Anonymous - 11-27-2002 at 04:52 PM
November 27, 2002
For a second time, 3,800 M?xicali eighteen-year olds assembled to find out if they would be drafted into the Mexican military, and for a second time
the event was rescheduled.
Tired of turning out for the lottery and tired of not knowing their future, some of the youth in attendance destroyed tables, lottery equipment and
other material items at a city facility. Unable to quiet the crowd, punches were thrown between the teens and military personnel at the event.
One mother complained that she and her son arrived at 4 a.m. for the lottery which was supposed to have begun at 8 a.m. The mother complained to the
official in charge, Ricardo Alan?s Quintero, head of military recruiting for the city, that the lottery was becoming a waste of time and money for her
family.
Alan?s said that the violence was due to the large number of youth that were in attendance. He also recognized that the teens got upset when it was
announced that the lottery was being postponed.
Last year, on the other end of the border, in Matamoros, 4,000 young men began throwing stones at homes, attacking neighborhood residents and burning
cars in the early hours of January 24 while they awaited a military-service lottery. In 2000, there was also a similar disturbance in Matamoros.