Personal Narrative: War On Drug Cartels

It was on October 1st, 2010 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, my previous hometown, where my freedom, because of a war, was constrained. The Institutional Revolutionary Political Party (PRI) held power uninterruptedly in Mexico for more than 70 years, and during that time the Mexican government had illegal connections with every drug cartel in the country. Mexico needed a change, and for the 2006 presidential election the National Action Party (PAN) candidate, Felipe Calderon, had proposals that seemed promising. The results were as expected, Felipe Calderon won the presidential election, but on his first day as president, Calderon declared war on Drug Cartels. But what was intended to be a good decision, turned out to be one of the worst

Hundreds of restaurants closed due to the lack of business and insecurity; even the tennis club were I used to practice had to close up. Juarez a city of 1 million habitants became a ghost town. But my family and I could not leave our beloved city behind; we had to stay, until October the 1st, 2010. It was an ordinary Monday at my middle school, but when I got home, my mother answered a phone call, a phone call that would change my life. A group of criminals had kidnapped my father, and they wanted 2 million pesos for his life. I still remember how my mother started crying after hanging up the phone, and I will never forget it. The kidnappers also set conditions: if we called the police, my father was dead. If any external person found out about the situation, my father was dead. And if we somehow attempted to rescue him, or my father tried to escape, there would be no deal. The kidnappers contacted my grandfather demanding the money, but the quantity that was being required was excessive, my family did not have that amount of money. But my grandfather, calmly and bravely, started conducting a negotiation. The negotiation took two days – certainly the 48 longest and most desperate hours of my