Wednesday 18 July 2012

Family flees Mexico, seeks US asylum

Twenty members of a family sought political asylum in the United States in late June after fleeing Villa Ahumada in northern Mexico, alleging their lives were threatened in a town dominated by their political rivals, a family member told EFE on 16 July. The Porras family left their businesses and belongings and fled Villa Ahumada under police escort on 19 June after a relative was murdered that day; they were taken accross the border into El Paso by officials of the Mexican prosecutor-general's office, César Porras told EFE. Porras said he thought his family was at threat for supporting the conservative National Action Party (PAN), when Villa Ahumada was "completely controlled" by members of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and organized crime. The PRI won Mexico's general elections on 1 July, amid continuing allegations of fraud. Porras said his father Rodolfo Porras González was assassinated at an unspecified date, while a brother Jaime was shot dead on 19 June while visiting their father's grave. The family fled immediately, leaving Jaime to be buried by a priest, he said. The family's lawyer Carlos Spector told EFE it could be four years before the United States decided whether or not to concede asylum and months before it would provide provisional residencies and work permits. Spector said more families were now fleeing to the United States for violence in Mexico, and he had 70 similar dossiers. César's uncle Héctor Armando Porras González told EFE that within hours of fleeing, the family's homes were ransacked by gangs. He said "About three years ago the situation began to break down in Villa Ahumada. Criminals are in charge of everything now, the police has been bought."

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