Mexican cases

Current Cases

Past Cases

 

Current Cases

Imprisoned: investigation cases (2)

Date of arrest: 7 May 2008. Prison: Puente Grande high-security federal prison, Jalisco state. Alleged offence: Having links to drug traffickers; exact charges unclear. It is feared that his arrest and imprisonment are related to his legitimate activities as a journalist.

[$1< Details of arrest: Lemus was reportedly investigating drug trafficking in Cuerámaro, Guanajuato state on 7 May 2008 when he was arrested along with two of his sources, and accused of involvement in trade for ‘The Family', an offshoot of the powerful El Golfo (Gulf) drug cartel. Lemus was detained incommunicado for 48 hours by Guanajuato state ministerial police, who reportedly beat him. On 9 May the three men were transferred to Puentecilla prison in Guanajuato, where the federal public ministry took over the case. Lemus' preventive custody was confirmed on 15 May, and on 27 May, he was transferred to a high-security federal prison in Puente Grande, in the neighbouring state of Jalisco where he remains as of January 2009.

Concerns: For the first 48 hours after his arrest Lemus was reportedly held incommunicado and beaten by Guanajuato state ministerial police. There are fears that the drug trafficking charges against the journalist are fabricated; it is understood that no physical evidence has been produced. It is thought that his arrest may in fact have been linked to his critical reporting on drug trafficking routes and on local authorities, including harassment of the media by the police and alleged unfair allocation of official advertising in the municipality. Lemus' wife has reportedly suffered harassment since his arrest: on 31 July 2007 their home was searched by solders without a warrant, who questioned her about her activities and those of other family members. >1$] 

 

Date of arrest: 6 September 2008. Alleged offence: Suspected involvement in organised crime and unlawful possession of firearms. There are fears that the charges may be related to his legitimate activities as a journalist.

[$2< Details of arrest: Tepepexteco Hipólito was reportedly detained by the military while on his way to cover an armed confrontation between rival gangs of suspected drug traffickers from Mexico and Guerro states in Arcelia, Guerrero, on 6 September 2008. While on his way to the scene, he was reportedly stopped by men in Federal Investigations Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigaciones, AFI) uniforms who allegedly turned out to be combatants fleeing the authorities. The men took the journalist with them but abandoned him soon after when their vehicle broke down. Tepepexteco Hipólito then reportedly requested assistance from a passing military convoy, which allowed him to travel with them and later detained two individuals carrying firearms and grenades. The journalist was taken to the Federal Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) in Chilpancingo as a witness. However the PGR concluded that his testimony lacked credibility and on 9 September 2008 charged him and the two other detained individuals with "suspected involvement in organised crime, amassing of weapons, violation of the Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives, possession of firearms that are for the exclusive use of the armed forces and possession of cartridges."

Concerns: According to his editor, Tepepexteco Hipólito is innocent but his testimony may have been confused as he is from a community where a local dialect is spoken and does not speak Spanish well. The mayor of Arcelia reportedly held a press conference on 8 September to express his support for Tepepexteco Hipólito and to call for his release. The journalist has in the past reportedly worked as a secretary for the Arcelia municipal government. >2$]

 

Main Cases (1)


MEXICO - Lydia Cacho

Lydia Cacho (born 1963, Mexico City, Mexico) is an award-winning author, journalist and women's rights activist. Following the publication of her first book in 2005, on child pornography in Mexico, she was illegally arrested, detained and ill treated before being subjected to a year-long criminal defamation lawsuit. She was cleared of all charges in 2007 but continues to be the target of harassment and threats due to her investigative journalism. Click here for more information

 

 

Past Cases

Killings (2004-2009) (26)

MEXICO - Roberto Javier MORA GARCÍA (AP)

Location of murder: Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, northern Mexico.

Mora (44) was stabbed to death near his home in the Mexico-US border town of Nuevo Laredo in the early hours of 19 March 2004. The motive for his killing is unclear. Mora had published articles about El Golfo (the Gulf) drug trafficking cartel, claiming that police and public officials were involved with the group. He also uncovered the work of "Los Zetas" (the Zeds), paramilitary criminal gangs linked to drugs traffickers, particularly El Golfo cartel.

[$3< It is understood that the police were initially looking at three possible motives for the killing. The first was Mora's journalistic work; the second that he had witnessed a robbery and was killed to stop him testifying; and the third that he had been the victim of mistaken identity.

