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| Photo-Journalist Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro |
Additional Info from: Proceso
Today Mexican photo-journalist Edgar Esqueda Castro was found dead after abduction by armed men. Yesterday, Oct 5th, the group of armed men appeared to be agents of the State Ministerial Police. The
body of Edgar Esqueda was found Friday morning near the Ponciago Arraigo International Airport in the industrial city of San Luis Potosí, some 200 miles (350 kilometres) north of Mexico City, according to local media.
Edgar Esqueda’s body, was half naked, showed signs of torture and his hands were tied behind his back. found in San Luis Potosí. Esqueda had previously received threats from authorities over photos he published of shootouts.
The Mexican photo-journalist who was abducted at gunpoint from his home has been found dead, the seventh journalist to be killed this year in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers. Esqueda covered police and crime for the digital outlets Vox Populi SLP and Metrópoli SLP.
Vox Populi SLP reported on its Facebook page that Esqueda’s hands had been bound and his body showed signs of torture.
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| Crime Scene Cordoned off by PoliceTape near SLP Int"l Airport |
His family said he had been dragged from their home on Thursday morning by gunmen wearing police uniforms. The San Luis Potosí state attorney general’s office tweeted a statement saying its officers were not involved in any abduction.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, representative in Mexico for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said Esqueda had told them that he had been threatened by investigators over photos he had taken of a shootout. He had also reported to the State Human Rights Commission and the State Attorney's Office. State officials told the Associated Press no lines of investigation were being ruled out. News outlets in San Luis Potosí confirmed that the photojournalist had reported the threats to the authorities.
Thursday, at his home in Colonia Julian Carrillo, his family reports that Edgar Esqueda was taken by men: " who identified themselves as Ministerials after breaking the glass of a window to enter the house
on Calle La Fragua at 8:30 in the morning."
His family filed a complaint at the PGR's office, where he was initially categorized as an "Illegal Deprivation of Liberty" and his case was assigned to the Prosecutor's Office of Kidknappings. The Prosecutor , Federico Garza Herrera, denied any wrong-doing or responsibility by any authorities, although it is known that the victim had filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission for specific threats by the Ministerials.
"The state's Ministerial Police reports that no police action has been taken against a reporter from the capital city, who was removed from his home Thursday morning by alleged people who said they were from this corporation. The SME denied that it was its members who carried out this action ( sic ). The Office of the Attorney General of San Luis Potosí investigates these facts and supports the family of the victim in the procedures necessary for the location and closure.
Reporters from several local media outlets went to the prosecutor, Federico Garza, and the governor, Juan Manuel Carreras López, to deliver a letter and demand a fast and effective action in the search for Esqueda Castro. Officials of the Ministerial Police admitted the existence of the complaint, but minimized the fact.
"There is a first responder who covers a perimeter, it has to be respected not only by graphic reporters, but by all; they were trained ,the agents, to conduct themselves with education, with kindness and let them know that the perimeter of the crime scene is established by new law. Edgar Daniel's complaint was related to an exchange of different criteria, but he did not tell us about aggression or pushing, but rather a difference of opinion," state officials said.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and the Article 19 Organization issued alerts to sue state authorities and federal authorities for the location of Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro and to investigate the entrance to his home.
"Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. If the Mexican government is really committed to press freedom, as it claims, it must prevent kidnappings and murders of journalists, "said Alexandra Ellerbeck, coordinator of CPJ's North America Program.
"In 2017, at least seven journalists were killed in retaliation for their work, according to the CPJ investigation, and CPJ is investigating the circumstances of another murder. CPJ has documented the disappearance of 14 journalists in Mexico, excluding Esqueda Castro. In May, journalist Salvador Adame Pardo was kidnapped from his home and executed in the state of Michoacán," the agency recalled.
Meanwhile, the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists from the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) issued a statement: it regretted the murder of the journalist and demanded that "the competent authorities" carry out an immediate and effective investigation with those responsible for the crime.
