GRIEVING Mormons have been digging a mass grave for mothers and their children who were massacred in Mexico by drugs cartel killers who have been branded "worse than ISIS".
Nine American women and children who died in the horrifying attack in La Mora, Mexico, were laid to rest in handmade coffins placed a graves dug out of the dry and rocky soil.
The coffins were decorated with family photographs, baby shows and signs reading "Angels" and "Daughters of the King".
Mourners had built the coffins themselves and used shovels to dig the shared grave in La Mora's small cemetery.
Mexican soldiers stood guard as around 500 mourners embraced under white tents erected in the hamlet of about 300 people.
The inhabitants consider themselves Mormon but are not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
They wept and sang hymns as members of the community used shovels to dig a single, large grave for the three coffins.
Rosa LeBaron, 65, whose cousins, nieces and nephews died in the attacks, said: “I really believe that the cartels in Mexico have moved to another level of barbarity, they are as bad or worse than ISIS.
“These sicarios (hitmen), why are they doing it? Out of greed and pure evil.”
She said Mexico needed to overcome pride, and accept outside help from a neighbouring country or international coalition, like the United Nations, to stamp out the evil cartels once and for all.
The cartels in Mexico have moved to another level of barbarity, they are as bad or worse than ISIS
Before the burial, the caskets were placed on low tables, as the bereaved filed past to view the bodies and pay their last respects to Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and her sons Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 2.
They died on Monday when attackers unleashed a hail of bullets at their SUV on a dirt road leading to another settlement, Colonia LeBaron.
Six children and three women in all were killed in the attack on the convoy of three SUVs.
There was no talk of revenge in this highly religious community, only a deep thirst for justice.
"The eyes of the world are upon what happened here, and there are saints all over this world whose hearts have been touched," Jay Ray, Dawna's father, said in a eulogy.
"The plan of God is for his saints to gather out from among the wicked, become separate from them, to band together to establish together the laws of respect and onedom," Jay Ray said. "God will take care of the wicked."
Dawna's younger sister Amber Ray, 34, paid tribute to her as a devoted mother to her 13 children and homemaker who loved a good laugh and baked the best birthday cakes around.
"There isn't anything in life that a cup of coffee couldn't make better," Amber said Dawna was fond of saying.
The hamlet is about 70 miles south of the Arizona border, where American-style frame houses alternate with barns and orchards.
Patrols of Mexican army troops passed by regularly on the hamlet's only paved road, providing security that was lacking the day of the killings.
The other victims are expected to be buried in Colonia LeBaron later. But the two communities, whose residents are related, drew together in a show of grief.
Dozens of high-riding pickups and SUVS, many with U.S. license plates from as far away as North Dakota, arrived in La Mora for the funeral, traveling over the dirt road where the attack occurred.
Gunmen from the Juarez drug cartel had apparently set up the ambush as part of a turf war with the Sinaloa cartel, and the US families drove into it.
Steven Langford, who was mayor of La Mora from 2015 to 2018 and whose sister Christina Langford was one of the women killed, said he expects the slayings to lead to an exodus from the community.
"Now this place is going to become a ghost town," he said. "A lot of people are going to leave."
Mexican officials said the attackers may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for those of a rival gang.
"They let the children go, so we can deduce that it was not a targeted attack" on the families, said the army's chief of staff, Gen. Homero Mendoza.
Source: Read Full Article