About five hours later, several 911 calls came in from the site of the first shooting. The police are unlikely to do anything, while the cartel almost certainly will most often in the form of revenge. Rebecca Kiessling lost her two sons, 20-year-old Caleb and 18-year-old Kyler, to fentanyl poisoning on July 29, 2020, after the boys ingested a "fake Percocet" in a hotel room. For Mrs. Rodrguez, the pursuit of justice was an escape from the pain. The brutality is now spilling into popular tourist areas, particularly in the Quintana Roo state. Raul aka "Mini 6", born in 1991 and was killed by police in Jalisco in 2010 when he was 18 years old. LEFT: Soldiers and police block off an area in Veracruz where 35 bodies were dumped on a roadway in September 2011. We must rid ourselves of the fear to stand up and speak out.. Eight years after Martnezs homicide on April 28, 2012, a team of reporters from Mexico, Europe and The Washington Post has picked up where Martnez left off. The team of reporters discovered that law enforcement authorities in Mexico, the United States and Spain had opened inquiries into allegations that Herrera colluded with leaders of the Zeta cartel while he was governor and took money from them for his campaign, as well as allegations that he was involved in money laundering while later serving in a diplomatic post in Barcelona. As the funeral crowd dispersed, Luis and Azalea went to their mothers grave, a church-like structure lined with cypress trees. 1. nycboots 3 days ago. It was an indicator that she was getting close and that the response from drug cartels had to be certain and definitive.. He outlawed crime reporting on social media an action that was quickly overturned in court. You have all taught my family that together we can fight back, she said. On Mothers Day, 2017, weeks after she had chased down one of her last targets, she was shot in front of her home and killed. These horrific crimes prompted the 15 reporters who covered crime in Veracruz to flee town, according to an investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Enrique Pea Nieto, who once described Herrera as his best friend, ran and won the presidency instead. By then, everyone had. Valeria Velez worked as a news anchor during the early 1980s, and in 1981 she interviewed the famous cartel boss Pablo Escobar, forming a romantic relationship with him. This is another tragic reminder that journalism is a dangerous business and that criminals and those that are the subject of reporting can become violent toward reporters who are doing their jobs, the organization said. She is one of three people to testify in front of the Border Security and . People took heart at her fight, and found indignation in her death. In Washington, the White House reacted Wednesday night to the news that journalists were among the victims in the latest spate of gun violence. The Push for a $60K Base Teacher Salary Gains Steam as Bernie Sanders Signs On. Their sister had died, their mother, too, even their mothers friend, Ms. Saldivar Villavicencio, who recently had died of Covid-19. Luis dropped what he was doing to take a closer look. Veracruz officials awarded lucrative government contracts to Colorado-Cessas cartel-linked construction company, and government officials received 10 to 16 percent from each contract, Hinojosa testified. The dread twisted into rage. [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] The girlfriends, [74] wives, and daughters of male journalists and media workers have been murdered. Duarte had none of Herreras political charm. Karens father dropped off a bag of cash near the health clinic, then waited in vain at the local cemetery for the kidnappers to free her. It was a company to build highways Los Zetas could not operate in Veracruz without his permission With an official-looking ID in hand, she spent the better part of a day conducting a fake poll of the neighborhood until she got basic details on one of her daughters captors. In 2015, Proceso photographer Rubn Espinosa, who had been physically harassed and verbally threatened for taking photos of crime scenes, finally fled to the safety of Mexico City, only to be tracked there and killed by assassins, his colleagues believe. Escobar cheated with . You Might Be Interested In. In custody, he filled in details missing from Mrs. Rodrguezs investigation, coughing up the names and locations of some accomplices. He said they found a Glock 40 handgun that was still hot to the touch in the suspects pants. 