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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Oscar Lopez in Mexico City

Land of no return: the Mexican city torn apart by cartel kidnappings

Bullet holes in a sanctuary in Aguililla in Michoacan state, after a confrontation between the Los Viagras and the Jalisco New Generation cartels.
Bullet holes in a sanctuary in Aguililla in Michoacán state, after a confrontation between the Los Viagras and the Jalisco New Generation cartels. Photograph: Enrique Castro/AFP/Getty Images

María Zapata Escamilla woke to the sound of shattering glass. Armed men in military fatigues had burst into her home: they dragged her disabled husband outside, along with her 14-year-old son, still in his pyjamas. Then they drove away into the night.

Two weeks later, her husband’s brutalized body turned up, along with nine others. But after more than a year, her son remains missing.

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