by Lucio Borderland Beat
On left is Wicked's 7th grade yearbook photograph from his El Paso middle School
The
following transcript is translated from Spanish. It is a transcript testimony of ‘El Wicked, ’
in a speech he gave to young people, as part of Mexico's ‘Free Without Prisons’ program.
Activist Marisela Escobedo
Testimony of José Enrique
Jiménez Zavala, "The Wicked"
Good afternoon everyone, my
name is José Enrique Jiménez Zavala, alias "The Wicked". I currently
find myself a prisoner in the area of high security of the CERESO Aquiles
Serdan, for crimes against health, organized crime and homicides such as;
Marisela Escobedo, Bar El Colorado case, which resulted in 16 victims, these, among
other cases.
In the Bar "El Colorado" case I was
sentenced to life, simply, life means that I spend the rest of my life behind
bars, in a cell.
I was born in Ciudad Juarez,
I lived with my mother, father and three brothers, among issues of marital
problems, infidelity, and domestic violence.
My mother and my three siblings
immigrated to El Paso, Texas, in the hope of finding a better life, achieving
the ‘American Dream’, but in the end the opposite occurred.
Since elementary school I
started to become greatly affected by the problems of home. From that young age I lived a dangerous
life, in excess of alcohol and drugs, partying in my own home.
In secondary and high
school, there continued problems at home, I learned to live with them.
At the time I liked
studying, always was a child of dreams, until at some point I stopped dreaming.
I allowed myself to react to the deficiencies; lack of love, understanding, to be listened
to. I
began to pay attention to
the material shortages, from coming from a poor family.
As I grew up I met people on
the streets, I joined a gang, my criminal life started at a young age, I identified
with the life of drugs, robberies, vandalism and brawls.
From the age of 14, I encountered
the courts, I left school, I stopped studying. At 18 I went to prison 5 years,
for robbery armed, I completed my sentence at age 23, I was deported to my
native city, Ciudad Juarez.
Because of my studies, and
my knowledge of English, I was able to get a good job, but I never have like
the idea of starting at the bottom, I wanted what I never had.
I stopped working honestly,
I joined a criminal cell, my first work was the sale of drugs in the retail
drug trade. There were the trucks,
clothing, jewelry, partying….I never thought about or was aware of the price that
I would have to pay later.
I arrived in the Chihuahua capital;
where I managed my own criminal group.