1 min read. Police had apprehended one of them, Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva, who was known as El Silva. He was an illiterate drug addict and low-level criminal, reporters learned. She quoted people saying they knew Herrera had given the orders. But it came with a price. The Orange County sheriff said the same assailant killed two other people in the Pine Hills area a TV journalist shot in a vehicle outside and a 38-year-old woman slain hours earlier in the . He pleaded guilty to some charges and admitted to working with criminal elements. He was sentenced to nine years in prison but has appealed, and media reports say he could be released early. As Karen lay on the living room floor, bound and gagged, a knock came at the door: her uncles unsuspecting mechanic, who had come to work on the family truck. Woman Cries Out In Pain As Drug Cartels Slowly Dismember Her Alive Before Beheading Her On Video By Andrew Bieszad on July 5, 2020 in Featured, General While the world is filled with great concern about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, economic collapse, and the future US election, there are a lot of suffering people in many places. Halfway through the year, Adame's death brings to seven the 2017 toll of slain press . Cinemas, nightclubs and shops were almost empty, a consequence of the violence, she wrote. In the U.S., we have big corporations that give money to politicians through legal lobbying, he said. [The death of Mexican news in the age of drug cartels], The violence became news all over the world. The following year, the family said, a group of scientists found a piece of femur belonging to her daughter. Borbolla had other problems with the crime investigation, which was supposed to be done jointly with state authorities. After a week, he stopped answering the phone. This also deprives real businesses of business., Herrera, now 71, has always denied the allegations. I knew her quite well, he said of Martnez, who had covered one of his earlier campaigns. He lashed out at critics. T'yonna was killed Wednesday when a gunman barged into her home outside Orlando and shot the third-grader and her mother, who survived the attack. She knew the florist had sold flowers on the street before joining the Zeta cartel and getting involved in her daughters kidnapping. The day after, the kidnappers said they wanted more. Mexican and U.S. authorities declined to say whether their investigations are still active. Veracruz receives partial information and even lies, she wrote in 2011. Azalea hugged Lucianos mother for more than a minute, weeping. But look at how things ended for her. Update: An Orlando reporter is mourned as local journalists face more danger on the job. Jun 30, 2017, 01:01 PM EDT. body of work by photographer Flix Mrquez exploring their lives through the belongings they left behind. She joined Proceso in 2000. The city placed a bronze plaque honoring her in the central plaza. He had one last customer, a young, slender man browsing hats. She wrote of his increasing wealth at a time when the state debt soared without a clear explanation. Herreras presence set off alarms. They knew they were among the fortunate few who at least had somewhere to mourn them. Watch the exact moment a man is executed with machine gun fire by cartel members until his guts protrude from his belly. On Jan. 23, as Karen prepared to merge into traffic, two trucks pulled up on either side, stopping her. And with every failed bid to reclaim Karen, she fell further into despair. The international collaboration was organized by Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit group based in Paris whose mission is to continue the reporting of murdered journalists. As the months passed, Mrs. Rodrguez continued to fill her bag with clues she wrung from the case files. She also documented a 40percent surge in violence under Herrera a family wiped out with submachine guns; a mayor shot at the airport; even the governors bodyguard, dead. One asked Mrs. Rodrguez for mercy. Prosecutors said the woman who waved her arms, Christina Langford Johnson, was. Now he was on the run and back to what he knew, selling roses to make ends meet. I want to end this. He had his child back, in some way. Reserved and private, she usually sat in the corner at office parties, one Proceso colleague remembered, itching to get back to work. They called on friends and citizens to march with them, to demand the return of little Luciano. At least, until the following year, when rampant abductions of bus passengers led to the unearthing of nearly 200 bodies dumped in mass graves along San Fernandos peripheries. Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit group based in Paris that is dedicated to continuing the work of journalists silenced by homicide, organized the effort. [75] Female participants [ edit] The weeks after Karens abduction had become knotted into a single, nauseating progression of calls, threats and false promises. And last night my chest was in pain. And at 14, little Luciano helped them both when he wasnt at school. International press groups consider Veracruz to be the most dangerous place in the world to report the news. In retaliation, the Zetas kidnapped several members to threaten them and to learn the names of people who had access to the hacked information. Hope is a toxin that poisons many families of the missing. Just as she had with the ice cream shop, Mrs. Rodrguez waited for weeks outside of the prison during visiting hours until Ms. Betancourt finally showed. Weeks earlier, volunteers had passed the very spot and missed it. Mexican video confirms death of female drug cartel gun woman January 13, 2020 MEXICO CITY (AP) Videos and photos of a woman killed in a drug gang shootout appear to confirm she was "La Catrina," a female member