Image from El Mexicano

For 16 days, seven-year-old Miguel Beltrán battled for his life from a bed in Tijuana General Hospital, the victim of a crime so horrendous that it shocked even the most battle-hardened residents of this violence-prone city.

Despite the best efforts of his physicians, Miguelito succumbed to his wounds on the afternoon of January 4. He was laid to rest yesterday, January 8, in a municipal cemetery following a funeral Mass at a Zona Rio church attended by around 100 people.

Miguelito

On December 20, as he was being loaded onto an ambulance, Miguelito is said to have uttered a phrase that has echoed on the lips of thousands of Tijuana residents since: “No quiero morir. Quiero jugar fútbol.” (I don't want to die. I want to play soccer.)

Miguelito's throat had been slashed. He had been stabbed in the chest with an icepick. And his head had been slammed several times with a baseball bat.

Authorities say Miguelito's injuries — and, ultimately, his death — came at the hands of his mother's boyfriend as a “birthday present” for Miguelito's father. The crime, said investigators, was orchestrated by his embittered mother, who wanted to spoil every future birthday of her former husband with the memory of his son's murder.

Arrested for the crime were Miguel's 26-year-old mother, Karina Luna Sandoval, and her boyfriend, Gonzalo del Río Hernández, 23. Both are currently imprisoned at the La Mesa state penitentiary awaiting trial and sentencing.

Karina Luna, said prosecutors, has confessed to planning the crime.

(Sources for this story include accounts from El Mexicano, El Sol de Tijuana, and Frontera.)