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| Duarte, don't discredit his work |
The Gregorio Jiménez Case
By: Juan Diego Quesada
Mexican
journalist Gregorio Jiménez, 46, was found dead on Tuesday in a clandestine
grave. The freelance journalist who
wrote about events in two newspapers in Coatzacoalcos, in the south of
Veracruz, was kidnapped six days ago at his house, with his family as
witnesses. The army and navy searched
the area for several days until they arrived at a place where the bodies were
buried.
The murder
reveals the failure to protect journalists in Mexico. The reporter’s disappearance had sparked
outrage across social networks of his peers, who are fed up with counting
victims. More than 70 Mexican journalists have been killed in the past 12 years, according to the
organization in defense of freedom of expression Article 19. Jiménez’s colleagues, reporters from local
newspapers, and television stations, had emerged in recent days to demand to the
authorities to do their utmost to find the reporter alive.
Police have
arrested four people, including a neighbor who was allegedly the mastermind of
the crime. As investigators have stated,
early in the morning they found the house where the suspects initially hid Jiménez. They detained the kidnappers who then later
led them to the grave where Jiménez was along with two other bodies.
Throughout
Tuesday, several contradictory versions were known about the whereabouts of the
journalist. Eduardo López Macias, a
local representative, went on to say to the Congress that Jiménez had been
found alive. They asked the politician
if the international solidarity had worked.
“I think the solidarity of all the veracruzanos” he replied. The news was denied two hours later by the
government of Veracruz.
Gregorio Jiménez
worked for Notisur. The newspaper, the
day after his disappearance, reported that the reporter had received threats
from the owner of a bar called El Mamey. Goyo, as he was known, had
reported in his latest reports that his neighborhood was suffering a wave of
kidnappings. A suspect told investigators that the bar owner, Teresa de Jesus Hernandez Cruz, hired them to kidnap Goyo from his house and kill him due to personal differences. The prosecutor explained that
the captors charged 20,000 pesos, about $1,500, for the job.
Local reporters of
regions with the highest rate of crime in Mexico are the most exposed to
violence and intimidation by criminal organizations. There were also 10 journalists killed since
the arrival of Governor Javier Duarte.
Last year, the politician received a recognition for his work “in defense
of journalists”, at the hands of the Mexican Publishers Association.
“They didn’t
necessarily kill him because he wrote something specific. Every so often, criminals think that they
have to send a message of intimidation to the press. They do this in a perverse way,” says a
British researcher who has spent a decade studying Latin American crimes
against journalists.
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| Gregorio Jiménez's house |
Jiménez was a
humble man; from a hardworking and honest family. He lately didn’t want to write events for
fear that something might happen to them.
Finally on Tuesday, around 7:30 in the morning, men forcibly entered his
house and took him away forever.
Veracruz: The
Worst Place to Be a Journalist in Mexico
By:
The case of
journalist Gregorio Jiménez reveals two problems plaguing Veracruz: the
increase of 588% in the rate of kidnappings since the arrival of Governor
Javier Duarte and being in first place in attacks on journalists.
The journalist
was found dead in a clandestine grave in the municipality of Las Choapas. Authorities say that it was a revenge killing
and that they have detained four suspects.
In 2013 the
Attorney General of Veracruz reported 112 complaints of kidnappings, which
means an increase of 558% since the arrival of Governor Javier Duarte.
Figures released
by the National System of Public Security (Sistema
Nacional de Seguridad Pública (SNSP)) indicate that since 2010, it has
registered a steady increase in complaints of kidnappings.
The statistics
are collected by the state attorney taking into consideration complaints filed
with the public ministry.
Article 19
recorded 225 attacks on freedom of expression through the third quarter of
2013. Veracruz ranked first in the
nation with 31 cases.
In 2012, seven
murders were committed against journalists because of their reporting, five of
which occurred in Veracruz.
In a radio
interview, Darío Ramírez, director of Article 19, said that there are 16
journalists missing.
In the case of Gregorio
Jiménez, it is held that the case could be related to his journalistic work,
because in one of his texts, he reported on illegal activities on the woman who
is accused of planning the kidnapping.
