemetery with their belongings: clothes, toys and shoes, according to the Zapotec indigenous belief in the region.

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At the time of burying them, relatives and schoolmates shouted: "Justice, justice," reported Aristegui Noticias.

The governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara, specified hours before the funeral that the children were allegedly hanged.

But he also mentioned another line of research, related to family problems with another group of people.

"What the Prosecutor's Office tells us is that they were hanged and that was the way it was a murder

," said the president.

“It is being investigated, an investigation is being carried out and those who were guilty of this are going to be arrested.

There can be no impunity"

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According to the second line of investigation, the governor said that it is likely that the parents "were threatened and told that they were going to punish them where it hurt the most."

The murder of children reflects a wave of violence that does not cease in Mexico.

where the Network for the Rights of Children reported that during the past year 1,605 people under 17 years of age, 426 women and 1,265 men, were murdered, according to EFE.