By Steve Fisher and Kate Linthicum for The Los Angeles Times
Deported migrants returning to Mexico after decades away discover they must learn to navigate hometowns dominated by cartels.
Returnees are easy targets for criminal groups: their American clothing, haircuts and Spanglish make them stand out as outsiders.
Many returnees face kidnapping, extortion or violence, forcing them to flee their hometowns again in what experts call double displacement.
JALISCO, MEXICO — Adrián Ramírez hadn’t been to his hometown in western Mexico for more than two decades. When he finally returned there early last year after being deported from the United States, he found the place transformed.
Ramírez remembered the town as vibrant. But the discotheque where he used to dance through the night in his 20s was gone. The bustling evening market, where locals gather for tacos, now empties out early. After 10 p.m., cartel members wielding military-grade weapons take control of the streets.
“It is no longer the same Mexico of my childhood,” said Ramírez, 45, who asked to be identified by his middle and last name for security reasons. “There was more joy, more freedom. But that’s not the case anymore.”
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Source: Los Angeles Times
