Pubdate: Sat, 25 Aug 2012
Source: Brownsville Herald, The (TX)
Copyright: 2012 The Brownsville Herald
Contact: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/sections/contact/
Website: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1402
Author: Patricia Lopez
Cited: Caravan for Peace: http://www.caravanforpeace.org/caravan/

MOTHER TALKS OF LOSING FOUR SONS

Four sons of Maria Herrera Magdalena are missing.

"Two of my sons disappeared on August 28, 2008, in the state of 
Guerrero," she said Thursday in a visit to the Rio Grande Valley. 
"And after two years I again have the same thing happen. Two more 
sons have disappeared."

Herrera Magdalena is part of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and 
Dignity that is traveling across the United States to promote 
bilateral efforts to end the drug violence in Mexico and along the border.

On Thursday, Brownsville was one of the caravan's two stops in the 
Rio Grande Valley. The caravan began in Tijuana, Mexico, and is 
scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sept. 12.

Traveling with Herrera Magdalena is a fifth son, Juan Carlos Trujillo Herrera.

The mother said in addition to her sons, 15 others from her town in 
Guerrero have disappeared.

She addressed a crowd Thursday in Alamo, telling them why she and 
others were traveling with the caravan.

"At this time we are not fighting for our own but for each and every 
one of the children of the people who are here," she said.

Their hope is to stop the violence, she said.

"We do not want more people to go through the pain that we have been 
going through," she said.

Another woman, Leticia Mora Nieto, approached a reporter to show a 
photograph of a young woman.

Mora Nieto said it was her daughter.

"I come from Atizapan in the state of Mexico," she said. "I am with 
the Caravan for Peace searching for justice."

Her daughter disappeared a year and four months ago, she said.

"She is 24 years old and the truth is, we have not had much of an 
answer," she said. "People do not know what it is to live with this pain."

Her life, she said, has completely changed.

"My life is a different one. My family is already broken. I am over 
here and they are over there," said Mora Nieto, who spoke with great anxiety.

"I am very frightened because nowadays you see a lot of people being 
smuggled. Daughters are taken into prostitution. I am in this country 
because there are many American clients and they go across the border 
for those services," she said of her efforts to bring change.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom