Hard life sent brothers in search of greener pastures

Facing the gallows: (from left) Brothers Luis Alfonso, Simon and Jose Regino arriving at a courtroom in Kuala Lumpur.  

WHEN an international flight touches down in Malaysia, an announcement is made warning or reminding passengers of the death penalty for drug trafficking under local laws.

Three Mexican brothers who can’t speak a word of English – and never finished high school – probably never understood any of it.

They said they had come to seek greener pastures and employment, along with two fellow Mexicans. But just two weeks in, they ended up in the Ayer Molek prison in Johor Baru.

The impoverished family – parents, wives and children – they left behind had no clue what had happened to them.

The brothers come from a generation of bricklayers in the north-western state of Sinaloa in Mexico, an area notorious for being one of the world’s drug trafficking hubs and home to the infamous Sinaloa Cartel.

Journalist Victor Hugo Michel (pic), who visited the family home, described chickens running around mud floors, children walking barefoot and men making bricks outside.

It’s a hard life for the Gonzalez Villareal family, far from the drug barons’ glamorous world of cigars, women, jacuzzi and Ferraris portrayed in the movies.

Here are three men, frightened and unsure what mess they had got themselves into in a distant and unfamiliar land, one which has an annual trade of US$5mil with their country.

Until Michel met Luis Alfonso Gonzalez Villareal and his brothers Simon and Jose Regino, their story was unknown to anyone back home.

Simon’s wife was pregnant when he left. He has never met his daughter. It was only when Michel came to Malaysia for the second time that he brought photos of the baby to show Simon. That day, Simon cried in court.

What the brothers want now is a chance to live, even if it is behind bars.

“We still have faith and hope. Every day a neighbour comes to our house to pray with our mother,” said Luis’ wife Alejandrina in a phone interview from Mexico.

Front-page news: A daily in Mexico reporting on the Gonzalez Villareal brothers’ case in Malaysia .The headline reads: ‘Only a miracle’, while the left standfirst reads: ‘Mexico will ask for clemency from the Sultan of Johor in Malaysia, as a last resort, says the SRE (Secretariat of Foreign Affairs). Theright standfirst reads: ‘Only pardon can save the lives of brothers Luis, Simon and Regino, their death sentence for drug trafficking was confirmed’.

Their mother had her leg amputated a few months ago due to diabetes and their father suffers from heart problems.

“All the family wants is to see them again,” Alejandrina said.