Cartel Murders Chemistry Student After 'Refusing To Cook Meth'

A Tijuana university student who was months away from graduating as a medicinal chemist and biologist was killed last month for allegedly refusing to cook synthetic drugs for narcos.

On April 30, armed men broke into his family's home in the Tijuana neighborhood of El Florido and killed Juan Manuel Delgado Cárdenas. Cárdenas is a clinical laboratory employee and chemistry student at the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC).

Two of Delgado's siblings and two friends were injured in the assault, which was allegedly carried out by three men who have yet to be apprehended. According to the news website Zeta Tijuana, the suspects shot a 12-year-old boy playing video games with his brother while celebrating Children's Day on Saturday.

According to the newspaper Milenio, Baja California Attorney General Office said a drug cartel tried to recruit the 23-year-old into its ranks. The narcos allegedly want to use his skills to produce illegal drugs like methamphetamine. Delgado, a keen runner who spent his spare time teaching boxing to underprivileged children, declined.

The chemistry student was buried last week after a funeral service conducted by Tijuana priest Rodrigo Salinas. According to the priest, Delgado set an example for others by choosing good over bad.

"This is a message for all the young people who are carried away by the desire … for money and power," Salinas told Milenio after the funeral service.

Other Tijuana university students were saddened and alarmed by Delgado's murder. Some of them joined a protest on Saturday at the National Pedagogical University (UPN) in Tijuana, where the victim's sister, Marena Delgado, studies.

The students demanded that Baja California authorities fulfill their responsibility to provide security to citizens. They wanted to ensure that justice is served in the cases of Delgado and other university students who have recently been murdered in Tijuana. PSN said authorities discovered the burned bodies of Paulina Michelle Casillas Martínez, a UABC tourism studies major, and partner Humberto Mejía Sandoval last week.

They gave a strong message. However, the demonstration had a limited turnout, due to students' fear of being threatened by organized crime as well.

"I believe that the clearest proof that young people are afraid is that they preferred not to come — not all of them — and we have to respect their decision and support them," a UPN professor told Zeta Tijuana in Spanish.

"We don't want to live with this fear," one student said. "What happened to Juan Manuel Delgado Cárdenas happened at his home; it's ugly that you're not even safe in your own home. … I don't want to be studying today and appear in the news tomorrow … [because] I was found in a [hidden] grave," the student added.

A female student told Zeta, Delgado's death was all the more surprising because it happened on Children's Day and was witnessed by his younger brother.

"How could you imagine that at a time of celebration, [criminals] would come and take [the life] of a person so close to you. … We're here to ask for justice for all the students who are no longer with us and especially to support my classmate, Marena," she said.

Another young woman said Delgado's death made her sad and angry. She explained that the students want to prepare themselves to have a better future to make a better future for Mexico. The woman added that knowing that criminals stealing the students' dreams "[make] us angry."