IRIMBO, Michoacan, Mexico: Family and friends gathered in a small Mexican town on Friday to mourn and demand justice for a 38-year-old father of two who was killed by an immigration agent during an arrest attempt in a Chicago suburb earlier this month.
Silverio Villegas Gonzalez left Irimbo, in Mexico’s Michoacan state, for the United States 18 years ago. He returned on Thursday in a coffin after he was shot dead by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on September 12.
On Friday afternoon, a somber procession followed his coffin to a funeral mass.
“We are in a lot of pain,” Villegas’ older brother Jorge Villegas told Reuters through tears.
“At least my brother is here now. We can finally give him a Christian burial.”
Villegas’ killing, just after dropping off his two children at a nearby elementary school and daycare, has inflamed tensions over US President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and highlighted the increasingly violent tactics of immigration agents.
“He was a good father. He didn’t deserve what happened to him,” brother Jorge said.
The US Department of Homeland Security said an agent fired his weapon at Villegas in self-defense after the man drove his vehicle toward agents. Bodycam footage and documents reviewed by Reuters showed a more complex version of events.
Both Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have called for further investigations into the ICE agents’ tactics.
“I truly hope that justice will be served. The way he was killed, the way things happened, cannot go unpunished,” Jorge said.
Blanca Avila, who went to school with Villegas, said she remembers him as a humble man and a good classmate, and that his death has stirred fears for her siblings living in the US
“They go out to work with the fear that immigration will arrive and do something to them, just like what happened to our classmate,” Avila said.
“We are humble and very hardworking people, just like Silverio was.”
A Mexican town mourns father slain by ICE in Chicago
https://arab.news/m9tqc
A Mexican town mourns father slain by ICE in Chicago
- A 38-year-old father of two was killed by a US immigration agent during an arrest attempt in a Chicago suburb earlier this month
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
