Mormons mourn their massacred kin in Mexico: 'Our lives will never be the same'
In the days since her 18-year-old son breathlessly reported that something terrible had happened to her four grandchildren and daughter-in-law, Loretta Miller has cooked nonstop.She has cooked to feed the Mexican federal forces sent here to protect her family, the relatives arriving to attend the funerals and the streams of international journalists who have come to this remote corner of northern Mexico to find out whyRaising 14 children and 27 grandchildren prepared Miller for this.
Amid the landscape of cactus and mesquite, the well-paved blocks of American-style homes and manicured lawns stand out.Their blue U.S. passports separate them from their neighbors, allowing them to work or own businesses in the United States, while many local Mexicans toil in $8-a-day factory jobs in the low-slungUntil this week, the Mormons thought they had another kind of American privilege: protection fromviolence.
LeBaron, who grew up in the Chihuahua Mormon community but had spent years in the United States, was excited about living again in Mexico, where life was more relaxed and where their seven kids could roam.On Monday, LeBaron joined a caravan of women and kids who were leaving town to head to the border to pick up Howard, who was flying back from North Dakota, where he works in the oil business.
In total, three mothers and six children were killed by assailants that many here believe were members of a Chihuahua-based drug cartel. The group has been feuding with another cartel that controls La Mora and other parts of Sonora state.Mexican officials said assailants waged two separate attacks against the three-vehicle caravan.
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