En el escritorio de su clínica en la ciudad de Culiacán, la doctora Rafaela Martínez Terrazas tiene una pila de solicitudes de clientes potenciales: mujeres que quieren cirugía plástica. La mayoría de ellas busca hacerse procedimientos asociados con lo que se conoce como "narcoestética".
"A smaller and most defined waist...Wider hips with bigger buttocks...And if we talk about breasts, they are generally great, "says Martínez.
A woman with this hyperfeminized and exaggerated silhouette is often known in Mexico as the buchona, especially if she likes striking and design items and has a narco lover.
"The average age of my patients is between 30 and 40 years.But very frequently young women are coming, even under 18 years old, "explains the doctor.
"They compete with each other, to see who has the best body or the smallest waist".
Women and adolescents can come for a consultation with their mothers or friends.Others arrive with a man or alone.
"Many times come with a boyfriend who pays for surgery.And I have several gentlemen who call me and tell me: 'Hey, doctor, I'm going to send a girl to operate' ".
"A man called me and said: 'He's going to arrive Fulanita.I peel it.And he does it as he knows that I like.I will not listen to her, that I paid for her, "Martínez says.
"Well, get on to her," I replied, "because inside the operating room, the patient makes decisions.".
This man has sent about 30 women to Rafaela Martínez to operate them. Con un costo de aproximadamente US$6.500 por lipoescultura, los procedimientos no son baratos.In general, payment is made in cash.
"Obviously, in these cases money comes from drug trafficking," says Martínez. "Solía decir: 'Esto definitivamente no es bueno'.Now, it's not that I have changed your mind, but I don't think so much before operating. Eso es porque la economía aquí en Sinaloa -restaurantes, bares, hospitales- depende del narcotráfico".
Martínez tries to advise women whose operations are paid by a lover.
"I generally tell the patient who is fine what Fulanito said, 'But what do you want?'And I explain: 'Your body is yours, not him.After a while it will no longer be your boyfriend, but your body will continue to be yours, all your life.So you have to choose what you want '".
En su consultorio, la doctora ve la evidencia de vínculos semicontractuales, por lo general temporales, entre hombres y mujeres.These are personal relationships in molded Sinaloa - some would say deformed - for drug trafficking.
"For a narco it is very important to have a beautiful woman by her side...It's like the prototype of every narco, "says Pedro (is not his real name).
Pedro is a man of powerful constitution of about 30 years who does not want to be identified.He describes himself as a personal coach and moves in drug trafficking circles in Sinaloa.
"Men compete with each other for women.Your wife is someone who will be at home taking care of your children. Las otras mujeres que tienes son más como trofeos".
The wife of a narco
Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of the notorious former head of the Sinaloa poster, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, declared himself guilty in June in Washington DC of conspiracy to distribute drugs and a series of other positions.
According to reports, he met Guzmán when he was a teenager in a beauty contest in Durango, Mexico, in 2007, and agreed to marry him that day that day.
And there is also something more basic.
"More than anything is the morbid of having an operated woman, the morbidity of seeing the biggest buttocks, the biggest breasts," says Pedro.
Pedro has paid for the plastic surgery of two women.
"Maybe some friendship tells you: 'Hey, my friend wants her breasts, buttocks or nose to operate. Anda buscando un patrocinador'.And if man is attracted to her, yes, sponsors her, says.
Se hace un acuerdo.
"Muchas veces la mujer te deja el cuerpo seis meses para ti.He tells you: If you pay the operation, I will be yours, five, six months, "explains Pedro.
And these informal contracts may not be just for surgery.
"Usually, if a woman is not someone's daughter with economic means, she looks for a boyfriend who can keep her," he says."So, the agreement could be for things like a car, a house, cash or luxury items".
En Sinaloa, donde reina la pobreza y la vida es precaria como resultado de la presencia de tantos grupos armados, un "padrino" puede brindarle a la mujer no solo consuelo, sino también protección.
This is what Carmen was looking for (fictitious name) when he made a pact with a narco.She lives in Culiacán, the largest city in Sinaloa, but comes from a poor rural area, where as a child she used to go hungry.
"I wanted a life that my family couldn't give me due to poverty," he says."So, when I was 16, I told my mother that I was going to live alone.I remember that my grandmother said: 'But you are just a girl, what are you going to do?'And I said: 'I have hands and feet, and I'm intelligent.I can work'".
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Carmen moved to Culiacán and stayed with one of the many families linked to organized crime.But in that house she was sexually assaulted.Carmen risked and trusted a man who met.