The Mechanism confirmed that at the end of last July it received a communication from the State Human Rights Commission informing them of the complaint filed by the journalist for acts attributed to agents of the Ministerial Police who, on at least two occasions, tried to cover up his work as a photographer of two incidents of violence, and that Edgar complained of being approached by municipal police that prevented him from performing his work and that they threatened him.
“He was approached by five detectives on July 4th who threatened to take his camera and beat him up if he continued taking photos,” according to a statement by a federal agency responsible for providing journalists with protection. “They made him erase his material and ran him off.”
Esqueda was later confronted by state investigative police while covering another event July 13th and was asked to show his ID – which was photographed – and was told by the officers that they would be watching him and his home, Mexican media reported.
The officers also suggested – without presenting proof – that Esqueda might be using his work to pass along information to criminals, the Associated Press reported.
According to the communiqué, the Mechanism requested information from the ECHR on the protection measures offered to the photographer and the agency responded that in addition to Esqueda Castro had filed a criminal complaint with the Attorney General's Office, the State's Ministerial Police Commissioner had "Accepted" the measures dictated by the agency in favor of the journalist.
That is, the same body of authorities whose elements were identified as those who poured threats against the photographer, and were entrusted to provide protective measures.
This morning, after confirming the finding of the body of Edgar Daniel, a group of journalists protested outside the Government Palace, with cards demanding justice for the murder of their partner.
The journalist Everardo Ramírez criticized the deficiencies of the Mechanism of protection and the action of the different authorities since the photographer received threats and after his later deprivation of freedom.
The reporters, photographers and cameramen who participated in the protest are terrified after the murder of Edgar Daniel and the violent events that have been reported in the state in recent months.
Edgar Esqueda was the seventh journalist murdered in Mexico this year, according to CPJ. Four of those cases are confirmed to be related to the victims’ work as journalists.
"The state's Ministerial Police reports that no police action has been taken against a reporter from the capital city, who was removed from his home Thursday morning by alleged people who said they were from this corporation. The SME denied that it was its members who carried out this action ( sic ). The Office of the Attorney General of San Luis Potosí investigates these facts and supports the family of the victim in the procedures necessary for the location and closure.
Reporters from several local media outlets went to the prosecutor, Federico Garza, and the governor, Juan Manuel Carreras López, to deliver a letter and demand a fast and effective action in the search for Esqueda Castro. Officials of the Ministerial Police admitted the existence of the complaint, but minimized the fact.
"There is a first responder who covers a perimeter, it has to be respected not only by graphic reporters, but by all; they were trained ,the agents, to conduct themselves with education, with kindness and let them know that the perimeter of the crime scene is established by new law. Edgar Daniel's complaint was related to an exchange of different criteria, but he did not tell us about aggression or pushing, but rather a difference of opinion," state officials said.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and the Article 19 Organization issued alerts to sue state authorities and federal authorities for the location of Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro and to investigate the entrance to his home.
"Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. If the Mexican government is really committed to press freedom, as it claims, it must prevent kidnappings and murders of journalists, "said Alexandra Ellerbeck, coordinator of CPJ's North America Program.
"In 2017, at least seven journalists were killed in retaliation for their work, according to the CPJ investigation, and CPJ is investigating the circumstances of another murder. CPJ has documented the disappearance of 14 journalists in Mexico, excluding Esqueda Castro. In May, journalist Salvador Adame Pardo was kidnapped from his home and executed in the state of Michoacán," the agency recalled.
Meanwhile, the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists from the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) issued a statement: it regretted the murder of the journalist and demanded that "the competent authorities" carry out an immediate and effective investigation with those responsible for the crime.
The Mechanism confirmed that at the end of last July it received a communication from the State Human Rights Commission informing them of the complaint filed by the journalist for acts attributed to agents of the Ministerial Police who, on at least two occasions, tried to cover up his work as a photographer of two incidents of violence, and that Edgar complained of being approached by municipal police that prevented him from performing his work and that they threatened him.
“He was approached by five detectives on July 4th who threatened to take his camera and beat him up if he continued taking photos,” according to a statement by a federal agency responsible for providing journalists with protection. “They made him erase his material and ran him off.”
