26 Executed In Veracruz in 3 Days, Including a Mayor and his Wife

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Proceso

Nov 28, 2017
Xalapa, Veracruz

 Adjustments of accounts between criminal gangs continue to escalate the wave of violence in the Mexican State of Veracruz, where until Sunday morning, 21 people have been murdered in the state. Now, 26 people have been murdered in 3 days, 23 of them in 48 hours.

Saturday night, four dismembered bodies were left outside a learning center in Colonia Libertad  in Poza Rica, in the north of the state.   Among the 30 pieces of human bodies were left several narco mantas/ messages that warned that the victims were extortionists and thieves. In the place there were also brooms that allude to the "cleaning" of the territory by a criminal group. 

See Otis's Post from Monday Nov 27:http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2017/11/4-dismembered-in-poza-rica-sicarios.html#more

In Cordoba, in the downtown area several shootings occurred in the urban area, in addition to a civilian, who was wounded and two alleged assassins lost their lives at the hands of a different criminal group. The bodies were left inert inside a Bora vehicle of recent model. 

On Friday afternoon, six bodies appeared floating on the Papaloapan River, in the basin of the same name. The corpses, some of them half naked and with evident traces of beatings and torture, were male. Four of the bodies later appeared in the municipality of Amatitlán.

In Martinez de la Torre, on Saturday in Colonia El Roble, a male was found dead with a shot in the head and found with his arms outstretched. The corpse was found with pants down, a recurring badge in organized crime hitmen.

In Pánuco, on the state highway Alazan-Canoas, a woman was found dead; the unidentified woman  had several bullet impacts on her body and was wrapped in a black bag.

Friday night in Banderilla, in a confrontation themayor of Ixhuatlan de Madero, Victor Manuel Espinoza Tolentino, his wife and three others were killed on a dirt road located on the outskirts of the municipality conurbated with Xalapa.

Mayor Victor Manuel Espinoza Tolentino

According to the governor of Veracruz (PAN-PRD) : Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares " the mayor was surprised in an assault when he intended to acquire a lot of laminated construction sheets".

The supplies would have been purchased from a gang of criminals, the Veracruz government said, which was dedicated to selling products and had enjoyed official support from the previous government of PRI member Javier Duarte. In WhatsApp group of reporters called this alleged criminal group as "The gang sells laminate sheets." (this material is very common roofing material for homes and outbuildings as well as other uses in Mx). 

In fact, an official statement was sent asking local elected officials and acting mayors to refrain from acquiring social support materials on the black market.

Unofficially, elements of the Ministry of Public Security (SSP) leaked to the press that the elected municipal officials and their companions were mistaken for state police and as alleged criminals and  were shot at point-blank range "by error". Some local digital media reproduced this version of the story.

Mayor Victor Espinoza Tolentino Speaking to a Local Crowd

In the last 24 hours, the General Coordination of Social Communication has organized protests  to disseminate three communiques that mention that the mayor of Ixhuatlán de Madero and his companions were victims of an assault. As a matter of fact, the community has been paralyzed by protests and the funeral of the Mayor and his wife.

The mayor of Ixhuatlán de Madero, a municipality located to the north of the state, was accompanied by his wife, Hilda Patricia Carrera Tinoco, aboard a pick-up truck and were found only a few meters away from the bodies of three other dumped bodies. She was president of the Municipality's DIF and also employee of the State of Veracruz.

The security authorities implemented an operation in the colonies in the area in search of the aggressors who possibly fled.

At the beginning of this week, a group of alleged self-defense groups killed the mayor-elect of Hidalgotitlán, Santana Cruz Bahena, a municipality located in the south of the state, as well as two others, and left 11 bags with human remains on Sunday in a busy Town of Xalapa.

In the first five months of the current PAN government, about 625 investigation were opened for intentional homicide in the state.  During his campaign, Governor Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares said that security was one of his priorities and he was going to accomplish security within six months.

As governor, in various press security events , Yunes Lunares has said that the actions he has taken only in the state capital and the urban areas of municipalities , such as Emiliano Zapata, in Banderilla, in San Andrés Tlalnelhuayocan, have led to a more than double the number of elements of the different security forces. The number of patrols has been reinforced so that there is a greater presence at strategic points which are visible, where every weekend  appear tortured or dismembered bodies.

In Veracruz, in 11 months of this governorship  there have been 2,220 homicides.  In statements by Yunes Lunares claims that 70 %of them are organized crime killers and there "workers". There have been 163 kidnappings, according to official statistics from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).

The Ministry of the Interior (Segob) also accounts for 19, 343 robberies; of these, there are 2, 492  violent vehicle robberies and 234 armed home invasion robberies with house-room, this is , of course, not counting those victims who choose not to report threats or distrust in the authorities.