Mexican Boy Creates Bullet-Proof Bag Due to Risk of Shoot-Outs

Juan David Hernandez Rojas, from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, is only 11 years old but he's come up with an innovative solution to the dangers of violence posed by the country's ongoing conflict with organized crime groups: he's made a bullet-resistant backpack.

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“In my city shootings and robberies are very frequent, unfortunately, and that's why I invented the safety backpack,” Hernandez told Proceso magazine at the ExpoCiencias Tamaulipas science fair.

In a video shared on Twitter by Ruido en la Red, the primary school student speaks nonchalantly about the shootouts that happen in the city of Matamoros as he shows off the features of his backpack.

The bag is lined with bullet-resistant material, has an alarm, a light and a GPS locator. “So my parents can easily find me in case I don't show up,” says Hernandez.

He even demonstrates how the bag would be used in the event a student is caught in the middle of a shootout and needs to protect themselves from an errant bullet.

Hernandez says his bag “marks the difference between life, death, and desperation.”

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The young boy's invention is a reminder of the daily violence many Mexicans are exposed to as a result of the conflict between organized crime groups and the Mexican state, begun by former President Felipe Calderon in 2006 and continued by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

At 11 years old, Hernandez has grown up his entire life surrounded by shootouts and violence, helping explain how he can so casually talk about the issue.

The long-running conflict with organized crime groups has claimed an estimated 120,000, plus many more who have been forcibly disappeared.

The issue has been exacerbated by the overwhelming impunity exercised in Mexico, a criticism often raised by the United Nations.

The forced disappearance of 43 students in late 2014 is one of the more infamous cases where the alleged collusion between the state and an organized crime group has left the case unsolved for years.

A recently leaked internal report revealed that the government's version of events regarding the disappearance of the students was based on faulty intelligence gathered through torture, completely undermining its legitimacy.

Meanwhile, a new report from the Global Drug Commission on Drug Policy released Monday called for the decriminalization of drugs to mitigate the disastrous effects of decades of the failing war on drugs.