Video Interview: "I Survived a CJNG Training School"

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: GrupoFormula y Vanguardia

            "I tasted human flesh"; Hired assassin of the CJNG tells how he survived his atrocities
   "You see how they kill people, they test human flesh, you live in terror":  his testimony on video

By: Mariana Cervantes May 21, 2019
"With feet in front" is the only way to escape from the training camp of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), said "Francisco".

"Francisco" - the name he chose to protect his identity - spent three months in a CJNG training camp and gave his testimony to Noticias Telemundo Investigación.

In that time he learned to respect the rules, the handling of short and long weapons, to ambush, and not to be a gossip, however, the most chilling was not to learn to kill, but to eat human flesh.

"You see how they kill people, they test human flesh, you live in terror," he said in an interview with Telemundo.

Francisco, who previously worked in a cookie factory, had to endure physical and psychological resistance tests and overcome loyalty tests. Video Interview on next page:

             

Official video of Telemundo News. Forced to eat human flesh, murderers serving the most powerful criminal group in Mexico are trained to become killing machines.

The place where he trained he called "the school of terror", and he noted that he arrived there in April of 2018 by chance, after he gave a ride, to an unknown man.

He said that a bar in a state in southern Mexico, a man who had run out of money approached him to ask for "a ride". Francisco took him in his car and when he arrived at the destination, the guy said "I'm going to mark you, you liked me", and asked for his cell phone number.

Days later, the subject, who turned out to be the son of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", leader of the CJNG, called him for a job as a private security guard in Villahermosa, Tabasco. I would be paid 3,500 Pesos per week plus per diem and expenses; he was only asked for the birth certificate and an account number to receive the salary.

Francisco accepted the job, so he was transferred to a luxurious hotel in Mexico City along with some other men, between 20 and 30 years old. The next day, he was summoned to a bus station.  "I saw a lot of people coming. We were 19 men between the ages of twenty and thirty-something. They were bricklayers, carpenters, mechanics, security guards of clubs, graduates, accountants ... "They were transferred to Mexico City.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the person who directed the expedition said: "Let's go!"  They left for Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco and on two occasions they asked if they wanted to continue : "For those who get on the bus, there is no going back " The most youths said:  "I do go. I want to work ";  And the others followed them. When they arrived at the destination, they were put into a house.

On the way they were informed that they were not going to work as security guards, but as assassins of the CJNG.

Upon hearing that, one of the men protested, but the subject who moved them told them:

"If you want to go, go, go - as he cocked the trigger on his gun - here the only way to go is with the legs in front. Who wants to go after him,  say it right now. We are not here to play. "

The new recruits arrived in trucks to the training camp located in the municipality of Talpa de Allende, Jalisco, where hell began for Francisco.

After being tortured, the training began, and when one of them failed in the practice of handling weapons, a hit man killed him with bullets, and his body was mutilated and eaten by apprentices.

"Francisco" was one of the 19 students of the "school of terror" of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel from April to June of 2018. According to his account, as they progressed in training, the tests became increasingly unbearable inside the Mexican camp near Talpa de Allende, Jalisco .

One day, the head of the plaza ordered some roast chickens: "Today we are going to start a test of everything they have learned. Stand, please. I do not want to kill anyone. "

It was midday, the sun was falling and they were forced to put on two thick jackets and hold the AK47 Cuerno de Chivo (goat horn) in firing position for an hour. Under no circumstances could they move. They were approached by the remains of the roast chickens at the feet and, at the moment , the red ants began to climb up their legs.

"They started to bite us horrible," Francisco recalls. The sting caused one of the men to raise a foot.

-Who told you to lift your foot? the head of the square reproached him. If you do, you're going to get shot and you're going to kill a partner.

"I felt that my foot fell asleep from so many ant pickets, but I could not lower the rifle. They went behind, looking at you, and they hit you: Raise the rifle more! Who told you to take it down? And the colored feet with ant pickets. You hear the bolt of his thundering rifle. You know that if you do not do it, they will kill you "

According to the commanders, this test of resistance to pain would be useful to prepare them in case of being injured in a confrontation. If they wanted to save their lives it was fundamental, they said, to remove the pain from their mind.