On 22 March 2004, the then President, Vicente Fox Quesada, stated that he had instructed the federal authorities to work with local bodies to carry out an investigation into Mora's murder and to bring those responsible to justice. At the end of March 2004, Mario Medina, a US citizen, was arrested along with his male partner, Hiram Oliveros Ortiz, in connection with the crime. Medina claimed that the police had tortured him into confessing to the murder. He himself was later stabbed to death by his cellmate in prison on 13 May 2004. It has since been discovered that the weapon allegedly found by police at Medina's house was not the one used to kill Mora.

On 4 June 2008 various Mexican and international free expression organisations demanded a new investigation. According to the Mexican National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH), the Tamaulipas authorities had been negligent, allowing serious irregularities in the investigation, and evidence and declarations had been altered. The crime remains unpunished.>3$]

 

MEXICO - Francisco ORTIZ FRANCO (Zeta)Location of murder: Tijuana, Baja California state.

Ortiz was gunned down in front of his children in Tijuana on 22 June 2004. He had just left a clinic when he was shot three times by unidentifed men from a pick-up truck. Zeta has a reputation for its outspoken reporting on drug trafficking gangs in Tijuana, and it seems highly likely that he was murdered because of his work for the magazine.

[$4Zeta journalist to be shot since 1988. Zeta's co-founder Héctor Félix Miranda was killed in April 1988, while publisher Jesús Blancornelas survived several attempts on his life, including one in 1997 in which both his bodyguard and driver were killed. In the weeks before his death, Ortiz had working to bring to justice those believed responsible for ordering Miranda's killing.

On 17 August 2006, Arturo Villarreal, a member of the Tijuana drug cartel, was arrested as part of an anti-narcotics sweep by US security services. A Mexican prosecutor later identified Villarreal (known as "El Nalgón") and Jorge Briceño (known as "El Cholo") as the masterminds of Ortiz's shooting. The Tijuana cartel was said to have been upset by a report in which Ortiz identified 71 members of their members. The actual gunman, Jorge Eduardo Ronquillo Delgado, was killed by fellow cartel members on October 2004. As of October 2007, no one had been brought to trial for Ortiz' murder. >4$]

MEXICO - Francisco ARRATIA SALDIERNALocation of murder: Matamoros, Tamaulipas state.

Arratia (55) was abducted in Matamoros on 31 August 2004 and was found wrapped in a sheet outside the offices of the Red Cross later that day. He had been severely beaten and his body showed signs of torture. He was taken to the hospital but later died of his injuries.

[$5< In September 2004, Raúl Castelán Cruz was arrested in connection with the crime. Police claimed that Castelán, allegedly a member of "Los Zetas" (the Zeds), paramilitary criminal gangs linked to drugs traffickers, particularly El Golfo (the Gulf) cartel, admitted to murdering Arratia because he took exception to what the journalist wrote in his columns. Castelán also pointed to El Golfo head Jorge Eduardo Costilla as the person who ordered the murder. Police have not detained anyone else and the case is still open. >5$]

MEXICO - Raúl GIBB GUERRERO (La Opinion)Location of murder: Papantla, Veracruz state.

Gibb died in a hail of bullets while driving to his home in Papantla, Veracruz state, on 8 April 2005 following the launch of a new edition of La Opinión. His assailants were reportedly four unidentifed men who fled the scene in two cars. In the days leading up to the newspaper launch, Gibb reported having received several anonymous death threats. The police suspected that his killing stemmed from articles he wrote about El Golfo (the Gulf) drug cartel. On 5 July 2005, Martin Rojas, the leading suspect in Gibb's murder, was arrested in the United States on money-laundering charges, but there have been no formal charges and the crime remains unpunished.

 

Location of murder: Tierra Blanca, Veracruz state.

Barragán (73) was found dead in his home in Tierra Blanca on 31 October 2005. He had reportedly been beaten and stabbed. The motives behind his murder are unknown.

 

MEXICO - Enrique PEREA QUINTANILLALocation of murder: Chihuahua, Chihuahua state.

Perea was killed in Chihuahua on 8 August 2006 and his body discovered the next day ten miles south of the city. He appeared to have been tortured before being shot dead. Perea had written on corruption in the state government, for which he reported being harassed by local government officials. He had also recently published an interview with an unnamed head of a local drug gang. On 17 October 2006, TV Azteca reportedly received a video in which two visibly tortured men respond to questions and explain they were asked to kill Perea by drug traffickers.

