Murder Mystery Goes On: 2018 Assassination of Journalist Carlos Domínguez Rodriguez

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                    77 year old Carlos Domínguez Rodríguez Stabbed to Death on Jan 13, 2018
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Nuevo Laredo, Tamualipas:

Rosa Nohemí 'N', daughter-in-law of the murdered journalist Carlos Domínguez Rodríguez, identified two of the defendants as the material perpetrators of the incident during the oral trial hearing on the case (31/2018).

Rosa Nohemí 'N', also identified the other three defendants as accomplices of the crime perpetrated, when the 77-year-old journalist was traveling in his vehicle and at a traffic light stop was attacked and received 24 stabs by the two subjects.

On January 13, 2018, the day he was murdered, the woman accompanied the communicator, because, she said, that day he had spent a family day and Domínguez had taken his grandchildren to the Museum and the Aquarium of Nuevo Laredo.

Rosa pointed out that, at one point, Domínguez received a call from Gabriel Garza , who insisted to see him in a cafe because some people wanted to meet him and, although at first he tried excused himself because he was with his family, he agreed because he was assured that the meeting would be short.

The journalist's daughter-in-law says that she asked her father-in-law if he was afraid to meet with unknown people, to which the journalist confided to her that a week before he had been threatened by a person named Valtierra, because he had published information about the Municipal president Carlos Cantúrosas and his uncle Rodolfo.

In her account, she indicated that when they arrived at the place where Domínguez had been summoned, the journalist Gabriel Garza was not there, but Garza insisted by phone to go in. However, Domínguez waited outside and seeing a small blue vehicle arrive with the occupants identified as Luis Valtierra and Jesús Zúñiga, who got out of the car and entered the cafe.

Rosa Nohemí 'N' said that Carlos Domínguez entered the cafe and left almost immediately, trying to leave the site, because at that moment  Gabriel Garza called him and said, “I will not be able to come and I know that they threatened you; that what happens to you for being a fool, to mess with the Cantú. ”

She stated that as they were driving away, a few blocks up the street, a vehicle hit them in the back and immediately afterwards another car blocked their way.  Three people descended from it, two of whom assaulted the journalist and whom Rosa Nohemí 'N' identifies as David Mejía and Adrián Montes.

She said that as the aggression against her father-in-law took place, she went into shock. At that time a man, whom she identified as Rodolfo Cantú García was traveling in the back of the vehicle that blocked their way, ordered her to get out of the car.

Gabriel Regino García, defense lawyer for the five defendants, filed a complaint against Rosa Nohemi "N", the murdered journalist's daughter-in-law, as well as an investigating police officer, an agent of the Public Ministry, stating that they all had made false statements.

David Mejía Bravo, one of the detainees, accused an official of the State Attorney General's Office of offering him 500,000 pesos in exchange for pleading guilty.

The Plot Thickens:

Tamaulipas Official fabricated guilty pleas by Bribery; 

The plot accused six people, three of them reporters, two police officers and an entrepreneur. 

                                                           Natanael Castelán Iturria

The General Director of Operation of the Criminal Procedure of the Prosecutor General of Justice of Tamaulipas

As soon as he delivered the alleged culprits of the murder of the journalist, Carlos Domínguez , murdered on January 13, 2018, the General Director of Operation of the Criminal Procedure of the Prosecutor General of Justice of Tamaulipas, Natanael Castelán Iturria, charged a reward of 2,000,000 pesos that at that time offered the Attorney General of the state.

David Mejía Bravo , a former federal police officer, became an important part of the outrageous "machination" of Castelán Iturria. But this would be known months after the same former officer confessed that he received 500,000 pesos, part of the reward, for making guilty pleas.

David Mejía Bravo then recognized that Castelán hired him to impersonate as the material author of the terrible homicide of Carlos Domínguez. He even gave reports to the court of his former partner Adrian Montes so that they were then two detainees.

The former policeman's confession was not by chance. Castelán, as a good negotiator, promised his "accomplice" that in just six days, after pleading guilty to the murder, he would release him and deliver the promised money. But this did not happen.

Even, Mejía Bravo himself informed the trial court that he gave the data of his partner Adrián Montes (also a former federal police) so that they were two detainees, and with time and not paying the 500 thousand pesos or to release him within six days, he decided to tell the truth.

He stressed that this is transcendental, because for the first time before a trial court it is clarified and evidenced that we are in a very serious situation, where not only six have been charged, but three of them were reporters and one died in prison , being innocent.

He emphasized: we cannot allow media workers for their work to fall, nor can other people who were involved for political reasons and acts of corruption.

                                                             Irving Barrios Mójica

In March 2018, the Attorney General of Tamaulipas Justice, Irving Barrios Mójica, said the crime was committed for the work Dominguez had published for a whole year. Accompanied by Ricardo Sánchez Pérez del Pozo, head of the Special Prosecutor for the Attention of Crimes committed against Freedom of Expression, the prosecutor reported the arrest of six involved.

For the murder of Dominguez, journalists Gabriel Garza Flores - who died in prison -, Luis Valtierra and Jesús González, as well as businessman Rodolfo Cantú, and former federal policemen David Mejía Bravo and Adrián Montes Fernández are imprisoned.

                                                                Gabriel Regino García

In the words of his defender, Gabriel Regino, Mejía Bravo exposed that the situation highlights a serious situation, where not only six innocent people have been accused, but because three of them were reporters and one died in prison being innocent.

The "alleged culprits":

In March 2018, accused of the murder of communicator Carlos Domínguez, two were arrested in Zacatecas, David Mejía Bravo and Adrián Montes Fernández, the former Federal Police officers. While in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, they captured businessman Rodolfo Cantú, and journalists, Luis Valtierra, Jesús González and Gabriel Garza Flores. 

The latter , admitted to the Nuevo Laredo prison, died a month after his capture , when he was taken to a hospital for medical attention. His wife accused the authorities of negligence in ensuring that, although Gabriel said he felt bad, he remained without attention and, several hours later, when he was finally transferred to a hospital, he had already died.

The Prosecutor's Office of Tamaulipas said that in order to find the material and intellectual authors, 120 texts that were published during 2017 were analyzed , which were of great relevance for the research line. He ruled that organized crime was behind homicide.

The six arrested for the murder of the journalist, Carlos Domínguez.  They were linked to prosecution for the crime of homicide qualified with premeditation and advantage (Photo: Twitter / cmanueljuarez)

Tamaulipas is a state with a strong presence of organized crime where different cartels fight for control of the territory, which is controlled by the Northwest Cartel, a division of Los Zetas, which has been hit hard by security forces lately.

Traditionally it has been one of the states where organized crime has managed to put a greater informative silence through violence and threats.

According to the organization Reporters Without Borders,  Mexico is "the most dangerous country in peace in the world for reporters," with the same death toll as Syria (12), followed by Afghanistan (9) and Iraq (8).

The next oral trial hearing was scheduled for September 18, in Room B of the adjacent building of Cedes de Nuevo Laredo.

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