Jesús Lemus, Journalist Imprisoned for 3 Yrs Claims Felipe Calderón Ordered his Murder

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Sin Embargo / Tribuna

        "Calderón has links with the Sinaloa Cartel and ordered me killed": claims the Journalist

Felipe Calderón was tied, through Genaro García Luna, not only with the Sinaloa Cartel, but with Los Zetas, with the Gulf Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, according to the writer Jesús Lemus

The journalist Jesús Lemus Barajas reiterates in an interview with SinEmbargo that former President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa ordered him to be executed in revenge for the publications he made about the relationship of his sister María Luisa Calderón, “Cocoa”, with Servando Gómez Martínez, known as “La Tuta ”, leader of the Knights Templar and also former leader of La Familia Michoacana. Lemus was saved "in luck," he recalls, but was unjustly imprisoned for just over three years.

“I'll order it there. I will give it soon and have you thrown  into the river ”, are the words that Jesus Lemus Barajas does not forget; That was the instruction commanded by Luis Carrillo when - after depriving him of his freedom - he was handed over to the Los Zetas criminal group for murder . It was in May 2008. The order came from then President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa , says the journalist, now displaced.

"Cocoa" spoke to "La Tuta", asked for favors. I denounced him and Calderón ordered me killed: Lemus insists.

Faced with the arrest in the United States of the former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna  for his alleged links to drug trafficking and after former President Felipe Calderón denied knowing his subordinate's network, journalist Jesús Lemus says in an interview with   SinEmbargo that the former president lies, and reiterates his accusation that Felipe Calderón sent orders to execute him in revenge for the publications he made about the relationship of his sister Luisa María de Guadalupe Calderón Hinojosa - also known as “ Cocoa ” - with Servando Gómez Martínez , aka “ La Tuta "

Year 2008, the second of the six-year term of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. The federal government offensive against "drug cartels", called "War on Drugs", had been declared a year and a half before, just in the state of Michoacán, where Lemus Barajas worked as a journalist.

“The sister of former President Felipe Calderón spoke [to“ La Tuta ”] to ask for favors, so that popular election candidates would be supported by the drug trafficker. I begin to publish this type of relationship and then comes a revenge of former President Calderón, where he orders my execution, so that a commander of the ministerial police looks for me and kidnaps me.

Lemus was saved "in luck," he says, but was unjustly imprisoned for just over three years. For his fortune he was not executed. He was sent to a high security prison where he lived with narco bosses, kidnappers, criminals:

From the voice of ''El Grande'' (José Enrique Villarreal Barragán, head of hitmen of the Beltrán Leyva) I heard the versions of how Calderón's relationship was, through García Luna, not only with the Sinaloa Cartel, but with the Los Zetas Cartel, with the Gulf Cartel, of La Familia Michoacana ".

Note: "El Grande" was just released in the US last week ago after serving 10 yrs; see my Post HERE

"The former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna, orchestrated everything, because he made and assembled a case file and boxes," he adds.

The current government, says the journalist, should initiate an exhaustive investigation of the network formed by García Luna, and that the first one to be investigated is Felipe Calderón because he was his direct boss.

“Calderón is a fake, a madman, a mythomaniac. It is incredible that he wants us to swallow the lie that he did not know what the secretary of public security was doing. Of course I knew and I knew so that when I was in Puente Grande, I had a cell neighbor to ''El Grande'', José Enrique Villarreal Barragán, the head of the hit men of the Beltrán Leyva, and the voice of 'El Grande "I heard the versions of how Felipe Calderón's relationship was, through Genaro García Luna, not only with the Sinaloa Cartel, but with the Los Zetas Cartel, with the Gulf Cartel, of La Familia Michoacana," he says.

Yesterday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico, said that his Government will not initiate investigations against Genaro García Luna, Secretary of Public Security of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, so he will only cooperate in the investigation carried out in the United States.

The journalist reproached the position taken by the Fourth Transformation. For the writer, the national president is disregarding and is lacking in his job of following up and combating corruption, which shows - according to the journalist - that the Chief Executive has "commitments".

“[AMLO] is a President that has a lot to do in the sense of fighting corruption, because he has served with García Luna beforehand, he already has it on a silver tray, ready to pull the thread of corruption, and that thread can go very far, not only to President Calderón, it can transcend President Fox; but President López Obrador is afraid, or has bigger commitments, which is almost the same. [...] we return to the same thing, the power mafia that said it was going to fight it, because I think it's eating it, ” says the informant.

THE HISTORY:

It was the year 2008, the second of the sexennium of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. The federal government offensive against "drug cartels", called "War on Drugs", had been declared a year and a half before, just in the state of Michoacán, where Lemus Barajas worked as a journalist.

Lemus directed a newspaper in La Piedad, Michoacán, where he began publishing reports and notes pointing out that between the Government of Felipe Calderón and the La Familia Michoacana Cartel there was a close relationship, specifically between Luisa María Calderón, “Cocoa”, and “La Tuta ”, who was then Head of the Michoacan Family.