 

MEXICO - Misael TAMAYO HERNÁNDEZLocation of murder: Zihuatenejo, Guerrero state.

Tamayo was found dead in a tourist motel in the Pacific coastal resort of Zihuatenejo on 10 November 2006. Tamayo reported on government corruption and drug trafficking, which his family suspects was the motive for his murder.

[$6On the day of his disappearance, Tamayo was writing an editorial about corruption within the Zihuatanejo water authority. Tamayo reportedly left his office at 9am on Thursday 9 November 2006 for a meeting with the manager of a bus company who was also a former local police commander. An hour and a half later he called to give instructions to a reporter regarding an article on water quality. That was his last contact. At 3am the following Friday, his family reported him missing to the police. A few hours later his body was found.

According to his family, Tamayo had received a threatening telephone call two months before his death. Three days before his murder, Despertar de la Costa had reported on the explosion of two grenades in an Ixtapa Zihuatanejo neighbourhood.

An autopsy suggested that Tamayo had died of a heart attack, a conclusion that was not accepted by many in the local community, particularly because Tamayo was known to have disputes with drug dealers about his paper's coverage. In addition, Tamayo's breakfast companion on the day of his death  a prominent local businessman - disappeared. According to one of Tamayo‘s relatives, family members suspected foul play but were keeping quiet for fear of reprisals. In December 2007, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH) expressed concern about serious omissions and irregularities in the Guerrero state authorities' investigation into Tamayo's death. It called for an internal investigation within the public ministry and the police.6$]

 

MEXICO - José Manuel NAVA SÁNCHEZLocation of murder: Mexico City.

Nava was found dead in his apartment in Mexico City on the morning of 16 November 2006. He had apparently been stabbed at least seven times in the neck and chest. It was reported that some of his belongings were missing, including his personal computer. The General Prosecutor of Mexico City was reportedly investigating the possible connection between Nava's death and his work as a journalist.

[$7< Ten days earlier, on 6 November 2006, Nava had launched his book entitled Excélsior, el asalto final (Excélsior: the Final Assault) (Libros para Todos Editorial, 2006), in which he referred to irregularities in the sale of the newspaper. Until it was sold to Grupo Imagen, which owns several Mexican radio stations.in late 2005, Excélsior had been run by its journalists and employees. Nava's book was said to be critical of government officials, Excélsior employees and members of the Mexican business community for their role in the demise of Excélsior as a cooperative. Nava's colleagues were reportedly not aware of any threats against him prior to his death. The crime remains unsolved. >7$]

 

Location of murder: Veracruz state.

García was found dead on 21 November 2006. He had reportedly been driving his motorcycle from Veracruz to Alvarado when he was run down by a car near La Motoza. One of the journalist's colleagues said that prior to his death, García had published a detailed article on the activities of a band of thieves operating in Veracruz. García had allegedly also received death threats on his mobile phone. Police reportedly arrested those responsible for the murder, but let them go because of lack of evidence. The crime remains unpunished.

 

MEXICO - Adolfo SANCHEZ GUZMAN (el boomeran)Location of murder: Veracruz state.

Sánchez (31) was found dead on 30 November 2006 after having been reported missing for two days. His body was found close to the road where his car had been discovered the previous day, between Ciudad Mendoza and Rio Blanco.

[$8< On 4 December 2006, brothers Julian Rosas Palestino and Juan Carlos Rosas Palestino were arrested as the prime suspects in the murder. Police alleged that their target had not been the journalist, but a man he had gone to meet, who was also killed, and who the alleged killers thought had stolen their truck. On 18 December 2007, Juan Carlos Rosas Palestino was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Julian Rosas Palestino was set free due to lack of evidence.

It is not clear whether Sánchez' death was related to his work as a journalist. Around the time of his death, he had reportedly been investigating the activities of a local gang of robbers and the theft of merchandise from trucks. >8$]

 

Location of murder: Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca State.

Marcial was killed by armed men at the newspaper' office in Juxtlahuaca on 8 December 2006. The lawyer he was talking to at the time of the attack was also injured. Marcial had worked for El Gráfico for around 10 years, during which time he was reportedly critical of the government of Oaxaca. The editor of El Gráfico alleged that the police were not handling the.investigation into Marcial's death properly because of his position as an indigenous leader.

