Events: Topics: On November 4, 2019, about 70 miles (110 km) south of the Mexico–United States border, gunmen opened fire on a three-car convoy en route to a wedding carrying residents of the isolated La Mora community, which is predominantly composed of American Mexican "independent Mormons.
[1][7][8] Rancho La Mora (also in the Bavispe Municipality) was founded by Langford family members immigrating there from other Sonoran Latter-day Saint colonias in the 1930s.
[9] Its proportion of fundamentalist Latter Day Saints swelled when some new residents left previous homes in Arizona after the 1953 "Short Creek raid".
[7][15] Reportedly the La Mora community had achieved a type of understanding with the area's currently dominant outlaw band, Los Salazar, (Sinaloa Cartel), who have enjoyed some history of influence with Mexico's federal government.
[17] (According to the BBC's Will Grant, one possible explanation for the atrocity is that "La Línea were targeting the Mormons...for having a relationship with their rivals, Los Salazar..."[16] A senior Mexican general told the Wall Street Journal he believed La Linea sent gunmen to curtail Los Salazar infiltration into Chihuahua and not with the intent to victimize the settlement's members.
[19]) In a pair of attacks, gunmen opened fire on three SUVs, first upon a Chevrolet Tahoe and subsequently two Chevy Suburbans, that were carrying American Mexican independent fundamentalist Mormons[20][1] of the extended LeBarón family,[21] en route the paved highway near Galeana, Chihuahua (after which Christina Langford planned to drive her vehicle northward into the U.S. and Rhonita Miller-LeBarón and Dawna Langford planned to continue southward to the community of Le Barón for rendezvous with family and a wedding[22]), from their hometown of La Mora, Bavispe, Sonora, about 70 miles (110 km) south of the Mexico–United States border.
[26] The burned out vehicle was discovered to hold the bodies of Miller-LeBarón, her 10-year-old daughter, 12-year-old son and infant twins, eleven miles from where the other two women were killed.
[34] According to the Dallas Morning News's Alfredo Corchado, targeting of the victims may have been due to activism by certain extended LeBarón family members having "over the years been outspoken in their condemnation of criminal groups that hold sway over a wide swath of northern Mexico".
[24] Following the murders, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico invited participation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, his saying, "Why did we take that initiative?
"[38] On 19 November, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said, referencing Mexico's history of systemic corruption, "We're not protecting anyone.
Shown to two relatives of the victims, one of them, Adam Langford, said it showed a dozen or so men presumed as members of the Chihuahua cartel "all in black[...]with assault rifles going toward the vehicles, toward their prey[...].
[44] Three suspects, including the supposed mastermind Roberto N (alias "The Mute" and "The 32"), believed to be members of La Línea drug cartel, were arrested on November 25, 2020.
[47] The offer was declined by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but said that he would speak with Trump over security cooperation between the two nations.
[48] A member of the extended family, Julian LeBarón, whose brother Benjamin was killed by cartel gunmen in 2009, claims that the attack was targeted.
[49] On January 12, 2020, Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Sonora Governor, Claudia Pavlovich Arellano, visited LaMora.
[50][51] Julián LeBarón said LaMora community members would be among those participating in a march sponsored by the advocacy group Defensa por la Vida y la Paz or Defense for Life & Peace slated for January 23–25 from Cuernavaca, Morelos, to Mexico's National Palace in Mexico City, with the intention, according to one of its organizers, the poet Javier Sicilia, of their reception by President López Obrador.