▲ Carlos Mendoza, 20 years old, originally from Guanajuato.Photo taken from social networks

Juan Pablo Duch

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 28, 2024, p. 29

Moscow. Originally from Guanajuato, Carlos Mendoza, who arrived in Ukraine last July to join the so-called International Legion of the Ukrainian army, is the first Mexican to die, shortly after turning 20 years old, on the battlefields of the neighboring Slavic country.

His death became known when he was identified last Monday by TrackANaziMerc, a Telegram channel presumably linked to Russian military intelligence, which is dedicated to finding Nazi mercenaries in what is called the area of ​​the special military operation.

That channel, reporting that Mendoza died from Russian artillery fireposted a photo of himself in a Ukrainian camouflage uniform that he took from his social networks on his 20th birthday.

He also claims that Mendoza used to introduce himself as an experienced killer and, quoting without further ado some mexicansassures that it served less than a year in the National Guard from Mexico.

The only Russian media outlet that reported the news, the weekly Arguments and Factswhich began circulating yesterday, concluded that his family supported him in his desire to go to Ukraine to fight by mentioning that a woman, apparently his mother or a sister, put a I like in the image on Mendoza’s social networks.

In kyiv, where foreigners serving in the International Legion are volunteers that Like all military personnel, they receive a salary.Mendoza’s death was also announced, but from another angle.

Through a message yesterday on the social network X, Gia Santos refers to Mendoza as A young volunteer soldier who gave his life for Ukraine’s fight for freedom. May his sacrifice be forever remembered..

Santos – journalist and contributor to Muck Rack’s account on the Russia-Ukraine War, as well as UkraineTodaySons of Liberty International-Ukraine and Pirate Wire Services, which criticize the Russian invasion to Ukraine – published a very different photo of Mendoza, surrounded by flowers and Ukrainian flags, in a sort of memorial of fallen soldiers as there are so many in the cities of Ukraine.

Mendoza is the first Mexican combatant to die in the war in Ukraine, but not the only one who, according to the Russian site Chronicle of Geopoliticsjoined the International Legion of the Ukrainian army.

Chronicle… assures that, since February 2022, at least 16 Mexicans have been identified as mercenariesbut says that they are few compared to Colombians (373) or Americans (720).

Among the Mexicans he found on social media, he recounts the cases of Pedro Liazaola, a former military man who supposedly worked in the Sedena, who arrived in Ukraine in the summer of 2022 and serves as a translator at the Legion barracks in Kharkiv, and Enrique Rodríguez León, who joined the Legion in May 2022 as a paramedic and now, he says, is a mercenary plus, infantry soldier.