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Saturday, April 24, 2021

National Guard Offers Victims US$50,000 to Withdraw Charges Against Guardsmen

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

National Guardsmen at a crime scene in Nuevo Laredo. Report says the army has also offered such payments to families in Tamaulipas

The National Guard offered 1 million pesos (US $50,300) to the families of two people killed in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, earlier this month in exchange for withdrawing charges against the security force who were involved in the deaths.

According to a report by the news website Animal Político, the army has also offered large sums of money to the family members of people killed by soldiers in recent months.

Published Wednesday, the report said the wife of Jorge Alberto Rivera Cardoza, a 42-year-old man who was shot dead by a member of the National Guard on April 8 as the security force was involved in a car chase, and family members of Martha Leticia Salinas Arriaga, who died after she was struck by the car Rivera was driving when he was killed, were both offered 1 million pesos.

To receive the money, they were asked to sign documents to authorize the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to close its investigation into the case.

After two men were killed by the army in Nuevo Laredo in February and March, and a Guatemalan man was shot dead by a soldier in Chiapas last month, the family members of the victims were also offered payments in exchange for dropping charges, Animal Político said.

“They offered me a million not to make a [criminal] complaint,” said Viridiana Promotor, the widow of Rivera, with whom she had two children.

She said she was in a government morgue waiting to receive the body of her slain husband when she was approached by a person in uniform who identified himself as a member of the National Guard and three other people who said they were officials with the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV), a federal agency.

Promotor said she attended several meetings with them and ended up signing the documents they asked her to sign. She said she was confused, didn’t know what she was signing and was led to believe that she would go to jail if she didn’t follow their instructions.

“They implied that if I reported [the guardsmen to authorities] I would go to jail for reporting them,” Promotor told Animal Político. “… I did what they told me to do because I thought I had to do it so they would give me the body,” she added.

Animal Político said that family members of Salinas, the pedestrian struck by Rivera’s car, also signed documents that authorized the withdrawal of charges against members of the National Guard.

But after burying her husband – who worked at a customs processing office in Nuevo Laredo not far from where he was killed – Promotor regretted her decision and didn’t attend an appointment at FGR offices at which she would have received a check for 1 million pesos.

“I want justice to be done, for those who did it [killed Rivera] to pay,” she said. Promotor said her husband wasn’t involved in any illegal activities and there was no reason for him to be shot. “Instead of helping us, they’re killing our family members, who are innocent people. My husband wasn’t involved in anything bad,” she said. However, according to witnesses, guardsmen planted drugs, a firearm and two-way radios in Rivera’s car to make it appear that he was a criminal.

Promotor questioned why the National Guard would offer her 1 million pesos if in fact her husband was a criminal. She has now sought assistance from the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Commission to seek justice in the case and determine the identity of the guardsman who shot her husband and why he did what he did.

“… The question of why has affected me. Why [did it happen] if he wasn’t involved in anything bad. There is no explanation, I can’t give an answer,” said Promotor, who is concerned about how she will be able to support herself and her two young children in the absence of her husband.

Animal Político said it asked the National Guard why it had offered the payments to Promotor and the family of Salinas but didn’t receive a response. There are also questions about why the army offered payments to the family members of a 26-year-old man and a 20-year-old man who were recently killed by soldiers in Nuevo Laredo.

The army accused the former of being armed and the latter of acting aggressively prior to his death, even though he was traveling to an ultrasound appointment with his wife when he was killed, according to the Animal Político report.

The report said it was unknown how many cases have been resolved by offering payments to family members of victims, how much money the National Guard and the army have paid out and how many guardsmen and soldiers have avoided investigation.

However, the news website said it was able to determine that the army has compensated 187 victims in the last 10 years via an “opaque process that avoided the intervention of other institutions.”

Michael Chamberlin, a former director of compensation at CEAV, said he never witnessed money being paid out in exchange for people agreeing to drop charges against security force members.

“The law says that [people] have a right to truth, justice and compensation. I never saw a case like this,” he said, referring to the money offered to the families of Rivera and Salinas. “It should not be allowed to be like this.”

Sources: Animal Politico; MND

18 comments:

  1. I guess they are as corrupt as the old federales. Mexico is years away from a national police that can effectively protect its civilians.

    ReplyDelete
  2. But the victims that come to get the $50,000 compensation, will be made disappeared. They want money coming in not out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Speaking of Mataulipas. A political candidate was killed in Cd Victoria today - https://www.debate.com.mx/politica/Matan-a-balazos-en-Ciudad-Victoria-a-candidato-del-Partido-Verde-Francisco-Batata-Gerard-Rocha-20210424-0052.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Story is up.

      http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2021/04/political-aspirant-murdered-in-ciudad.html

      Delete
    2. Partido Verde candidates are not welcome anywhere.
      Guardia Nacional needs to learn to degrade, dress down, drum out and dismiss elements that get convicted of fuck-ups, mess-ups, crimes, or whatevers instead of smearing their shit on their collective face, planting drugs means they were even ready to do the crime with a cover story and cover-up, premeditation enough for the fire squad.
      Take it to the mañanera!

      Delete
  4. If the victims agree to accept the money then charges will be dropped against the guilty scum bags. Later these same victims will be kidnapped and extorted for US$ 100,000 by the same scum bags

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what 9;39 is saying, it's a catch 22, your damned if you go collect.

      Delete
  5. Try and pick up the money. You're a goner.

    The Italian-American Mafia used to put open contracts on "rats" like FBI undercover Joe Pistone aka Donnie Brasco. The "open" part meant that anybody could fulfill the contract and collect the 100k or whatever else was offered.
    Let's say you pop the rat. Just try walking into the social club and demand payment. The Mafia would likely call the cops on you or make you disappear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guess there is no honor among thieves.

      Delete
    2. The National guard scumbags are worse than the mafia.

      Delete
  6. Ask for double, take the money and move.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1:34
      Yep Same as I thought not even double 50 grand ib Mexico is alot
      I think it easier then paying a Lawyer and waiting if ever it came to trial
      Yep take the money and run
      I would never ever trust the legal courts in Mexico
      plus I know I would be in danger The minute I put that Gaurds name on a court papers
      yep take the money and start over

      Delete
    2. Hits must have been paid for by governor Cabeza de Cagadas de Vacas to give the GN a bad name now that they are going to Mataulipazz to arrest his ass, the State Human rights commission is famous for never ever ever doing shit for anybody in Tamaulipas or Mexico.

      Delete
  7. Mx

    Here’s a good one for you to read

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/trapped-mexican-town-isolated-cartel-201459803.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! We included it as part of the publication here:

      http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2021/04/between-bullets-and-gaze-of-cjng-visit.html

      Very interesting read!

      Delete
  8. Wasnt the guy from human rights involved with CDN in nuevo laredo? I remember seeing an alleged video of the CDN trucks being hidden on there premises.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mexico does not believe in helping it's citizens, a reward or money compensation is a rarity, they wind up turned in to a local cartel and ate made disappeared.

    ReplyDelete

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