Updates
It has been reported that
these "personal differences" reported before were due to a fall out
between Teresa de Jesus’s son and Goyo’s daughter, who had previously dated.
One of the bodies found
along with Goyo is that of Ernesto Ruiz Guillen, a secretary of the Confederation
of Mexican Workers. Goyo had previously written
a short article on Ernesto, who was violently kidnapped in January after an
assembly of the Confederation of Mexican Workers, Mexico’s largest labor
union. He wrote another article noting
that little was being done by authorities to investigate the kidnapping.
The other body was that of a
taxi driver whose name hasn’t been released.
Gregorio Antonio Hernádez, a
journalist and friend of Goyo, has stated in an interview that “they can’t
accept” in this case, “unsupported information” from the government of
Veracruz, who they say is a case of revenge killing.
Among the cases reported on
by Gregorio is an operation from a year ago in which people were detained for
engaging in kidnappings and extortions, as well as forced disappearances and
executions. They say that “the timely follow-up
of these cases led to our friend being dead.”
“The investigation our
companion did was to follow up on these cases; the interests of people,
criminal groups, the government of Javier wants to disassociate from the work that
our colleague touched on,” he said.
Journalists No Longer In Veracruz
By: Daniela
Pastrana
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| Noel López Olguín |
On March 8,
2011, Noel López Olguín, a reporter from Acayucan, disappeared. His body was found two months later in a
clandestine grave. In his column “Con pluma de plomo” (With a lead pen) of
the newspaper La Verdad de Jáltipan, he wrote about drug traffickers and
corruption of public officials.
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| Miguel Ángel López Velasco |
On June 20,
2011, armed gunmen assassinated veteran journalist Miguel Ángel López Velasco,
his son who was a photojournalist, Miseal López Solana, and Miguel’s wife, Agustina
Solana, in their home. Both Miguel and
Miseal worked for Notiver.
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| Yolanda Ordaz |
Their place in
the newspaper was filled by Yolanda Ordaz, who disappeared on July 24 and just
two days later, found dead with signs of torture. After that, at least 14 journalists fled the
state.
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| Gabriel Manuel Fonseca Hernández |
On September 17,
2011, Gabriel Manuel Fonseca Hernández, crime reporter for 20 years, was
kidnapped in Acayucan, in the company of a friend. No one has heard from him.
On November 6,
2011, a group of armed men set fire to the newspaper building El Buen Tono, in Córdoba. At least five journalists and newspaper
workers never returned to work.
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| Regina Martínez |
On April 28,
2012, Regina Martínez, a correspondent for the magazine Proceso, was strangled in the bathroom of her home in Xalapa. She was a journalist recognized for her
professionalism. She lived in the
capital which until then seemed untouchable.
On May 3, 2012, the
mutilated bodies of three photographers: Gabriel Huge, of Notiver, Guillermo Luna, of Veracruznews,
and Esteban Rodríguez, former collaborator of Diario AZ, were found in a
drainage canal and inside plastic bags.
With them was the body of Irasema Becerra, a worker who worked in the
advertising area of the newspaper El Dictamen.
Their coworkers were ordered not to attend the funeral.
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| Víctor Manuel Báez Chino |
On June 13,
2012, Víctor Manuel Báez Chino, an editor of the crime section of Milenio
Xalapa and of the website Reporteros Policiacos, was kidnapped and murdered
after leaving his office. Next to his
body was a message from the criminal group, according to information leaked to
the press.
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| Miguel Morales Estrada |
On July 25,
2012, the wife of Miguel Morales Estrada, crime photojournalist for Diario de
Poza Rica reported him missing. He had
alerted editors that he needed to get out of town for “personal problems” since
July 19 and since then no one has heard from him.
Terrible
ReplyDeleteGOD bless their souls..people need to know the truth about these criminals and the corruption ... Thank you guys for your dedication and work and may GOD protect all reporters and you here at B.B
It is disheartening to see a reported killed, for reporting.
ReplyDeleteIt is worse, I think, when a commenter on social media is assassinated.
I say this thinking of the story of NenaDeLaredo.
I would advise Chivis and DD to be careful, but that would be superfluous.
They know better than anyone the dangers they face, doing what they do.
Thank you, both.
They closed the casino here in nuevo laredo.last time that happend there was a bunch of people killed and bars blown up.
