Family of ‘Toñito’ Demands Justice in Nogales March

Chanting demands for justice and a thorough investigation, roughly 30 friends, relatives and supporters of the slain 16-year-old Nogales, Sonora, resident José Antonio Elena Rodriguez marched to the Sonoran side of the downtown port-of-entry Saturday morning.

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Credit: Josh Morgan From right to left: José Antonio’s mother, Araceli Rodriguez; his grandmother, Taide Elena; and Selma Barrón, the mother of Ramses Barrón, another Nogales youth killed under similar circumstances by Border Patrol in early 2011. The three women were standing in front of the clinic on Saturday near the U.S./Mexico border where Elena Rodriguez was killed after a U.S. Border Patrol agent opened fire on a group of people allegedly throwing rocks in Nogales, Sonora. “They’ve taken a piece of my heart. It’s where they buried him,” said Rodriguez. “No one is going to return my son to me. No one can give me back the hugs I gave him, the kisses, his voice or his smile.

José Antonio was killed the evening of Oct. 10 in a Border Patrol shooting that is still under investigation on both sides of the border.

The march ended a few blocks west, at the site of José Antonio’s death, near the corner of Internacional and Ingenieros. Standing just feet away from that corner, anger comes easily to Araceli Rodriguez, the young man’s mother.

“They’ve taken a piece of my heart. It’s where they buried him,” she said. “No one is going to return my son to me. No one can give me back the hugs I gave him, the kisses, his voice or his smile.”

Read the rest of the story at the Tucson Weekly.

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