 

MEXICO - Saul MARTINEZ ORTEGA (Dossier Politico)Location of murder: near the Chihuahua-Sonora state border.

Martinez (36) was reportedly abducted from outside the Public State Security headquarters in Agua Prieta by unidentified armed men on 16 April 2007. His body was found in a ravine near the Chihuahua-Sonora state border a week later. Martínez' murder was thought to have been connected to a recent investigation into the kidnapping and murder of one of his sources, a police informer and former policeman. His death was reportedly attributed to organised crime.

 

MEXICO - Gerardo Israel GARCIA PIMENTELLocation of murder: Uruapan, Michoacán state.

García Pimentel was shot dead while driving his motorcycle in Uruapan on 8 December 2007. Realising that he was being followed, García Pimentel pulled up at the hotel where he was living with his family, but on arrival in the car park he was shot approximately 20 times by unidentified men wearing hoods. The journalist had reported on agricultural issues for several years. The General Prosecutor's Office was in charge of the investigation of the case. On 5 March 2008, the Mexican Senate agreed to ask federal authorities to investigate García Pimentel's murder. As of late 2008, there was reportedly no progress in the investigation. Another La Opinión reporter, Mauricio Estrada Zamora [link] went missing on 14 February 2008.

Location of murder: Camargo, Tamaulipas state.

Ortiz was reportedly leaving the municipal offices in Camargo, near the US border, on 8 February 2008 when armed men opened fire. He ran but was chased by his assailants. His body was found with eight gunshot wounds. The reason for his death was unknown; the Tamaulipas Attorney General was investigating the case.

 

Location of murder: Chimalhuacan, Mexico state.

Cruz was shot dead along with his son Alfonso Cruz Cruz, the editor of El Real (see below), outside Chimalhuacan town hall on the morning of 7 February 2008. The shooting reportedly happened as the two were waiting for the town hall's legal advisor, with whom they had an appointment. Some reports suggest that the double murder was a case of mistaken identity; that the two men who shot the journalists were instead intending to kill the legal advisor, who had recently received death threats in relation to a land dispute. The case was being investigated by the Mexico state prosecutor.

 

Location of murder: Chimalhuacan, Mexico state.

See entry above for Bonifacio CRUZ SANTIAGO

Location of murder: Ciudad Juárez, Chihuhua state.

Pérez (32) was shot dead by men armed with AK-47 assault rifles in Ciudad Juárez, while driving to visit relatives on 23 June 2008. According to investigators, around 15 bullets were fired. The motive for his murder was not known, although according to Pérez' father, the publisher of Sucesos, his son had had an argument in a bar not long before the shooting and another car had followed him when he left the bar.

 

MEXICO - Miguel Angel Gutierrez Avila (jornada)Location of murder: San Marcos municipality, Guerrero state.

Gutierrez's body was found covered in bruises and cuts by the side of the Acapulco-Pinotepa highway near La Caridad community in the municipality of San Marcos on the morning of 26 July 2008. He had been driving towards the capital of Guerrero, Chilpancingo de los Bravo. Although initial police reports seem to have suggested that Gutiérrez (53) died as the result of a car accident, it is now thought that he was beaten to death. He had been working on a documentary on indigenous cultures and traditions but had reportedly also been documenting human rights violations by the authorities.

[$9< According to his family, the vehicle in which Gutiérrez was travelling was untouched and only his filming equipment had been stolen. A few days before his death, between 23 and 25 July, Gutiérrez had visited the Suljaa' and Cozoyoapan communities in Costa Chica, Guerrero, for a documentary film he was making on indigenous cultures and traditions, entitled ‘La Danza del Tigre' (The Dance of the Tiger). During his visit, Gutiérrez had also documented alleged human rights violations by the authorities against the staff of the community radio station Radio Ñomndaa/ La Palabra del Agua (The Word of the Water), including an interview with Ñomndaa founder David Valtierra Arnago, which Gutiérrez reportedly intended to include in his documentary.

According to local press reports, one lead pointed to the involvement of Aceadeth Rocha Ramírez, mayor of Xochistlahuaca municipality in Costa Chica. Rocha is allegedly one of a number of local political leaders opposed to indigenous movements and Radio Ñomndaa.

