The videos that show the capture of the missing farmers from Guerrero

The case of the seven missing farmers from the Mexican state of Guerrero, among them an elderly man and a minor, has put the state on edge, particularly the Tierra Caliente and Costa Grande regions, where the captives and captors come from. Five drone videos recorded on the day of the events and the days that followed, and obtained by EL PAÍS, show the apparent capture of three of the seven victims by a criminal group known as La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM), as well as an alleged criminal camp; the group released another video in recent days attempting to link the missing men to a rival criminal organization.

Of the five new videos, one surfaced on social media this weekend — the apparent capture of two members of the group of seven, Everardo León Atanacio, 17, and Fidel Quirino, 54. The drone camera records from a distance, but it shows a group of people who appear to be armed approaching the victims on the morning of September 24, the day they were seized. The two victims can be seen waiting on their four-wheeler on a curve near La Lajita, a community of the Ejido El Balcón, the village where all the missing men are from. Nestled in the mountains, El Balcón and La Lajita are part of the municipality of Ajuchitlán, on the border between the Costa Grande and Tierra Caliente, a stronghold of La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

The video ends when the armed men surround the two farmers. From there, they were reportedly taken away. The criminal group allegedly captured the victims in small groups or when they were alone, a source with knowledge of the situation told this newspaper; the source agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. Another video shows a man dressed in white, surrounded by people who appear to be armed, at a place known as Mesa de las Yeguas in the same area. That man, the source said, is another of the seven, Nicolás Atanacio, 74 — the eldest of those captured. “The man was out herding his livestock,” the source said.

The reference to the man’s white clothing connects to a video La Nueva Familia Michoacana released a few days ago in which five of the seven captives, wearing camouflage, acknowledged belonging to a rival criminal group active in the Costa Grande known as Los Granados. Another source consulted about that video said it was “obvious” the captors had forced the statements. In the video, a man questions the five, including Everardo León and Fidel Quirino. After the interrogation, the criminal group added a photo of six of the captives, although the identity of the sixth is unclear. In the photo, all appear bound and blindfolded.

For residents of El Balcón, the white clothing of the man they identify as Nicolás Atanacio is, in their view, proof of his innocence. For the community, the criminal group’s video is nothing more than propaganda — an attempt to present the events as a conflict between armed groups rather than an attack on a community of farmers and small ranchers. The clothing their neighbors wore in the criminal group’s video is different from what they were wearing the day they were taken. The videos of Atanacio’s capture and, to a lesser extent, those of the other two (which are less clear), are evidence of that.

So far the case has been a series of frustrations for the residents of El Balcón, part of a community of 18 ejidos (communal farming units) across five municipalities in Guerrero known for responsible forestry activities. The first source quoted above protests: “We see the government pretending to do its job. And that’s driving us to despair. It’s not possible... There was every opportunity to rescue them when the minor was freed; information was provided about where they were, more toward Tierra Caliente,” the source said. The source was referring to the release on October 1 of a 12-year-old boy who had originally been among the captives.

According to this source, the boy’s account of the little that he saw during his captivity, the changes in weather that he felt (which suggests a transfer toward Tierra Caliente, which is warmer than the highlands), drone footage and information from relatives and people living in Tierra Caliente municipalities pointed to a very clear lead: the municipality of Arcelia in that same region, the hometown of LNFM leaders Johnny and José Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, known as El Pez and La Fresa.

Arcelia appeared on the map as one of the key points for authorities’ searches. In fact, late last week local transportation workers organized a blockade at the main entrances to the municipality in an apparent effort to prevent a federal security convoy from entering. “We know the workers’ stoppages have to do with that,” the source says. “They mobilized them so [the victims] can’t be rescued. That was the lead we had; now they must have moved them from there,” the source added.

The other three videos obtained by this newspaper are part of the package of information El Balcón provided to the authorities, and they document the existence of LNFM mountain camps near the ejido. One video shows a property surrounded by trees with three large roofs and two small ones. On the right side, at least seven people can be seen next to several chairs. According to a person familiar with the videos and queried by EL PAÍS, it is “an apparent LNFM operating base, the place known as El Filo de Yesqueros, beside San Juan Tehuehuetla, opposite the community of El Balcón.”

The last two videos are variations on the previous one. The first shows a group of people allegedly linked to the base of operations a few kilometers into the mountains to the east of El Balcón. The camera shows how close the camp is to the location in the preceding images. The final clip is a zoom on the earlier group and on an apparent rudimentary structure camouflaged in vegetation — a makeshift cave. By its entrance several men can be seen handling objects with their hands.

Time keeps passing and the missing individuals have still not been found. Local authorities are offering 1.5 million pesos for information leading to the whereabouts of the seven missing farmers. The case has remained in the background of national news — an important story but not one that has generated enough level of outrage to trigger the full deployment of the federal Security Cabinet. The state governor, Evelyn Salgado of the Morena party, addressed the matter for the first time this week. “We will spare no resources or effort to find your loved ones and return them home,” she said.

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