Who are they the dead of Narvarte? Proceso photo journalist and four women killed in Mexico City

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from Zetatijuana articles

[ Subject Matter: Death of Ruben Espinoza and four women
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Yesenia Quiroz

Reporter:Adriana Anguiano and Jesus Badillo
The scene of the crime was an apartment block in the Narvarte Colonia of Mexico City. Five bodies with a coup de grace shot to the head, and signs of torture were left in the bedroom and bathroom of the apartment in Mexico City.

The bodies correspond to a beautician, an activist and cultural promoter, a domestic employee, a Colombian woman and the photo journalist from Proceso, all were between 18 and 40 years old.

They were friends living together, but ended in the killing of the four women and one man in this apartment in the Benito Juarez delegation. What follows is the info known on them before the crime.




Ruben Espinoza

Ruben was 31 years old and was originally from the Federal District, he lived for 8 years in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Organizations and colleagues of the photo journalist said that he had returned two months before to Mexico City to take refuge from the constant threats, however the Capital Prosecutor informed that, according to family, he returned to seek work.



His colleagues saw that he was frightened. One of them confessed that Ruben was going to live in Mexico City before he was given a beating, in an interview with Formula Group, with Joaquin Lopez-Doriga, Rafael Castaneda, director of Proceso, were revising the work of the photo journalist.

In the agency Cuartoscuro, they also noted his anguish and worry, according to Pedro Valtierra, director of the agency.

The journalist was fleeing harassment, he was being watched closely. He was beaten and later detained. He was forced to hand over the film in his camera, explained Joaquin Lopez Doriga in an radio interview.

"On the 9th of June he went into exile early, because of persecution from rogue Police officers, who took pictures of him, whenever he was at work or close to his house. This lifted him to a new level of paranoia that made him leave, said his colleague Aurelio Contreras.

He explained that Ruben was one of the principal nominators to locate a plaque in Zocalo de Xalapa and to rename the plaza in the name of the Journalist Regina Martinez who was assassinated in Veracruz.

Nadia Vera

She was a Cultural promoter and originally from Comitan, Chiapas, according to the local prosecutor, who omitted to say that she was also an activist and fought for justice for assassinated journalists.

The youngster of 32 years participated in the movement HashtagYoSoy132, in Veracruz and protested  for the aggression of students on the 5th of June en Xalapa.

"She was very smiley, full of life, intelligent, engaged to be married, she had integrity, very pretty, and always with a smile on her face for everyone", this was how she was described by her friend and journalist Aurelio Contreras.

Nadia studied Anthropology at the University of Veracruz and according to Contreras, after finishing her degree she went to Mexico City to seek work.

"She came here to Xalapa but didn't speak of what she would do. There is a very strong economic crises", however, the Front for Liberty, Expression and Social Protest affirmed that the youngster abandoned the movement one year ago because of "threats of reprisals against her", because of her activities.

On Saturday, the day before the crime, Nadia was going to travel to Cuernavaca, Morelos, "to seek work and she already had an offer", said the journalist.

Aurelio Contreras and Nadia met after a march for justice for Regina Martinez, a journalist assassinated in April of 2012.

Yesenia Quiroz

When she was exactly 16 years old she left her home in Mexicali, Baja California, and went to live in Mexico City. Little did she imagine that two years later her life would end in a multi homicide in the apartment that she shared with the activist and art promoter, Nadia Vera, and a Colombian woman, whom were both killed this past Friday in the incident.

Yesenia was an independent and hard working woman, who enjoyed life without falling into its excesses, said a close friend of her family, who asked not to be identified for security purposes.

The youngster of 18 years, didn't have a good relationship with her mother, who occasionally she sent money, but never more than 500 pesos he commented. The relationship with her mother became painful. She came to Mexico City to identify the body of her daughter.

The Colombian

Friends of the family of Yesenia said that the Colombian woman killed along with the others was called "Simone", however authorities have not revealed the identity of the 29 year old woman.

The domestic employee

The Capital prosecutor informed that the women killed and left in the bath, was employed at the apartment as a domestic employee, provided by the State of Mexico, she had been separated from her husband.

Original article in Spanish at Milenio