Summary

In Chapter 16, “Home,” Mendez is selective about what he tells the officers. He does not rat on El Negro because, as the author implies, Mendez is worried about what they will do to his girlfriend. On May 31, the dead are sent back to Veracruz on a 727 cargo jet rented from Aeromexico. As the hearses drive through Tuscon, men and women gather to pay their respects and condolences in an “outpouring of public grief” (196). Vargas accompanies the flight. The government and state of Veracruz tries to make the returned men into martyred heroes, and Vargas, disgusted with the pageantry, takes a late, last-minute flight home.

Mendez is taken to a Phoenix jail, and his appointed defender struggles to come up with a defense for him. Mendez is charged with 25 smuggling counts, and pleads guilty in exchange for his life. Meanwhile, the other survivors are...