“It's a version that I started to spread because I know it from nearby drug trafficking sources, and that version is later referred to by ''La Tuta'' in one of his public videos that are banned on YouTube. There he says that the sister of President Felipe Calderón spoke to him to ask for favors so that candidates of popular election were supported by the drug trafficker. I begin to publish this type of relationship and then comes a revenge of former President Calderón, he orders my execution, so that a commander of the ministerial police, under the orders of Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre Zamarripa, Attorney General of Guanajuato - He looks for me and kidnaps me, ”he says.

On May 7, 2008, the deprivation of liberty of Lemus Barajas occurred in the municipality of Cuerámaro, in the state of Guanajuato. Commander Luis Carrillo made the capture, the journalist says.

“Commander Luis Carrillo takes me and gives me a group of Los Zetas to execute me in Guanajuato, it is obvious that it was an order that came down from Felipe Calderón, through his friend the Governor of Guanajuato, Juan Manuel Olivas Ramírez; that character is the one who orders me to kidnap so that they disappear, so that they execute me, and they give me to the group of Los Zetas. [...] I clearly heard it - and they are words that I will never forget - how he said: 'I'll take you over there, give him to you soon and you throw him into the river'. Those words are not forgotten, ”says the journalist.

On February 27, 2015, Servando Gómez, alias “La Tuta”, and leader of the Knights Templar, was presented in the hangar when arrested. Photo: Cuartoscuro.

The organization Reporters Without Borders, upon learning of Lemus's disappearance, acted immediately: he issued a statement warning that the journalist had been missing for several hours and demanded his presentation alive.

"That was what saved my life, because the intention was really to kill me, but when the RSF statement appears, the commander comes and picks me up from the safe house," he adds.

During the first 72 hours of his detention at the Guanajuato Ministerial Police, Lemus was tortured. "A policeman told me that he had saved me by pure luck," he says.

The journalist was charged with false charges of organized crime and drug trafficking, and was imprisoned.

“They sent me to the state prison in Guanajuato for a few days and from there, arguing that I was a prisoner of maximum danger, they took me to the federal jail of Puente Grande where I spent three years in prison. There I was with the most dangerous criminals of Mexico at that time, such as Rafael Caro Quintero, ''El Mochaorejas'', Mario Aburto, Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, even ''El Grande'' ”, he emphasizes.

Jesús Lemus was held on charges that were never demonstrated. The Public Ministry never delivered a single test against the communicator. Three years later, he proved his innocence and was released.

“Considering that there is no element of judgment that even indicates the doubt that it was related to drug trafficking or organized crime, [Jesús Lemus Barajas] is exonerated from any accusation and is given an acquittal,” states the acquittal issued May 11, 2011.

The communicator is convinced that former President Calderón was the one who ordered his arrest. “From nobody else could the order have come. I had not the slightest relationship with the Governor of Guanajuato so that he sent me to his Ministerial Police. ”

Lemus Barajas became a writer. His stay in prison channeled him to follow his journalist instinct and there he interviewed dangerous criminals, interviews and passages that he has revealed in various books. However, he now lives displaced, because he had to leave his state because of insecurity and threats.

The writer adds that he initiated a process against the Mexican State before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to demand a public apology and the integral reparation of the damage.

The process before the international authorities is still ongoing according to the journalist. "In the Inter-American Court they are asking the State for information."

The reports were required from various agencies, including the former Attorney General's Office (PGR), now the Attorney General's Office. Also to the Puente Grande prison, in this case on the conditions of his detention; to the Government of Guanajuato on arrest capture: to the Second Criminal Court of Guanajuato, who initially sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

In addition, they have requested information from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) to explain why they did not intervene at the time, since the affected party filed at least three complaints about the violation of their human rights, but the agency never acted, he says. .

Until the current federal administration began, the journalist approached the CEAV to begin the process in order to demand the integral reparation of the damage for the violation of their human rights.

"That is where I am asking that there will be an investigation against all those responsible for my illegal detention, kidnapping and imprisonment, and above all that it is determined and I am seated where the order to kill me came from," he says.

And he adds: “I had not approached because I had no confidence in the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto, I did not make any movement. I started doing it until López Obrador started because I saw that there were better conditions for the approach to follow-up to the people who imprisoned me ”. Lemus points directly to the Second Criminal Judge of Guanajuato, the former Governor of Guanajuato, the Procurator Zamarripa.

More than eight years after proving that he was unjustly imprisoned, Jesús Lemus has not seen justice and does not even count as a victim in the corresponding registry, while those who orchestrated his capture continue in public office. “They have not lost their status as public officials, they continue to act with impunity, working as if nothing had happened. They destroyed my life and they destroyed my life and they continue to operate with maximum comfort, ”he says.

The journalist points out that President López Obrador has the historical opportunity to show the people that he is truly against corruption, initiating an investigation of the García Luna case and its links, however, it seems he does not want to do it, and with that, it is due To the nation.

“He must take action, not just let the US judge García Luna. AMLO has the possibility of making history and making that Fourth Transformation that has so much claimed; but he does not want to do it, he refuses to investigate García Luna's relationship, and that does not show us more than the great commitments that President López Obrador has, which in the end is the same. [...] I think that President López Obrador is afraid that the García Luna case will splash several of his officials, several of the people who are very close to him (AMLO) [...] We are at a crossroads where the Government is going to go very wrong anyway because if he does something against corruption, he shoots himself in the foot and does nothing because he loses popularity, ” he concludes.