Another lead suggested that Gutiérrez may have angered the authorities by filming members of the Federal Investigations Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) as they raided the radio station. Gutiérrez had carried out research on the indigenous people of southern Guerrero for more than 20 years, particularly in Costa Chica. He had been involved in various cultural projects there, including Radio Ñomndaa and the establishment of the first Amuzgo community library.

His publications include: La tradición oral afromestiza en México (1985), Nabor Ojeda Caballero, el batallador del sur (1991), La conjura de los negros - cuentos de la tradición oral afromestiza de la costa chica de Guerreo y Oaxaca (1993), Danzas y música de origen africano en la Costa Chica de Guerrero (1993), Déspotas y caciques - una antropología política de los amuzgos de Guerrero (2001) and La historia del estado de Guerrero a través de su cultura - una perspectiva antropológica (2008). >9$]

 

Location of murder: Guerrero state.

Villagomez (29) was kidnapped after leaving his newspaper's office in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán state, after 10pm on 9 October 2008. He was found in a rubbish tip near La Unión, just inside in the neighbouring state of Guerrero, during a routine police patrol in the early hours of 10 October. The editor had been repeatedly shot in the back and neck at around midnight the previous night.

Villagómez had reportedly received a threatening phone call from a member of "Los Zetas" (the Zeds), paramilitary criminal gangs linked to drugs traffickers, particularly El Golfo (the Gulf) cartel, about a month before his murder, and had warned his family to be alert. Noticias de Michoacán often reports on organised crime, corruption and drug trafficking.

On 13 November 2008, it was reported that the authorities were working on the assumption that an organised crime group was responsible for the murder. The Guerrero state attorney general's office was in charge of the investigation but had not reported any progress.

MEXICO - José Armando Rodríguez Carreón (www.elagoradechihuahua.com)Location of murder: Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state.

Rodríguez (40) was shot at least eight times by an unidentified person as he was about to drive his daughter to school on the morning of 13 November 2008. He died at the scene. His daughter, who was also in the car at the time, was uninjured. An investigation was begun, with Rodríguez' journalism as a possible motive.

The journalist, who had more than 10 years of experience of reporting on crime, in particular murders, had been the target of several death threats in the year prior to his death. For example, he received a telephone call where the caller told him "you are going to die if you keep on talking" (te vas a morir si sigues hablando) in January 2008 and a text message telling him to "tone it down" in February 2008. At that time he was reportedly covering drug-related violence and organized crime in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua state.

Following these threats, Rodríguez temporarily left Mexico for the United States. However, he refused to stop covering crime stories. According to local press reports, the journalist had received further death threats in recent months and had been offered security measures by the state authorities but he had considered them unnecessary.

In the weeks following Rodríguez' murder, death threats were received by other journalists for El Diario and other media in Ciiudad Juárez and Chihuahua state. On 6 November 2008, a decapitated head had reportedly been left at Journalists' Square in Ciudad Juárez. Rodríguez' wife, also a journalist, reportedly feared for her safety and that of her children. The state prosecutor and the federal Special Prosecutor on Crimes against Journalists (Fiscalía Especial de Delitos Cometidos contra Periodistas, FEADP) are in charge of the investigation into Rodríguez' murder.

Location of murder: Santa María El Oro, Durango State.

Ortega (52) was driving home when he was intercepted by four unidentified men who pulled him from his car and, after a heated argument, shot him three times in the head. He died at the scene. The previous day, 2 May, Ortega had written an article alleging that town mayor Martín Silvestre Herrera and local official Juan Manuel Calderón Guzmán had threatened him in connection with a 28 April article criticising hygiene conditions in a local abattoir. Ortega also indicated that he was investigating allegations of corruption by local policeman Salvador Flores Triana, and that these three men should be held responsible if anything happened to him. This article was awaiting publication at the time of Ortega's death. The editor of El Tiempo de Durango reportedly believes that Ortega was killed in retaliation for his reporting local government corruption.

Ortega previously came under attack in early 2009, when his house was shot at and his car set on fire. He reported the incident to the authorities but no action was taken. He had reportedly had previous clashes with the local authorities. In July 2005, following a formal complaint by Ortega, the State Commission of Human Rights for Durango investigated high ranking members of the local public security forces and concluded that some elements had violated the journalist's human rights. The state attorney's office is in charge of the investigation. As of 26 May, authorities were reportedly still investigating the murder and had not made any details public. 

 

 

MEXICO - Eliseo Barrón Hernández (Reuters)Location of murder: Gómez Palacio, Durango state.

Barrón (35) was abducted on the 25 May, that night around eight hooded and armed men reportedly entered Barrón's house in Gómez Palacio, beat him in front of his wife and two children, and forced him into a vehicle parked outside. His body was found the next morning in a ditch in the municipality of Tlahualiko, Durango, next to Coahuila state. He had a gunshot wound to his head and according to some reports his body also bore signs of torture. Barrón had covered police and crime for La Opinión, based in Torreón in the neighbouring state of Coahuila, for the last 10 years. It is understood that he had recently reported on a corruption scandal in the Torreón police as a result of which 302 police officers were fired and at least 20 others were investigated.

The journalist's family filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR). The investigation was reportedly taken over by federal authorities for reasons that were unclear. On 28 May it was reported that the PGR had offered an award of five million pesos (approx. US$380,000) for information leading to the arrest of Barrón's killers. On 6 June, five men presumed to be members of the Zetas, a paramilitary group involved in drug trafficking and extortion, were reportedly arrested in connection with Barrón's murder. One of them, Israel Sánchez Jaimes, has allegedly confessed to firing the shot that killed Barrón on the orders of Zetas leader Lucio Fernández, who was reportedly angered by the media's coverage of his activities.

 Location of murder: Zitacuaro, Michoacán state.

Miranda Avilés was found dead with two knife wounds in his back at his home in Zitacuaro. The motive for the killing is not clear. Miranda Avilés only covered crime very occasionally. His colleagues reportedly stated that he had recently received threats, but also thought it likely that the killing was a 'crime of passion'. However, according to the management of Panorama, the murder could have been intended as a reprisal against the newspaper. Two weeks earlier, some news vendors were reportedly attacked while selling an edition of Panorama that contained a report on the arrest of a police officer in possession of weapons and drugs.

Location of murder: Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state.

Montañez was shot dead while driving his car in Ciudad Juárez, in the north of the country. His 17-year-old son, who was him at the time, was badly wounded and was taken to hospital. The car bore a sticker saying "Press 2007" as well as his newspaper's name. However, there were reportedly 325 such killings in Chihuahua state in June alone.

Location of murder: Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua State, northern Mexico.

Miranda (44) was shot dead at Radio Visión's offices in Nuevo Casas Grandes. According to reports, a number of men with their faces covered forced their way into the premises late that night and shot Miranda repeatedly, including in the back of the neck, after he identified himself. The journalist reportedly died at the scene. His brother, who also works for the station, was present at the time but was not injured.

Miranda, who had 15 years' experience as a journalist, was known for his column ‘Cotorreando con El Gallito' (Chatting with the Little Rooster, or the Tough Guy), which often covered social issues including criminal groups and the lack of public safety. His last column, published the day before he was killed, mentioned the murders of 25 people in Nuevo Casas Grandes since the beginning of September, attributed to the Juárez drug trafficking cartel. Miranda's 5 September piece referred to the capture in Nuevo Casas Grades of some members of ‘La Linea' (The Line), the armed wing of the Juárez cartel, including Rodolfo Escajada, who is on the US Drug Enforcement Administration list. Following this article Miranda was reportedly subject to harassment. The authorities are said to be reviewing Miranda's recent articles (see http://www.radiovisioncasasgrandes.com/CotorrandoConElGallito.htm) in search of a possible motive for the killing.

Location of murder: Durango, Durango state

 Atuna (39) was found dead in front of a hospital in Durango after being abducted while on his way to work earlier that day. He was found to have died of "asphyxia from strangulation", but according to some reports his body also bore bullet wounds to the head and abdomen. A note was found next to his body which reportedly stated: "This happened to me for giving information to soldiers and for writing too much." In the week before his death, Antuna had reportedly broken a story about police corruption in Durango and had also been investigating the unsolved murder of another El Tiempo de Durango journalist, Carlos Ortega Samper, who was similarly abducted and killed in May 2009.

Antuna had been receiving repeated death threats since late 2008 and was the target of an apparent assassination attempt on 28 April 2009. Despite reporting the latter to the Durango State Public Prosecutor's Office (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Durango), Antuna was not provided with any protection and continued to receive threats. On 26 May - the same day that another Durango-based journalist, Eliseo Barrón Hernández, was found dead after having been kidnapped from his home - an anonymous call was reportedly made to the El Tiempo offices saying that Antuna would be next. Antuna had reportedly exchanged information about police corruption and organised crime with Barrón on several occasions. He had previously received numerous threats on his mobile phone and on his work telephone warning him not to publish "delicate" information. The caller sometimes identified himself as a member of Los Zetas, a paramilitary group reportedly linked to the Gulf drug cartel. One of the calls was apparently made from inside the Gómez Palacio penitentiary in Durango.

 

Disappearances (2004-2009) (5)

MEXICO - Alfredo JIMENEZ MOTA (vanguardia.com.mx)Location of disappearance: Hermosillo, Sonora state.

Jiménez (26) has not been seen since 2 April 2005. That evening he was due to meet a source whom he had earlier described to a colleague as "very nervous". The journalist had recently published articles on local drug traffickers. He had also broken major stories about the alleged links between drug traffickers, police, prosecutors and state officials in Hermosillo, which had reportedly made him a number of enemies. In the days before his disappearance, Jiménez Mota, a former boxer, reportedly appeared upset and said that he thought he was being followed.

On the evening of 2 April 2005, he went to a local restaurant to meet a source, reportedly the deputy director of the local prison, Andres Montoya Garcia. Montoya says that he drove Jimenez to at a local convenience store, dropping him off around 10.30pm. According to El Imparcial, Jimenez' mobile phone records showed three phone calls: one to Montoya, another to local deputy prosecutor Raul Fernando Galvan Rojas, and a third person that the newspaper could not trace. Montoya and Galvan were later cleared by federal authorities. Both resigned shortly after Jimenez' disappearance and have disappeared from the public eye. On 25 April 2005, the Sub Procurator's Office Investigation Unit Specialising in Organised Crime (Subprocuraduria de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada, SIEDO) opened an investigation into the disappearance.

A year later, in April 2006, it was reported that the SIEDO's two lines of investigation involved Jiménez' coverage of the families running the drug trade in Sonora, and possible unlawful activities by government officials. Jiménez was now presumed to have been killed.

In January 2007, it was reported that a municipal police officer of Novojoa, Sonora state, had given statements to the National Commission for Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) and the Attorney General (Procuraduria General de la República, PGR) implicating local authorities in Jiménez' disappearance. The officer named a former Navojoa Police Chief, two criminal investigation police officers, two local prosecutors and a brother of the governor of Sonora. He then reportedly went into hiding after receiving repeated threats. In April 2007, it was reported that none of the named suspects had been questioned about the case.

On 1 April 2008, on the third anniversary of Jiménez' disappearance, the PGR issued a report on the measures that had been taken to investigate the case to date. All had proved inconclusive. The PGR pledged to continue the investigation until the facts have been established. Free expression organisations noted that no advance had been reported regarding the implication of local authorities, despite the leads mentioned above. In June 2008, Sonora governor Eduardo Bours made public a letter that sought to link his government to the Jimenez case. Allegedly written by one of Jimenez' abductors, the letter details the reporter's supposed kidnapping, torture and murder, and implicates several local officials as well as the governor's brother. Bours denied any involvement and called for a new investigation.

 

MEXICO - Jose Antonio GARCIA APAC (cpj)Location of disapperance: Michoacán state.

García was on his way from Tepalcatepec to Morelia on the evening of 20 November 2006, when he was reportedly intercepted by three people in a pick-up truck, who took him with them. His car was not found. According to his family, García had reported being followed earlier that year. He was covering cases related to drug trafficking in Michoacán at the time. He was also widely known to have compiled a list of allegedly corrupt officials before he disappeared.

On 20 November 2007, Garcia's wife, Rosa Isela Caballero, reported that she had sent a letter to the General Prosecutor's Office in July 2007 enquiring about the results of the investigation into her husband's disappearance, but had not yet received a clear response. According to Caballero, three representatives of the prosecutor's office had been called to the investigation, and the federal justice ministry had also intervened, but without any results. As of December 2008, no substantial progress in the investigation had been reported. Caballero continues to publish Ecos de la Cuenca in memory of her husband.

 

MEXICO - Rodolfo RINCON TARACENALocation of disapperance: Villahermosa, Tabasco state.

Rincón (54) was last seen leaving his newspaper's office in Villahermosa, south-eastern Mexico, on the night of 20 January 2007. He had reportedly told his colleagues that he would return shortly. It seems highly likely that his disappearance is linked to his reporting on organised crime. The journalist had reportedly just completed an article on a criminal gang preying on cash-machine customers in Villahermosa which specified the locations of the criminals' safe houses. The previous day, Tabasco Hoy had run a major story on illicit ‘drugstores' (narcotiendas) run by traffickers, which named several suspects and showed the location of the stores.

Rincón had reportedly received regular threats since 2006. One made about a month before his disappearance had particularly alarmed him. The Rincón's family reported the case to the Office of the General Prosecutor of the state of Tabasco (Procuraduría General de la Justicia del Estado de Tabasco, PGJE) on 23 January 2007. However, as of December 2008 the authorities had still not reported any substantial progress in the investigation.

Tabasco Hoy has continued to face harassment. In May 2007, the severed head of a local councillor was left outside the newspaper's offices in Villahermosa. The paper has also received threats from "Los Zetas" (the Zeds), paramilitary criminal gangs linked to drugs traffickers, particularly El Golfo (the Gulf) cartel. Rincón's long term girlfriend, also a journalist, has reportedly stated that she believes that that corrupt officials as well as drug traffickers are behind his disappearance.

 

Location of disappearance: Michoacán state.

Estrada was reported missing on 14 February 2008. On that day, La Opinión de Michoacán stated that the reporter had last been seen on 12 February, when he left the newspaper's premises for home, and that he had not answered calls to his mobile phone. According to the newspaper, on the morning of 13 February the journalist's vehicle was found by a local public safety official, parked with its doors open and the engine running. Estrada's laptop and camera, along with the car's stereo, were missing. The newspaper requested the intervention of the Michoacán state Attorney General's Office, which reportedly sent its anti-kidnapping team to the region in order to search for the reporter.

La Opinión de Michoacán believed that Estrada's disappearance may have been linked to a problem he had in January 2008 with a Federal Investigations Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) agent in the area nicknamed ‘El Diablo' (the Devil). The investigation was being conducted by the local office of the federal attorney general that stated that it could not identify an AFI agent known as the Devil, or make any connection between Estrada's disappearance and a federal agent. They dismissed any links to a criminal group.

As of July 2008, the Michoacán state prosecutor had reportedly not provided any information or update on the investigation. The case was still being treated as a disappearance. As of December 2008, Estrada's whereabouts were still unknown and there had reportedly been no progress in the investigation. The same month it was reported that the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists was of the opinion that Estrada's disappearance has only tenuous links to his work as a journalist. Another journalist for La Opinión de Michoacán, Gerardo Israel García Pimentel, was murdered in December 2007 (see above).

MEXICO - María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe (CPJ)Location of disappearance: Zamora,Michoacán state. 

 Aguilar was last seen leaving her home in Zamora, on 11 November 2009. It is feared that Aguilar's disappearance may be related to a series of articles she wrote recently on local corruption and organised crime for the newspaper El Cambio de Michoacán.

Aguilar, a reporter with 10 years of experience who has worked with several regional outlets, had recently broken a series of stories on local corruption and organized crime for El Cambio de Michoacán. According to reports, on October 22, she reported on a military operation near Zamora where at least three individuals, including the son of a local politician, were arrested on suspicion of participating with organized crime groups. On October 27, she published a story on local police abuse, after which a high-ranking official was forced to resign. Three days later, she reported on the arrest of an alleged boss of the Michoacán-based drug cartel La Familia Michoacana. According to a colleague at the daily, Aguilar did not use her byline on any of the stories for fear of reprisal.

Aguilar had not received any threats, however, her colleagues believe her disappearance could be linked to her reporting. Family members have not made any public comments.

 

Emblematic Cases (2)


MEXICO - Lydia CachoLydia Cacho (born 1963, Mexico City, Mexico) is an award-winning author, journalist and women's rights activist. Following the publication of her first book in 2005, on child pornography in Mexico, she was illegally arrested, detained and ill treated before being subjected to a year-long criminal defamation lawsuit. She was cleared of all charges in 2007 but continues to be the target of harassment and threats due to her investigative journalism. Click here for more information.

 


MEXICO - General Gallardo (private)Brigadier General José Gallardo Rodríguez (born Atotonilco, Jalisco state, Mexico) is an army officer who was arrested in 1993 shortly after the publication of an excerpt from his Master's thesis, which called for an independent civilian ombudsman to investigate human rights abuses committed by the army. He was finally released in 2002, after more than eight years in prison. Click here for more information.

 

 

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