Sasabe, Sonora resident describes fleeing cartel violence

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — This fall, warring cartel groups have sent people living in the border town of Sasabe, Sonora, fleeing for their lives, crossing the border into Arizona.

Sasabe, Sonora usually has a population of about 2,000 people. But a woman from the town, now staying with family in Tucson, tells KGUN there are just a few families left. Most of the town’s residents left their homes and lives behind.

The woman spoke with KGUN anonymously, because she fears retaliation. She says she had lived in Sasabe, Sonora for more than a decade before suddenly leaving this fall.

“The town was very quiet and tranquil nobody bothered anybody, up until now,” she said through an interpreter.

She says that changed in October when a war between cartel groups broke out. She describes mutli-hour gunfights and dead bodies left in the street afterward, becoming food for animals.

“Some people left behind everything,” she said. “Their homes, ranches. animals and cars. And the people doing the violence looted — took all of it.”

The woman says she and her three young sons were able to leave town and cross through the Sasabe port of entry into Arizona.

But with Customs and Border Protection only processing one family a day, she says, dozens of other families cut a hole through the border wall to escape.

“We’re okay now,” she said. “But when we first came here, I couldn’t sleep. Still worried about people at home.”

The woman says that worry is strong enough that she does not want to return home any time soon.

“I don’t want to put my sons in that dangerous situation again,” she said.

Her sons are now enrolled in school in Tucson, she says.

Volunteers from Tucson continue to drop off food for the people and dogs who remain in the Sonoran border town.