• ACTIVIST: One of Mexico’s most prominent anti-violence activists, Julián LeBarón, has left Mexico for the US after receiving death threats, almost four months after the massacre that left 9 members of his extended family dead near a small Mormon community in northern Mexico.
• EXILE: One month after leading a peace march to protest Mexico’s criminal wave and impunity, LeBarón left the small binational community of Colonia LeBarón in the northern state of Chihuahua last Sunday escorted by Mexican police and crossed the border into the US, according to relatives.
• WARNING: “To tell you the truth, they had to go (warn) Julián to his house at midnight. The situation was serious, they were going to kill him. And they advised him to leave the country (Mexico)”, said Bryan LeBaron, cousin of Julián, while in a visit to the state Tamaulipas.
• LEADER: Members of a breakaway Mormon group that settled in the country in the early 20th century, the LeBarón family -including Julián- has been at the center of peace movement in Mexico since his brother Benjamín was killed by criminal gangs in Chihuahua back in 2009.