ReplyDeleteGregorio told the kidnappers he would go with them peacefully but to please not hurt his family.
ReplyDeleteRegina Martinez did write about organized crime and often.
"Ms. Martinez was the Xalapa correspondent for Proceso, one of Mexico's oldest and most respected investigative newsmagazines, and she often wrote about drug cartels in the area."
when she was murdered she had just completed this story:
"Nine policemen linked with drug traffickers in Veracruz” (Article #2)
Regina Martinez Xalapa, Veracruz, April 27 (approved).
From the looks of Goyo's house the poor guy risked his life for very little money. And by reading several clips of this article I get the impression that the criminals, police and Veracruz governor are all in cohoots with each other and using Veracruz as their devil's playground. They need ADs down there.
ReplyDeleteAutodefensa is the way to go for Mexicans.
ReplyDeleteThe government is in cahoots with the drug cartels.
The choice is yours.
fidel herrera beltran,also known as Z1 exgovernor of veracruz state,still running things his way, the new governor is just a figure head for Z1 fidel herrera beltran, and the police officers are corrupt of course, it is requisite all over mexico to be corrupt, to make money and kick it back to the political bosses who also collect money from businessmen and drug traffickers, and supplement the take with kidnappings for ransom.
ReplyDeletethe best thing to do, is to send back to the DF the ratas de la ciudad that have been contaminating the rest of the country like a cancer metastazises and spreads all over the body, same thing happens when the DF sends its police geniuses to the provinces, it is for them to go away or get clubbed to death by an angry mob.
What Mexico needs is a strongman/group to bring the house in order. There is no other way around it. A strongman/group that will establish law and order -- respect for the rule of law. That will call the citizens of Mexico to arm themselves to help in this endeavor. That will begin with the elimination of the evil that permeates Mexico: PRI(RIP in English).
ReplyDeleteKilled for doing their honest work and trying to make a living? These things make me lose faith on humanity little by little. May they be in heaven and may GOD bring peace to their families. Take Care Chivis as well as your co workers. Much love from SoCal
ReplyDelete@2:20 strong men have been imposing law and order all trough latin-america, with a lot of people tortured murdered and incarcerated, they made money, like pinochet, with billions of dollars in england's banks, safe and away from those ignorant chileans he stole the money from.
ReplyDeletewhat is needed is for every little town to kill the undesirables in their midst, and send the federales out of town, government should administer the community's resources, collect taxes and serve their people, not assign the property of the patrimony to the highest payer of kickbacks. strong men are famous for not having much brain matter in their heads, and what they have, they can't use properly.william shakespirito had it right when he wrote "...first we kill all the lawyers..." since educated people appear to be of no good use to the cause, because their highly schooled arses do not allow for hanging or doing any favors for the rabble, police and military geniuses "diplomados de estado mayor" can not even try to fight crime or criminals, but on the contrary increase it wherever they go, what good is it to keep their arses around?
how come Arcelor-Mittal can only pay 16 pesos or dollars per ton of iron ore to the independent miners in michoacan when china pays 60 to 80 dollars or pesos plus meth precursors; the chinse still furnish ships and shipping to china, who the hell is handling business for the mexican side?
president Benito Juarez said "...no hipotecar el pais..."
(not to mortgage the country), for an indian to have expressed such widsdom so many years ago without having attended harvard, yale or la sorbonne, it just reveals the corruption the association with foreign devils brings to the "poor developing" sides of the association.
the most infuriating part is that those that brought the murdering and corruption to our people's are the ones that benefit from the sweetheart deals the mexican government doles out, there was no need to kil and kill and kill so many people in the latin-americas, but i guess their nazi manual says what is to be done and to whom, and they go by-the-book...
fuck the latin-american cockroaches.
"US policy towards the third world should be one of depopulation"
Henry Kissinger , 1978
and by any means necessary, hunger, war, terrorism, mass murder, whatever it takes, kissinger should have helped his and his comrades cause by exiting this world a long time ago, but no, it is necessary always for someone else, to contribute his and his family's death to the well being of the self appointed "GOD's chosen" superior races. the sexiest man of year X should have been aborted by the bitch that gave him life...