by Lucio Borderland Beat
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On left is Wicked's 7th grade yearbook photograph from his El Paso middle School
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Activist Marisela Escobedo
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The majority of young people like you, have a wrong idea of what it is to be young, thinking that you must take alcohol, drugs, and party.
Believing that only by doing so they will be accepted.
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Don't let them deceive you, continue to study, recognize your potential and exploit it, don't get carried away by how easy the other path looks, don't go by the backdoor like I did.
The following transcript is translated from Spanish. It is a transcript testimony of ‘El Wicked, ’ in a speech he gave to young people, as part of Mexico's ‘Free Without Prisons’ program.
Testimony of José Enrique Jiménez Zavala, "The Wicked"
Good afternoon everyone, my name is José Enrique Jiménez Zavala, alias "The Wicked". I currently find myself a prisoner in the area of high security of the CERESO Aquiles Serdan, for crimes against health, organized crime and homicides such as;
Marisela Escobedo, Bar El Colorado case, which resulted in 16 victims, these, among other cases.
Marisela Escobedo, Bar El Colorado case, which resulted in 16 victims, these, among other cases.
In the Bar "El Colorado" case I was sentenced to life, simply, life means that I spend the rest of my life behind bars, in a cell.
I was born in Ciudad Juarez, I lived with my mother, father and three brothers, among issues of marital problems, infidelity, and domestic violence.
My mother and my three siblings immigrated to El Paso, Texas, in the hope of finding a better life, achieving the ‘American Dream’, but in the end the opposite occurred.
Since elementary school I started to become greatly affected by the problems of home. From that young age I lived a dangerous life, in excess of alcohol and drugs, partying in my own home.
In secondary and high school, there continued problems at home, I learned to live with them.
At the time I liked studying, always was a child of dreams, until at some point I stopped dreaming.
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I allowed myself to react to the deficiencies; lack of love, understanding, to be listened to. I
began to pay attention to the material shortages, from coming from a poor family.
As I grew up I met people on the streets, I joined a gang, my criminal life started at a young age, I identified with the life of drugs, robberies, vandalism and brawls.
From the age of 14, I encountered the courts, I left school, I stopped studying. At 18 I went to prison 5 years, for robbery armed, I completed my sentence at age 23, I was deported to my native city, Ciudad Juarez.
Because of my studies, and my knowledge of English, I was able to get a good job, but I never have like the idea of starting at the bottom, I wanted what I never had.
I stopped working honestly, I joined a criminal cell, my first work was the sale of drugs in the retail drug trade. There were the trucks, clothing, jewelry, partying….I never thought about or was aware of the price that I would have to pay later.
I made decisions which impacted my life later. Today I find myself in the high-security prison, a total U-turn.
I always thought it was different in the prisons of Mexico, thought I was going to be able to bribe, in order to continue with my illegal activities, that was going to walk free, I was very wrong.
The name high security is not in vain, in high security discipline is very strict, everything is different to the kind of life that I had, I've always been a person that did what I wanted, when I wanted and as wanted, without law or authority.
I come here to high security and my life changed.
In high security, the officers tell me when to speak, when to eat, when I bathe and when I sleep.
In high security I do not have any authority; here the officers have the authority.
In high security I have to submit to the authorities and regulations.
Frankly, it's sad waking up every day knowing that I will spend the rest of my days in a cell, there are times that I believe that it is all a bad dream, but then, each dayI wake up in the same place.
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My days here are routine, everything here is the same, there is time for everything, to eat, to sleep, with many security measures, when I leave my cell never do so unaccompanied, I'm always guarded by officers, hands cuffed in back, head down, always speaking to the authority with a "Yes, Sir", "No, Sir".
So I will spend the rest of my life, always subject to the established rules of a criminal, I came to realize that the authority that I had (on the outside), which I thought was real, was false.
It was all false.
Believing that only by doing so they will be accepted.
Now I am aware that the corridos are destructive music for the youth of today, it steals positive imagination, creativity and initiative to become a person of good in their lives.
From that young age they are engaged in trying to be like the character who is featured in a corrido and education becomes forgotten.
At the age when they develop and begin to have a problem with authority, rules, and discipline, young people, venture into the crowed world of crime and delinquency. People like you, impressed by seeing what you don’t have, cars, clothes, money, jewelry, parties, girls.
Because they know (recruiters) that in that way they will entice you , they are experts in deceits and blackmail, disguising the bad with good.
They say they are untouchable, and that everything is arranged with the authorities, that there is no law regarding them. They make you believe that they have a power and that they can give that to you, you can do and undo, that in the end, nothing happens.
But do not be fooled, I tell you this, because I also cheated so many like you, I lied to them to integrate them into my group, and look at me now, I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison, finishing the rest of my life in the high security prison area.
People always ask how can we finish this wave of violence that we are experiencing today, and we can finish with this evil, it can be controlled.
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However, today I came to the conclusion that all this evil will not come to an end, unless we start to make that change, starting from the beginning, by changing the way we think, and act.
We are at a time where we must renew our values, we need to be honest, loyal, ethical, and then we will only succeed in make this different world, when we finish with selfishness, and begin to serve, unite, build, foresee.
No one can give what he does not have, we should fill ourselves with knowledge, values, strength of character, health and economic bases in order to have something to give.
You, young people of today can make that change, because the crime would then be nothing.
Hear me well…. nothing!
Never forget to strive and do not do what I did, I stopped dreaming, I did many bad things in this life, of which I'm sorry, with my actions I came to affect many families, but today I invite you to listen to my message.
I do not see to me, because I am a person full of flaws and weaknesses, today only I invite you to listen to my message, a message that can save your life, save you from a life of suffering.
Young people, I want to go home, but by not listening to my parents, today I return to the high-security area for everything I have in life.
May God bless you all
Thank you!
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Reporters comment
I have interspersed throughout the post, photographs of some of el wicked's victims.