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Robert DuPont
Marisela Escobedo was a mother, nurse, businesswoman, and activist from Ciudad Juárez. In 2008, Escobedo’s 16-year-old daughter Rubi Fraire was murdered by her boyfriend, the Zeta Cartel member Sergio Barraza. The police refused to search for Fraire’s remains or track down Barraza, so Escobedo dedicated her life to doing so. Even after Barraza confessed to the murder, he was acquitted at trial. To protest this impunity, Escobedo marched over 1,000 miles from Juárez to Mexico City, and then began protesting at the Chihuahua state capitol—where she was murdered in 2010. Her saga demonstrates how the war on drugs has spread senseless violence and undermined the rule of law in Mexico by giving drug traffickers even more power and resources than local governments.
Marisela Escobedo Quotes in Chasing the Scream
The Chasing the Scream quotes below are all either spoken by Marisela Escobedo or refer to Marisela Escobedo . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 10 Quotes
That is when Marisela heard rumors that started to make it possible to make sense of this whole story. Sergio, she was told, is a Zeta. That is why the police would not touch him. That is why he kept escaping. When Marisela got her final lead on where Sergio was, the police were finally honest with her. “If he’s with the Zetas, we’re not going to be able to do anything, because they run the state,” they told her. “If we do a bust, it’s because they allow us to do it. We don’t bust people just like that.” They were apologetic, but they explained that the Zetas give them money if they serve them and death if they don’t.
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Marisela Escobedo Character Timeline in Chasing the Scream
The timeline below shows where the character Marisela Escobedo appears in Chasing the Scream. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 10: Marisela’s Long March
...got left behind at a diner. But she wasn’t worried: she knew that her mother, Marisela, would always come back for her. And she did. Three years later, Rubi fell in...
(full context)
...mysteriously disappeared again. They left a note saying that they wanted to get away from Marisela. And for the first time, Rubi didn’t call or come back. After several months, Marisela...
(full context)
Angel and Marisela filed a police report, but nothing happened. Marisela started visiting the police station every day...
(full context)
...that Sergio threatened to kill him if he spoke out. From the stand, Sergio begged Marisela for forgiveness. But despite his confession, the judges inexplicably acquitted him. Then, Angel and his...
(full context)
Marisela started protesting in the streets every day, holding a picture of Rubi. Other mothers who...
(full context)
Then, Marisela learned why the police wouldn’t act: Sergio is in the Zeta Cartel, who run the...
(full context)
Marisela’s son now lives in the U.S. He tells Hari that the drug war has killed...
(full context)
Conclusion: If You Are Alone
...unnecessarily. Among others, Hari remembers Billie Holiday, Deborah Hardin, and Marcia Powell. He thinks of Marisela Escobedo and her daughter Rubi, Bud Osborn’s friends in Vancouver, and all of Edward Williams...
(full context)