Esqueda was later confronted by state investigative police while covering another event July 13th and was asked to show his ID – which was photographed – and was told by the officers that they would be watching him and his home, Mexican media reported.
The officers also suggested – without presenting proof – that Esqueda might be using his work to pass along information to criminals, the Associated Press reported.
According to the communiqué, the Mechanism requested information from the ECHR on the protection measures offered to the photographer and the agency responded that in addition to Esqueda Castro had filed a criminal complaint with the Attorney General's Office, the State's Ministerial Police Commissioner had "Accepted" the measures dictated by the agency in favor of the journalist.
That is, the same body of authorities whose elements were identified as those who poured threats against the photographer, and were entrusted to provide protective measures.
This morning, after confirming the finding of the body of Edgar Daniel, a group of journalists protested outside the Government Palace, with cards demanding justice for the murder of their partner.
The journalist Everardo Ramírez criticized the deficiencies of the Mechanism of protection and the action of the different authorities since the photographer received threats and after his later deprivation of freedom.
The reporters, photographers and cameramen who participated in the protest are terrified after the murder of Edgar Daniel and the violent events that have been reported in the state in recent months.
Edgar Esqueda was the seventh journalist murdered in Mexico this year, according to CPJ. Four of those cases are confirmed to be related to the victims’ work as journalists.
In March, the reporter Miroslava Breach was murdered as she drove her eight-year old son to school in the northern city of Chihuahua. The gunmen left a note saying: “For being a loud-mouth.”
Soon afterwards, El Norte, the Ciudad Juárez newspaper she contributed to, closed down; explaining the decision, its editor Oscar Cantú Murguia said in a statement: “there are neither the guarantees nor the security to exercise critical, counterbalanced journalism."
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| Javier Valdez, Gunned down with 12 Gunshots Outside his Office at Riodoce Culiacan , Sinaloa May 15, 2017 Riodoce = 12 Rivers, One of Mexico's Best and Outspoken Journalists |
In mid-May, Javier Valdéz, one of the two founders of the Sinaloa's news-weekly Ríodoce, was pulled from his car as he left his office in the northwestern city of Culiacán and shot 12 times at close range. Both journalists investigated drug cartel issues, though Valdez always expressed uneasiness with the confluence of political corruption and organized crime.
As in many previous attacks on media workers in Mexico, both crimes remain unsolved and unpunished. Today, Friday, around 100 people, most of them journalists, joined a protest in San Miguel Potosí. Some waved signs reading: “No more dead journalists” and “Am I next?”
It continues being a matter of impunity,” said Javier Garza, a journalist in the northern city of Torreón.
“After all the outrage over Javier Valdez’s murder, nothing is happening. Anybody thinking about killing or kidnapping a journalist will say: ‘If they didn’t do anything with a high-profile person like Javier Valdez, then they won’t do anything in other cases.”
Mexico has registered 26,984 homicides in the first eight months of 2017, at 17 percent increase over the same period in 2016, according to government statistics.
San Luis Potosí state has boomed economically with the arrival of automotive investments in recent years, but also been plagued by drug cartel violence.
A country where violence continues against those fine journalists and reporters. Where the suppression of the media seems to be corruption at state and government levels.
ReplyDeleteThis article indicates that municipal officials were the culprits of threats and intimidation.
Yet no one is being held accountable for this crime. Rather an internal investigation is underway.
Quite sure no such involvement from its fine municipal officials are to blame! And can guarantee no such thorough investigation will be conducted.
Perfect example of an inept department whose citizens bear no respect nor justice!
Journalists and photographers may want to consider adapting other means for reporting and photographing for safety purposes ( drones , robots ).
Condolences
E42
I like your post, E42.
DeleteI don't know why they are so obsessed with eliminating reporters. It seems that they operate without impunity and do whatever they like anyway, without any worry or consequences, with police approval.
RIP.
