Sasabe, Arizona (May 15, 2000) -- La Voz de Aztlan has learned that two Arizona ranchers on horseback and armed with high power hunting rifles shot and critically wounded an undocumented Mexican worker attempting to cross the border near Sasabe, Arizona on Friday. Four other young men accompanying 20 year old Miguel Angel Palofox Aguerrin of Guasave, Sinaloa are feared dead at the hands of the vigilantes.
La Voz de Aztlan confirmed with Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico police authorities that in the early morning hours of Friday, May 12, Miguel and four of his companions came under lethal attack by two Anglos on horseback porting sidearms and high power hunting rifles. Miguel, who is in critical condition with a shot to the head at the Servicios Medicos de Sonora (Semeson) in Caborca, informed the Sesabe, Sonora authorities that his group was suddenly ambushed by the two vigilantes. He managed to take a good look at the "shooters" before a high impact bullet tore through his neck and exited through his ear. He told police that he remembers seeing his companions fall after also being shot but there have been no bodies recovered as of today. The incident occurred approximately 4 miles from the border on US territory according to Roberto Burgos Molina of the Mexican Consulate in Nogales, Arizona.
Miguel informed Mexican police authorities that he lost consciousness soon after the bullet impact to his head. He remembers seeing his companions get shot also and falling to the ground. When he regained consciousness, he was on the ground bleeding profusely. He was able to drag himself to the border crossing station at Sesabe where he was given immediate medical attention and taken to a hospital at Caborca, Sonora. It is not known if the youth survived the ordeal nor of the condition of his four companions.
On Saturday a group of Arizona vigilante ranchers were joined by white supremacist groups from California for a meeting at Sierra Vista, Arizona for the explicit purpose of discussing a plan of action to deal with what they call "a Mexican invasion" by undocumented workers. A white supremacist by the name of Glenn Spencer, head of a group called American Patrol, led a contingent of California anti-Mexican bigots to the meeting with vigilante rancher Roger Barnett who told US World Report that he is ready to "kill Mexicans" if it became necessary. The meeting was also attended by the Arizona 9th District of the Imperial Wizards of the Klux Klax Klan according to the newspaper La Reforma of Mexico. According to La Reforma, a proposal surfaced at the meeting to place anti-personnel land mines at strategic places along the border in order to deter illegal immigration by Mexicans. The meeting was heavily policed by the Sierra Vista Police Department and by the Arizona Rangers.