Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed he will be meeting with the family members of the nine Mormon mothers and children who were massacred by members of a cartel.
The gathering with the LeBaróns is set to take place December 2 in Mexico City, just two days before the tragedy’s one month anniversary.
Close to a dozen family members, including Adrián LeBarón, whose daughter Rhonita María Miller LeBarón and four grandchildren, were among the victims who also hold dual Mexico-U.S. citizenship.
SEE VIDEO BELOW
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will be meeting with the family members of the nine Mormons killed by a cartel November 4
Rhonita Miller and four of her children – her six-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard – were all murdered. Another two mothers, Dawna Langford and Christina Langford Johnson, as well as Dawna’s sons, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, were also all killed
Adrián LeBarón (right) says there has been a disconnection between the government and his family since the tragedy that took the lives of nine Mormon mothers and children, including his daughter, Rhonita María Miller LeBarón (left), and his four grandchildren. He said he expects a dozen family members to attend the December 2 meeting with Mexico’s president
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he will be presenting details of the investigation to the family members of the nine Mormon mothers and children that were savagely gunned down and burned earlier this month in northern Mexico
‘We would like to open his eyes to our reality and we do not know how to transmit it. There are ways, customs, there is disconnection, the distance is too much,’ Adrián LeBarón said on Wednesday in an interview with Milenio TV.
The family will also present López Obrador with a list of issues that need to be tackled in La Mora, a municipality in the state of Sonora where the family first settled decades ago after moving from the United States.
During his daily press briefing Thursday, López Obrador said he hoped he will meet the family in private without the presence of civil groups who could in turn try to politicize the situation. But they will be welcomed if the LeBarón family wishes to have them there.
Members of the LeBarón family are seen gathered around a burned car on November 5 where some of the murdered members of the family were killed a day earlier
‘The only thing that we are going to ask is for them to come, as we are going to present all the information we have,’ the Mexican president said.
‘And if they can, they should prevent the attendance of leaders, who then use these cases for political purposes.’
A fleet of three cars with three mothers and 14 children were intercepted on a road in Bavispe, Sonora, the morning of November 4, by gunmen with La Línea cartel.
The shooters riddled the three SUVs with bullets, killing Miller LeBarón and her four children – eight-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard.
All of them were shot and burned in their vehicle.
Christina Langford Johnson (left) died in the November 4 massacre. She was killed by Mexican drug cartel gunmen while traveling with her family. Christina saved her seven-month-old baby Faith’s (right) life by throwing the infant to the floor of their SUV
Rhonita María Miller LeBarón (right) was one of three Mormon mothers assassinated November 4
Among the other victims murdered were Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and her two sons, Trevor Langford, 11, and Rogan Langford, 2. Her other six children miraculously survived the attack.
Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 32, was also killed. Her daughter, seven-month-old Faith Marie Johnson, was found in her car seat.
López Obrador’s government is receiving help from the FBI in the investigation.
A day after the massacre, United States President Donald Trump urged Mexico to combat criminal organizations with deadly force, an idea which his Mexican counterpart quickly rejected.
On November 11, the government announced the arrest of several individuals who are connected to the massacre.
Adrián LeBarón has reiterated his theory on attack, saying La Línea used his loved ones as a pawn to get their message across.
‘It was not an attack on us,’ Adrián LeBarón said says before his daughter and grandchildren were laid to rest.
‘But there is no confusion, someone is wanting to send a message and they used our family.’
The mothers were driving in separate vehicles with their children from the La Mora religious community where they live, which is a decades-old settlement in Sonora, Mexico, founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints