Tagged: Veracruz

March 25th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Mexican journalist killed after threats from local mayor

Mexican journalist killed after threats from local mayor

(BREITBART) — by Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

Press freedom groups denounced the murder of a Mexican journalist who was gunned down after receiving threats and bribe offers to stop reporting on a local politician in the state of Veracruz.

Unknown gunmen shot and killed Leobardo Vasquez Atzin in the town of Gutierrez Zamora, Veracruz. The murder comes just days after Vasquez stated on his Facebook page, Enlace Informativo Regional, that he received threats after reporting on public corruption in the town of Tecolutla. The town’s mayor is allegedly involved in an illicit property grab. Vasquez worked for various local newspapers before starting Enlace Informativo Regional.

“The murder of Leobardo Vázquez Atzin is the latest in a string of murders in Veracruz state, the most dangerous area for journalists in the western hemisphere,” Jan-Albert Hootsen the Mexico representative for the press freedom organization Committee to Protect Journalists said in a prepared statement denouncing the murder.

Vasquez’ murder is the third of its kind in Mexico since the start of 2018. This follows a bloody 2017 where more than a dozen journalists were murdered with complete impunity. The ongoing attacks on reporters and the press led the International Press Institute to label Mexico as the deadliest country for journalists. The number of murders of journalists surpassed Iraq and Syria, Breitbart Texas reported at the time.

Last year, three of the murders took place in Veracruz, considered to be one of the deadliest states for journalists.

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March 3rd, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Mexico police charged with using death squad tactics on drug suspects

Mexico police charged with using death squad tactics on drug suspects

(THE GUARDIAN) — Police in Mexico’s corruption-plagued state of Veracruz set up units that used death squad-style tactics to abduct, kill and dispose of at least 15 people who they suspected of being drug cartel informers and drug runners, according to charges filed by state prosecutors.

The allegations filed against the former top police commanders in Veracruz show all the signs of the human rights abuses of Mexico’s notorious anti-guerrilla counterinsurgency campaigns of the 1960s and

Police in marked patrol cars picked up youths but never recorded their arrests. Instead they turned them over to specialized interrogation and torture squads working at the police academy itself, according to the indictment, and they were later killed and their bodies disposed of.

While individual groups of corrupt cops have been known to turn youths over to drug cartels in several areas of Mexico, the Veracruz state case is notable for the rank of those accused: the former head of state security and the leaders of at least two police divisions have been charged, suggesting that the disappearances were state policy under the former governor Javier Duarte, who is in jail facing corruption charges.

“This is the first time they have charged people in significant numbers and of significant rank and demonstrated that there was an organized, structured governmental apparatus that had an agreed-on, systemic method to carry out a policy of disappearing people,” said Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, a lawyer who specializes in human rights cases.

“The groundbreaking thing is that prosecutors built a case by demonstrating there was a whole governmental structure that was designed to disappear people,” he said.

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December 21st, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Mexican journalist executed while watching son’s Christmas pageant

Mexican journalist executed while watching son’s Christmas pageant

(BREITBART) — by Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

A group of unknown gunmen stormed a Mexican elementary school’s Christmas pageant and executed a veteran journalist watching his son’s performance.

The murder took place at the Aguirre Cinta elementary school in the southern city of Acayucan, Veracruz, Revista Proceso reported. Longtime journalist Gumaro Perez Aguilando had gone to the school to see his son’s Christmas pageant when a team of gunmen walked up to him and opened fire in front of other parents and students.

Perez Aguilando covered the crime beat at various local news outlets and was a key editor of La Voz Del Sur. He was physically assaulted in 2012 for gathering information at a courthouse, Proceso reported.

Aguilando’s murder is the to 83rd strike the Mexican press, where more than 12 have been murdered in 2017 alone. The International Press Institute has labeled Mexico as the most dangerous place for journalists worldwide edging out Iraq and Syria.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, the murder of journalists in Mexico carries no real consequences. While human rights activists and journalists have previously called out the Mexican government for its inaction in addressing crimes against reporters and for the lacking security conditions, the usual promises made by the Mexican federal government appear to not have been kept. In many cases, violent drug cartels, or at times, corrupt public officials are the suspects behind most of the attacks.

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August 23rd, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Cartel gunmen kill 10th Mexican journalist in 6 months

Cartel gunmen kill 10th Mexican journalist in 6 months

(BREITBART) — by Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

Authorities confirmed the murder of yet another Mexican journalist, marking 10 unsolved cases by suspected cartel gunmen in six months.

This week, yet unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mexican journalist Candido Rios Vasquez, a veteran crime beat reporter for the local newspaper Diario de Acayucan in the town of Covarrubias, Veracruz, Mexico’s Proceso reported. The murdered journalist was an outspoken critic of the Mexican government, its corruption, and repressive tactics.

At the time of the murder, Rios Vasquez was standing outside a local convenience store with former local police commander Victor Alegria and another man who has not been identified. A group of gunmen drove by the shop and opened fire, killing the unknown man and former cop. Rios Vasquez was seriously injured and died en route to a local hospital.

Despite the many assurances made by governments at the federal and state level, 2017 is one of the deadliest years for Mexico. The murders reached some of the once untouched tourist destinations and silenced Mexican journalists. In a span of five months, cartel gunmen murdered nine other journalists, Breitbart Texas reported.

Human rights activists and journalists previously called out the Mexican government for their inaction in addressing the impunity with which reporters are murdered, Breitbart Texas noted. Mexican authorities have not solved any of the 10 cases and are largely ineffective in addressing the multiple threats and attempts by cartel members.

Late last month, gunmen shot and killed veteran reporter Luciano Rivera at a bar in the resort town of Rosarito, Baja California. Rivera was a journalist with the local news outlet CNR TV.

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June 5th, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Drug cartel delivers Texas truck full of bodies in Mexican border state

Drug cartel delivers Texas truck full of bodies in Mexican border state

(BREITBART) — MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — A faction of Los Zetas drug cartel used the bodies of their victims to deliver a message to authorities and their rivals in a suburb of this metropolitan area. Cartel members wrapped the bodies in black trash bags and left them in the bed of a pickup truck with Texas license places.

The case began when Mexican authorities responded to a highway interception in the suburb of Escobedo in regards to an abandoned SUV, information provided to Breitbart Texas by Nuevo Leon authorities revealed. When authorities arrived they discovered four bodies wrapped in plastic bags and a poster board with a cartel message signed by the Los Zetas faction known as Cartel Del Noreste (CDN).

As Breitbart Texas reported, rival factions of Los Zetas cartel have been fighting over lucrative drug distribution and trafficking areas. The fighting has led to a spike in violence where kidnappings, shootouts, and gory executions have become commonplace in the disputed areas. The fighting between the CDN and their rival the Los Zetas Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) has taken place in multiple cities in Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Veracruz and Nuevo Leon.

Preliminary information points to the CDN having used a white Nissan Titan with Texas license plates to move the bodies. The SUV has not been reported stolen in Mexico. In the bed of the pickup, the gunmen left the four bodies and used an ice pick to stab the message into one of the bodies.

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March 11th, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on At least 242 bodies found in hidden graves in Mexico

At least 242 bodies found in hidden graves in Mexico

(NEWSMAX) — Mexican authorities have found at least 242 bodies in hidden graves in the eastern state of Veracruz that were discovered by mothers searching for their missing children, officials said Friday.

The bodies were found over a six-month period, with the first discovered in August near the city of Veracruz by the volunteer collective known as El Solecito, formed by relatives of those who have disappeared.

The collective turns over the digging of the graves to forensic experts.

A total of 124 graves have been located and after combing through nearly all of them, 242 skulls were found, a senior official of the prosecutor’s office told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

Another person close to the investigation, who also asked not to be identified, said the graves contained “a lot of young women’s clothes, credentials, shoes and garments that look like they belong to inner-city kids.”

Veracruz, one of the most violent states in Mexico, is the scene of bloody disputes between the Los Zetas and Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartels.

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