E42
Deletein border cities and narco plazas this is not extraordinary circumstances, they are ordinary circumstance. "fine" municipal police and every municipal office and agency is in bed with a cartel and function at the direction of a cartel. Someone commented that municipal police "pick up" [kidnap] people for cartels, that is true. Remember the boca del rio massacre? all of those innocents were seen by witnesses being picked up by police. robots? drones? most reporters have 2 or 3 jobs to support their families, they do not make much money.
as for 5:09 "obsessed?" it is to them a settling of accounts, reporting on subjects that touch to close to home. i think you meant impunity, and yes they do, not "seems" they do.
BTW after Boca del Rio the entire police force was fired because no one passed the lie detector tests and the feds took over the city
Chivis, I normally post coherent posts, but a chronic medical condition is acting up lately and I'm not choosing the correct words. I realize "obsessed" and "seems" aren't the correct words and that I had a typo of "without". I could do without the corrections on semantics, as it was clear I meant no ill will and wasn't trolling. I'm trying to learn and understand. 509
Delete@ Chivis
DeleteContinued...
I am aware of the high demand for those vacant municipal positions. Such trustworthy examinations were necessary to combat corruption.
However, the necessity of such examinations should be implemented at all government department levels.
Maybe then Mexico can begin the transition from being brutes to that of a caring government for its citizens.
Doubt that such requirements will ever be implemented in Mexico. Because America has yet to implement such on behalf of American citizens. Lobbyists and special interests groups dictate American policies.
E42
That is not what happened. The world was watching so atty gen had no choice than to give the world theater. In less than a year everything was back to business as usual.
DeleteI don't want to be rude, because I think you are trying to learn, but you must begin with reading and research. what you describe is the attitude I once had before I actually moved to Mexico and set up my offices and began working in 12 states. You don't understand, the government doesn't want things to change. And people are apathetic in self preservation. You want to clear out a room in Mexico, bring up corruption or narcos, and you will be talking to yourself.
Did you read Profe's post Dispelling Narconarratives? We talked about the post before he posted it, he wanted my op. I encouraged its posting. You see, the very people you want to eradicate corruption are the masters/creators of corruption. THEY are the padrinos.
After these many years I do have thoughts on how to facilitate meaningful change, and even how to counter municipal corruption. and it is very doable. but first things first, we are not Mexican nationals, Mexico is a sovereign nation, it's the people of Mexico that need to constitute change.
@6:45
DeleteThank you for explaining, "Obsessed" was something I had to make clear because it is not an obsession to them it is business. The murders are horrific no matter the reason but I wanted readers to be clear.
Sorry about your situation ...I hope you improve soon. :(
Thanks, Chivis.
DeleteI applaud you continuous efforts and strong dedication to your work Chivis.
DeleteE42
I wonder if el Prestason Del Apestoso had something to with it.
ReplyDeleteThe issue of "BAD TASTE" is very important, the I'll will many reporters and commenters even on BB gets criticized and blamed for their bad taste, it now causes this reporter's abduction, torture and death, for complaining and surely providing names of his tormentors who "did not allow photos" of the dead reporter.
ReplyDeleteHave this present when you complain about "negative people with incendiary and provocative comments".
Former SSPE of the State of Sab Luis PotosI ENRIQUE FRANCISCO GALINDO CEBALLOS who confessed to his "misdemeanors" and resigned when NOW CHIEF OF THE POLICIA JUDICIAL FEDERAL MANELICH CASTILLA CRAVIOTTO ARRIVED TO SLP "had to resign" again, now from the federal judicial police he had been heading appointed by EPN HIMSELF! Because of his crime of state in the Tanhuato case of revenge against more than 50 unarmed citizens he and "his" FUERZAS federales murdered in the early hours of the morning, just to show "revenge against CJNG, using helicopters and shit.
This facking animal must be back in his state where he started his criminal career as a university porro, same as "the future presidente de mexico" MAO Miguel Angel Osorio Chón did in "his" state of Hidalgo to become governor...before his assignment to secretary of the interior of EPN in charge of galindo ceballos.