of a cartel hit squad that massacred 13 police officers in October. Luciano was watching one of his sisters and couldnt be long, he messaged. If it was only a matter of time. At least, not in the way they had hoped. Once lively, he now seldom left home. One official claimed that investigators had managed to triangulate the location based on cellphone tower pings. Someone broke in through the metal door from her beloved garden patio, the tiny patch of tranquility that kept her from moving from her modest cinder-block home to a safer location. He was running around with everybody.. The shootout, involving state troops, state police and the National Guard, happened in a. They spent weeks baiting Luciano with a false Facebook account of a young girl. Her body had been quickly discovered when a neighbor alerted police to her open front door. Disappearances undermine the very nature of grief, stripping families of even the most basic closure. Cartels controlled the state, she told readers, even promoting themselves in YouTube videos. Though he assumed leadership of his mothers collective, the movement faded in her absence. A MEXICAN cartel leader's sister was shot and killed at the church altar on her wedding day by rival gangsters, it has been reported. And so the family, like Mrs. Rodrguez, broke the rules that governed how victims usually respond in such cases. Bermdez has pleaded not guilty, and the case is pending. Luis arrived late to the funeral, after the procession had already made its way down streets lined with residents watching little Lucianos casket en route to the cemetery. Her colleagues were right to be worried. The risk is asymmetric. Women Are Being Killed With Impunity in Mexico - YouTube 0:00 / 14:49 Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users. A Mexican drug cartel used Twitter for evil after murdering a doctor and. Our hearts go out to the family of the journalist killed today and the crew member injured in Orange County, Florida, as well as the whole Spectrum News team, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Twitter. The country is so torn apart by violence and impunity that a grieving mother had to solve the disappearance of her daughter largely on her own, and died violently because of it. Duarte is serving a nine-year sentence for embezzlement and money laundering. The abandoned gas station on the edge of town where Lucianos father left the second ransom. Worried, she asked the government for protection. Led. The local government could connect to peoples phones and know at any moment what they were up to, one of the officials said in an interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. As the local economy struggled, Duarte was hiding the states financial crisis, she wrote. He and others of his time were fortunate that the governors who followed them were successors theyd chosen from their own party who covered the traces of the previous corruption.. A female cartel boss known as "La Doa" has been sentenced to 22 years in prison in the US after her two sons were murdered in killings that could have been a warning not to cooperate with US. Argumedo, who has never before spoken publicly about her investigation, said he remembers that the graves were so full that the bodies were overflowing., One co-worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for personal safety reasons, remembers telling her: Regina, be very careful. Halle Berry has done it again: she's turned every head and made every jaw drop with a series of new bikini snapshots that show she's a confident superstar in every season. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. Youre very handsome, read a message to him from the account. On the drive back from the ranch, Mrs. Rodrguez passed a barbecue restaurant near the entrance of the dirt road to the ranch. After tracing the fake Facebook account, the police discovered what Mrs. Garza had long suspected that several of her cousins were involved in organized crime and had teamed up with local cartel members to extort the family. The inquiries attempted to determine whether Herrera could be related to money-laundering networks and have criminal relationships with important drug traffickers in Catalonia, said Toni Rodrguez, chief of the criminal investigation division of the Catalonian police force. The government dispatched convoys of soldiers, police officers and investigators to San Fernando. Linares served as director at the Monitor Michoacan website, which on Tuesday continued to show an . She eventually left in protest over censorship and working conditions. The reports led to a government investigation that eventually stalled. Two Mexican intelligence officials said in phone interviews that Martnezs homicide may be connected to the hackers known as Anonymous in Mexico. In December 2011, a bombshell news story described cartel penetration of the government in Veracruz, based on a still-confidential report by the Mexican Attorney Generals Office. The Barcelona City Council and Catalonian police launched confidential inquiries looking at Herreras links to people in Barcelona with their own legal problems, according to documents