On the morning of Sunday March 27, 2016, Miriam Rodriguez hid and held a loaded .38 pistol near the Matamoros International Bridge, which connects Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas.
Dressed in a baseball cap and trench coat, the 56-year-old mother of three was waiting for a feared member of the Zeta drug cartel known only as “The Florist. “
Two years earlier, he was one of 11 men involved in the kidnapping of his then 20-year-old daughter, Karen. Now, Miriam is out for justice – and revenge.
Spotting a Flower Shop near some street vendors, Miriam drew her gun and took the time. He grabbed the man’s shirt and put the gun in his back.
“‘If you move, I’ll shoot you,’ he said, holding him at gunpoint and performing a citizen’s arrest until police arrived.
The Matamoros International Bridge connects Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas. AFP via Getty Images
Author Azam Ahmed describes this dramatic scene in his new book “Fear Is Just A Word – A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother’s Quest for Vengeance” (Random House). It tells the story of how, for years, Miriam relentlessly pursues the man who has taken her daughter.
It is also a story of how drugs, violence and lawlessness can take over a country, leaving its people to take the law into their own hands, just like Miriam.
“Criminals thrive on the permissiveness permitted by fear; she is a woman’s example of how things could be different,” Ahmed wrote. “Miriam has said that fear is just a word. For the Zetas, it’s more than that.”
Miriam first learned of her daughter’s abduction when she was living and working as a maid for a doctor couple in McAllen, Texas, after she separated from her husband, Luis, and moved north.
His daughter, Karen, stayed behind and ran the family cowboy shop, Rodeo Boots, in San Fernando.
The former cattle ranching town gained notoriety in 2010 when the Zetas, a splinter group from the Gulf Cartel crime syndicate, killed 72 migrants in the so-called “San Fernando Massacre.” In 2011, they kidnapped and slaughtered 192 people in the town’s La Joya farm.
Karen Rodriguez was kidnapped in January 2014.
On January 24, 2014, they attacked the Rodriguez family. At 4 that morning, Miriam got a call from her eldest daughter, Azalea, telling her that Karen had been taken.
The kidnappers have contacted Karen’s father, demanding a ransom of 1 million pesos (around $77,000), to be paid by 3pm the next day for her safe return.
Then they put his daughter on the line, as Ahmed wrote. “’If you pay them, they’ll let me go’ said Karen. ‘If not, then I guess this is goodbye.'”
Soon after, the kidnappers called Miriam in Texas, outlining their demands again.
Miriam dropped everything, left a note for her employer, and immediately returned to San Fernando.
San Fernando gained notoriety in 2010 when the Zetas, having broken away from the Gulf Cartel crime syndicate, killed 72 immigrants in the so-called “San Fernando Massacre.” AFP via Getty Images
The next morning, meanwhile, Luis heads to the bank to empty their savings account and arrange a loan for the remaining ransom money.
But when they dropped the money off, as arranged, there was no sign of Karen. “As time passes and darkness descends on San Fernando, an unspoken fear begins to attack each of them,” Ahmed wrote.
“What if Karen doesn’t come back?”
The fact that Miriam and Luis had paid the ransom so quickly caused the kidnappers to reconsider.
“If you pay too quickly, sometimes kidnappers may try to renegotiate the deal, thinking they’ve left money on the table,” Ahmed wrote. “But the family had taken out loans and emptied their savings and had nothing left to give.”
A cache of weapons was seized at the farm where the migrant’s body was found. Reuters
Of course, in the following days, the kidnappers called Miriam demanding more money. He also meets with the man who is said to be the ringleader, who says they can give Karen back if she just gives them a few more “pocket change” payments of $1,600 and $400.
Again, Miriam paid.
Again, Karen did not return.
On the one-month anniversary of Karen’s disappearance, Miriam resigns herself to never seeing her daughter again, not least because there are over 70,000 people registered as missing in Mexico and the police have no interest in helping.
Alleged members of the Zeta cartel have been accused of the massacre in San Fernando. AFP via Getty Images
“[Miriam] said that Karen never came home, at least didn’t stop her [she] ever hoped, because Karen, his youngest daughter, was dead,” wrote Ahmed.
“There was no self-pity in his voice, no tears or currents of pain running down his face. He stood for a moment, choosing his words. ‘For the rest of my life, with the time I have, I will find the person who did this to my daughter,’ Miriam vowed. ‘And I’m going to make them pay.’”
Miriam has a history of fighting crime. In 1989, she tracked down thieves who had rummaged through her husband’s safe and recovered all the lost items. On another occasion, Miriam had personally intervened to ensure the safety of her other daughter’s husband when he was threatened by a gang, paying a small ransom to settle the matter.
“Miriam’s children often teased their mother that she secretly wanted to be a police officer but was not corrupt enough to qualify,” Ahmed wrote.
With the help of Luis, Miriam spends two years hunting Karen’s kidnappers, setting traps for them and relying on law enforcement agencies only when she is sure that they will be caught.
On the one-month anniversary of Karen’s disappearance, Miriam is resigned to never seeing her daughter again, not least because there are over 70,000 people registered as missing in Mexico and the police have no interest in helping. Alamy Stock Photo
Using various disguises and fake IDs, he helped capture all 11 kidnappers and, faced with indifferent, corrupt or incompetent authorities, also formed the “Colectivo de Desaparecidos de San Fernando” (The Vanished Collective), a support group for 600 families others are looking for their missing relatives.
In 2015, after receiving information from an 18-year-old local, Miriam finally learned that Karen had died, her remains buried in a remote, abandoned farm.
In that place, there was a house full of bullet holes and a noose hanging from a tree.
Miriam found Karen’s scarf and a bone which was later identified as part of Karen’s femur.
By the time he caught Florist in 2016, each of Karen’s kidnappers had been brought to justice. Four are in prison awaiting trial while six others are dead, killed in a raid by Mexican marines. But, the mother’s relentless digging eventually angered the Zeta cartel.
Miriam was killed in 2017, possibly by the cartel. Miriam Rodriguez/Facebook
On the night of May 10, 2017, Miriam left work at her shop and drove home.
He’s on crutches — he broke his leg chasing an ex-prostitute with a relationship with Zeta — so he struggles to get out of his car. As he stepped into the street, two men emerged from a white Nissan truck parked nearby, carrying 9 millimeter pistols.
“They fired thirteen shots at Miriam, hitting her eight times,” Ahmed wrote.
Her son, Luis Hector, heard the gunshots from inside their home and came out shouting his mother’s name.
He found her lying face down on the ground, just six feet from the car. His hand was in his purse, where he kept his gun.
Miriam was taken to hospital, where she died a few hours later. It’s Mother’s Day 2016.
Ahmed stated that he was always aware of the risks involved in his pursuit of justice.
“Miriam knew that if someone wanted to kill her, they could,” she wrote. “Fear is something he can deal with, has learned to suppress and ignore … To some extent, so has death.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