" Julio Ceballos, writer of detective novels, psychologist, drug and weapons trafficker, zeta from the start, and former SLP (CAPITAL DEL ESTADO OF SLP) used to be a detective and "solved more than 500 cases, it has been his calling card for too many years already, I bet he can solve this case quick, all he has to do is capture a few pendejos "and make them confess voluntarily and without coercion", he may even hire them as new elements of the ministeriales municipales or promote them to FUERZA DELICTIVA ESTATAL... SLP was a partner on the project to make a regional new country with their own policia regional de la Huasteca, involved veracruz, tamaulipas, SLP and hidalgo states, it was not allowed by the mexican army, so these states formed their own DELICTIVOS, and they kill, including the expert "ANTI-KIDNAPPING DEATH SQUADS" TRAINED BY THE FBI AND IN FRANCE" and shit, Genarco Garcia Luna left them very we trained... you may want to read:
"Manelich Castilla Craviotto: el hombre que vendió SLP to CDS for 10 million dollars" and that is when SLP was a Zeta sanctuary,
--And to BB, I hope this settles the issue of "good taste" in commenting and reporting, we need to report specially all the shit that's not fit to print, and forget about its taste, with fotos and videos, that all the world can see, after all nobody is killing us YET
Arm everyone self defense
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see if such a claim of self defense will be validated. Cops take care of their own.
DeleteE42
12:35 NOOO! The rabble can't be trusted, they will take politicians and soldiers and the polesias and the rich businessmen and their evil families to the guillotines,
Delete--then they will lose the pinchi revolution again...
It is well known that local cops work with the cartels. They do their kidnapings because people will go willingly with police officers.
ReplyDelete1:09 the best of the best, (la crème de la crème) of the corrupt local police, are the disciples of federal police agents corrupt to the bone, some military experts, some trained on the best the School of the Americas had to offer, bought and paid for by the US of A, sent from mexico city to assist the governors and "tax the mexican indiada" on the states and cities and ranchitos or turn them into cash producing narcos, grameros and addicts.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThat's your question after reading this entire story?
DeleteThe Spanish made it worse.
DeleteIts wierd that maybe the same cops that took part in his abudaction were probably in the team mexico soccer game last night in san luis standing guard.
ReplyDeleteIts obvious the government wiped him out, why would the cartels care if pictures of them after a shootout are published only the government does since they would rather hide what happens in mexico
another fallen mexican hero.
ReplyDeleter.i.p.
@Chivis "After these many years I do have thoughts on how to facilitate meaningful change, and even how to counter municipal corruption. and it is very doable."
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to hear your thoughts since this societal problem is endemic through all of Mex. Corruption from high to low, national and local levels. People who want to work and contribute don't have any decent options, even if well educated. Autodefensas could work at the local level but corruption at the higher levels won't allow local self defense. Same with gun ownership laws. So what does that leave... Curious. Thanks.
ElCien
too long. I have written about it before. Pragmatic solutions, but it is not what the gob wants so it will never happen unless the people rebel. doubtful that will happen.
DeleteYou're right Chivis. I was hoping the government would turn around but after seeing what they did to the students and the autodefensas (and others), I have come to realize that they are just as big a problem if not worse than the capos. Unfortunately There are alot of people in mexico that have conformed with the way things are there so I doubt anyone rebel atleast any time soon.
Deleteread this :
ReplyDeleteOn July 4, 2017, photojournalist Daniel Esqueda Castro, whose lifeless body was located on Friday in San Luis Potosi a day after his abduction, had an altercation with the state's ministerial police who "threatened to take the camera away from him to beat him, if he continued taking photographs, forcing him to erase the material and run it from the place. "
Hey Chivis
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned Animal Politico. I was just spreading their article on Edgar’s assisination. He was a volunteer rescue worker in his “ spare time “ .
He had just returned from Mexico City where he had gone to help in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Quite sure his deeds in life which were generous and will not be forgotten!
Deletei sent you the article...i thought it told more of him as a person. and what i posted above at 7:53 was relevant. looks like the police did the dirty deed
DeleteAs I lull about this fresh Autumn day with my wee dog and without a rightful care in the world...
ReplyDeleteCondolences to Mr. Edgar Castro's loved ones. What a horrible end for him.
_Canadian girl