"Francisco" remembers the fire ants and the cold nights. At midnight, with temperatures of two or three degrees Celsius, the instructors filled some tanks with water. They were put inside the tank, in firing position. "The cold on your feet, imagine. When I left, half an hour later, they had to help me because I could not put one foot on the ground. I felt that my fingers were going to break. "

Other times, they were forced to arm and disarm the weapon blindfolded :

"They said: let's  see you, disarm the Beretta (a short weapon used in the whole world by police and military bodies) Are all the pieces already? Now, you put it back together. " They beat those who could not. Francisco succeeded in 40 minutes.

In addition to suffering the rigors of training, the recruits must always respect what the commanders called the "golden rules" imposed by the cartel leader, Nemesio Oseguera, "El Mencho" :

-Don't be a gossip.

-Kill the gossipers.

-Do not consume alcohol or drugs.

-Do not get attached to any partner.

-Always tell the truth.

-Don't show the weapon in public.

-Do not kill without an order from the boss.

-Do not recruit women or children under 12 years.

Those responsible for enforcing the discipline were experts in military tactics hired by "El Mencho". They were, according to Francisco, deserters of Mexican and foreign security forces. "The high command had been bought from the Marinas from an elite group. There are marines from the United States, there are Delta forces, there is everything there ".

Consulted by Noticias Telemundo Investigates , the US Department of Defense responded in an email that "it does not know the activities of the military that are no longer active," such as those that Francisco knew .

A former Mexican police investigating commander, with experience in the fight against this cartel, told Noticias Telemundo Investigates under the condition of anonymity that among the trainers there are also members of the Mexican security forces : "The training they receive in the Camps is professional. It is also known that there are active police officers belonging to the Cartel . "

In October 2018, the Department of Justice of the United States classified the cartel as one of the five most dangerous criminal organizations in the world. Share the podium with the MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Clan and Hezbollah. In "El Mencho's" criminal record there are kidnappings and murders, and his propaganda methods, circulating videos of beheadings and dismembered bodies, remind those who use Islamic State (ISIS) to terrorize the population and the rival cartels.

The cartel has not been intimidated either when the adversary is the Mexican Army or the police. Proof of this are the attacks that have perpetrated in Jalisco, such as that of Guachinango in 2014, with the result of four dead soldiers; the ambush in San Sebastian del Oeste in 2015, with a balance of 15 officers killed and, the same year, an attack on the federal police in Ocotlán that killed five men.

This level of violence is only possible with an army of recruits. Art Fontes , retired agent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) calculates that "only in Jalisco, in the years 2013 and 2014," the Mencho had 3,000 men working for him ."

The CJNG has managed to grow up to displace the Sinaloa Cartel and, after Joaquín Guzmán Loera "El Chapo" was imprisoned, Nemesio Oseguera, "the Mencho" of 52 years, has become the most wanted man in Mexico. In the United States, the Department of Justice has put at its head a price of $10 Million dollars. Anyone with information that may lead to his capture, can send it to the email address MENCHOTIPS@usdoj.gov

Since 2011, the CJNG has disputed the Mexican territory with Los Zetas, and Francisco has witnessed it: "The Los Zetas kidnappings had hit the state of Jalisco hard. While in the camp, weapons began to arrive that I had never seen: grenades, rockets, and all that. Tactical equipment began to arrive, breast cells, infrared lenses, telescopic sights. All ready for a war. "

During a recent confrontation between both groups, 13 people lost their lives -including a one-year-old baby- in Minatitlán, Veracruz , this past April. (See our Posts on the Minititlán Massacre)

Despite the fierceness of the cartel, Francisco also talks about the good times, like the "graduation party" at the end of his training: "They returned the phone and told us: Do not commit bullshit. We arrived at the town (Talpa) and there were waiters, northern groups, pure blue label whiskey, shrimp, meats, quesadillas and 20 paid women who were prostitutes "

That night Francisco celebrated it. Until that date, May 2018, he had not killed anyone yet.