and interviews. She cut her hair, dyed it and disguised herself as a pollster, a health worker and an election official to get their names and addresses. She was never able to find the mysterious witness. Three people, including a reporter and a 9-year-old girl, were shot and killed, and two others were shot and injured in a series of shootings in . Unlike Mrs. Rodrguezs relentless pursuit of her daughters killers, Lucianos parents did not seek to punish the powerful cartel. This man is having his genitals eaten by a dog. Mrs. Rodrguez had said hello and asked whether she had heard about Karen. . The city of San Fernando has been scarred by a decade-long war between cartel factions. (Marco Ugarte/AP) RIGHT: Posters of Espinosa and four slain women hang outside Veracruz state government offices in 2015, above posters of then-Gov. Sheriff Mina emphasized that officials did not yet know the suspects motive for shooting five people or the nature of his connections to them. She invented excuses to meet their families, unsuspecting grandmothers and cousins who gave her details, however small. Lucianos kidnapping stirred something in San Fernando. Mrs. Garza ignored the calls, as Mrs. Rodrguez had, but the family asked for security from the government. She also pointed to evidence that the man convicted in Martnezs killing was tortured by Veracruz police and falsely confessed to the crime. Authorities discovered Vanessa Torres Galn's mutilated body, which bore signs of torture. The vicious Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) are considered the most dangerous and powerful criminal enterprise in Mexico. For the second payment, Lucianos father drove two hours and left a bag of cash between two spent tires at an abandoned gas station. They are surrounded by 13 masked men, apparently Los Zetas hitmen, who point their rifles at them. Mrs. Rodrguezs husband was different after Karen vanished. A 31-year-old journalist was shot dead on Monday in the central state of Guanajuato while he was reporting on the discovery of human remains dumped on a road in the city of Salamanca. She had said as much in her time, words now carved onto a plaque affixed to her mausoleum. Farmers and politicians. Mrs. Rodrguez, already separated from her husband, moved in with her older daughter, Azalea. A murder in Veracruz: Slain journalists story a portrait of a violent, corrupt era in Mexico. The 19-year-old suspect is in custody, police said. She says one scene of . Her team found two good prints that state police had missed. To pay the first ransom, Mrs. Rodrguezs family took out a loan from a bank that offered lines of credit for such payments. But Ms. Betancourt played dumb, which Mrs. Rodrguez had thought was odd. At 10:21 p.m., she headed home; she was once again living with her husband in the small, orange house where Karen once stayed. Dec. 6, 2020. And I wouldnt kill anyone because Im already dying bit by bit since I have HIV., Coq described Silva as the perfect scapegoat.. On the bridge, she scoured the vendors for flower carts, but that day he was selling sunglasses instead. Family members said Dawna Langford's 13-year-old son, Devin, watched his mother die and then hid his six. Journalist Maria del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, who was killed by members of a drug cartel for threatening to expose them. But by then, the cousins were nowhere to be found. a b Marijose Gamboa has one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. Law enforcement officers at the scene of a shooting in Pine Hills, Fla., on Wednesday. We dont care about the rain, or anything else, Lucianos mother told local television reporters as her group sheltered under downtown awnings. But the fight was very different this time. The cartel has unlimited resources to have all weapons, ammunition, armored vehicles, military gear . The family followed every instruction to the letter. Someone wanted to stop the news reports about the executions. Pablo Escobar died in a rooftop shootout in Medellin on Dec. 2, 1993. In articles for the national investigative weekly Proceso, Martnez, who was killed at age 48, told her readers that two successive governors in her home state of Veracruz looted the treasury and allowed cartels to operate freely with the help of local and state police. Herrera belongs to the previous generation of governors, when accountability institutions lacked political power, said Alberto Olvera, a sociologist at the University of Veracruz. Its really amazing, their bravery.. The story of Martnezs death and her work is the first of a five-part series, The Cartel Project, which involved 60 journalists from 25 media outlets. The "execution" of six men and . Follow @Borderland_Beat . She said it matter-of-factly, as though describing her sleep. Two weeks later, the tortured and decapitated body of Notivers police reporter was discovered. The lifeless body of the young woman had signs of torture and was found with gunshot wounds Sunday morning. Her friends often wondered if she was going too far. The cemetery emptied, but they stayed, clinging to the moment. 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