"He saw that he was very scared and said: 'Take my number'.I found the courage to get out of that house and keep in touch with him ".
The relationship became sexual.
"He told me: 'You are a girl, you are alone and you have no one to protect you in Culiacán, a dangerous city'".
"I will be your godfather, 'he told me.Then I see it when he wants to see me, and all his people know who I am.I can walk anywhere in Culiacán, and I feel superprotected that nothing will happen to me ".
Carmen does not know how many other women have a similar relationship with this same man.
Carmen is daring and determined.She is a young woman who dreams of going to university and starting her own business, and has concluded that the way to achieve her goals in Sinaloa is to succumb to the whims of a man who also identifies as extremely dangerous.
"I haven't stopped being afraid.When I see it, there is talk of mafia, business, that scares me, "he says.
"Lo que trato de hacer es olvidar lo que escuché y vi, porque eso puede meterte en problemas...Maybe my employer is not bad, but he has done bad things.And I may not want to hurt me, but I could make me disappear, whether bad or not ".
Carmen is under pressure from her narco-padrino who wants her to undergo plastic surgery to transform her little figure.Until now he has managed to get him to a medical office.
"Creo que las que se operan son inseguras, y tal vez estén más interesadas que yo en volverse más como la buchona", dice.
Birthday gift
The obsession of narcoculture with plastic surgery has leaked to society in general of Sinaloa.Advertising fences that announce surgeons and their products appear throughout Culiacán, assuring potential customers who can pay with credit if they do not have cash.
Janette Quintero has already done more than 20 aesthetic surgeries.
No es raro que una adolescente reciba senos nuevos o una nariz remodelada como regalo de cumpleaños o de Navidad.Men are also subject to surgeries and liposuctions.
Janette Quintero, who runs a large beauty and hairdressing room, more than 20 surgical procedures have been made.
"I gladly do it.Operating is the most beautiful thing there can be in the world: take away from your body the things you don't like, "he says.
"When I was 23 years old, she was the most 'buttock' woman in Sinaloa.I wanted them to operate and leave the others the same ".
Ahora dice que la moda está cambiando: algunas mujeres están reduciendo el tamaño de su busto y su trasero.
But Gabriela (either her real name), a 38 -year -old single mother with her own business, is not one of them.He is very happy with the superfeminized curves that was paid after the rupture of a relationship.
These procedures have raised their self -esteem, he says, even if they have not yet helped attract the new couple he is looking for.
Violence
While many women in Sinaloa go through a phase of wanting to be the girlfriend of a narco, Gabriela says that he now wants a different type of man: "Someone who is intelligent, hardworking and loyal".
But those qualities do not abound in Sinaloa.
María Teresa Guerra has defends the women of Sinaloa for decades.
"It is very normal for a man to have three or four women in addition to other girlfriends.It is part of culture, "says Gabriela, taking it with philosophy.
"And what I have seen over time is that men have become more shameless.Women endure it while receiving financial support: eyes that do not see, heart that does not feel ".
La narcocultura ha fomentado la idea de que las mujeres son "propiedad" de los hombres, dice María Teresa Guerra, una abogada que lleva décadas defendiendo a las mujeres en Sinaloa.
And this increases the risk of violence against women, she believes, be it violence of a narco lover or her enemies.
"Women have been killed because they are companions of a trafficker, or when a man feels that he has been betrayed.Narcos send a message that women belong to them, "says Guerra.
In Sinaloa twice women are killed with firearms compared to other Mexican states.
"Lo que encontramos en Culiacán es una alta incidencia de violencia y crueldad contra las mujeres, sus cuerpos se encuentran torturados y quemados", dice Guerra.
"I remember the case of a young woman, beauty queen, who was a drug trafficker's girlfriend.He paid for his aesthetic surgery.When she is murdered, the bullets that give her are thrown into the parts that had been operated: her breasts and hips.They express their cruelty in the parts of the body in which the narco had invested ".
How easy is it for a woman to say 'no' a narco?
"I have met women who want to disconnect from drug trafficking, but it's complicated," says Guerra.
"The authorities still do not want to face this issue of narcoculture. No hay una lucha seria contra el crimen organizado, todavía hay complicidad.It is the drug traffickers who are protected, not women ".
Carmen, who is committed to a dangerous relationship with a heavy weight of the poster, may not understand it well.Or at least, refuse to reflect on this.
And he doesn't know how much more time he can resist his pleas to visit a surgeon to enlarge his breasts or enlarge his butt.
"For now, it treats me like a goddess," he says.
It may be so.But one does not contradict armed men in Sinaloa.
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