Chasing the Scream

Chasing the Scream

by

Johann Hari

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Chasing the Scream makes teaching easy.

Marisela Escobedo Character Analysis

Marisela Escobedo was a mother, nurse, businesswoman, and activist from Ciudad Juárez. In 2008, Escobedo’s 16-year-old daughter Rubi Fraire was murdered by her boyfriend, the Zeta Cartel member Sergio Barraza. The police refused to search for Fraire’s remains or track down Barraza, so Escobedo dedicated her life to doing so. Even after Barraza confessed to the murder, he was acquitted at trial. To protest this impunity, Escobedo marched over 1,000 miles from Juárez to Mexico City, and then began protesting at the Chihuahua state capitol—where she was murdered in 2010. Her saga demonstrates how the war on drugs has spread senseless violence and undermined the rule of law in Mexico by giving drug traffickers even more power and resources than local governments.

Marisela Escobedo Quotes in Chasing the Scream

The Chasing the Scream quotes below are all either spoken by Marisela Escobedo or refer to Marisela Escobedo . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Drug Legalization and U.S. Policy Theme Icon
).
Chapter 10 Quotes

That is when Marisela heard rumors that started to make it possible to make sense of this whole story. Sergio, she was told, is a Zeta. That is why the police would not touch him. That is why he kept escaping. When Marisela got her final lead on where Sergio was, the police were finally honest with her. “If he’s with the Zetas, we’re not going to be able to do anything, because they run the state,” they told her. “If we do a bust, it’s because they allow us to do it. We don’t bust people just like that.” They were apologetic, but they explained that the Zetas give them money if they serve them and death if they don’t.

Related Characters: Johann Hari (speaker), Harry Anslinger , Sergio Barraza , Marisela Escobedo , Rubi Fraire , Billie Holiday , Henry Smith Williams , Edward Williams
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Chasing the Scream LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chasing the Scream PDF

Marisela Escobedo Quotes in Chasing the Scream

The Chasing the Scream quotes below are all either spoken by Marisela Escobedo or refer to Marisela Escobedo . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Drug Legalization and U.S. Policy Theme Icon
).
Chapter 10 Quotes

That is when Marisela heard rumors that started to make it possible to make sense of this whole story. Sergio, she was told, is a Zeta. That is why the police would not touch him. That is why he kept escaping. When Marisela got her final lead on where Sergio was, the police were finally honest with her. “If he’s with the Zetas, we’re not going to be able to do anything, because they run the state,” they told her. “If we do a bust, it’s because they allow us to do it. We don’t bust people just like that.” They were apologetic, but they explained that the Zetas give them money if they serve them and death if they don’t.

Related Characters: Johann Hari (speaker), Harry Anslinger , Sergio Barraza , Marisela Escobedo , Rubi Fraire , Billie Holiday , Henry Smith Williams , Edward Williams
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis: