And then, by pure chance, Sama turned up. But even he had learned the lesson his mothers murder had been meant to impart: only push so far for justice. The office announced that Isidoro Gonzles Gernimo, a suspected drug trafficker known as "El Isis" who operated in Guerrero, was also shot and killed in Oaxaca state on Friday. They did that, but I didnt see who, since I was blindfolded. Journalist and activist Gildo Garza, right, reads the names of murdered journalists at a demonstration outside the federal attorney general's office in Mexico City. She stopped every few minutes to catch her breath and study the photo of her next target: the florist. Two weeks later, the tortured and decapitated body of Notivers police reporter was discovered. Police officers patrolling a remote area, favored by cartel members to move undetected, outside Reynosa, Mexico. The local government could connect to peoples phones and know at any moment what they were up to, one of the officials said in an interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The pressure worked. By the 2000s, the state of Veracruz, with its huge Gulf of Mexico port, oil industry and hidden trails, had become a key part of the route from South and Central America for cartels smuggling people, drugs and other contraband north to the United States. But look at how things ended for her. (Flix Mrquez/AP). It had just been fired, and there were no more rounds left in the weapon, Sheriff Mina said, adding that it was possible the suspect would have continued his rampage had the gun still been loaded. Zetas kill and behead 4 women. Watch the exact moment a man is executed with machine gun fire by cartel members until his guts protrude from his belly. The killing came just a day after Lpez Esquivel, 21, a female member of the Jalisco cartel, died during a showdown with Mexican cops in La Bocanda. A suspect, whom the authorities identified as Keith Melvin Moses, 19, was in custody by Wednesday evening and was charged with one count of murder in connection with the killing of the 38-year-old, whom the police previously described as being in her 20s. Then she donned a government uniform she had kept from an old, low-level job at the Health Ministry. She was identified as Christina Langford Johnson. At least 27 journalists have been killed in the state of Veracruz since 2003. Herreras presence set off alarms. She told her daughter that she would not rest until she found the people who had taken Karen. The details and information gathered by this woman, working all alone, were incredible., She had gone to every single level of government and they had slammed the door in her face, he recalled. He then had to be subdued after becoming physical with detectives, Sheriff Mina said. and he used them to keep order in some regions of the state., In 2012, after Martnezs death, Herreras name also surfaced in sworn testimony at the U.S. money-laundering trial of Veracruz oilman Francisco Colorado-Cessa in U.S. District Court in Austin. Halfway through the year, Adame's death brings to seven the 2017 toll of slain press . Mrs. Rodrguez, 56 at the time, grabbed him by the shirt and wrestled him to the rails. Lourdes Maldonado Lpez, a highly respected veteran local reporter was shot and killed on Sunday in the Santa Fe neighborhood of the northwestern border town of Tijuana, just south of San Diego, California, the Attorney General's Office of Baja California said in a published statement. She became a social media sleuth, spending countless hours trawling Karens Facebook profile, looking for clues. A month before she was killed, Mrs. Rodrguez broke her foot chasing down one of the last targets on her list, a young woman who had left town and begun working as a live-in nanny for a family in Ciudad Victoria. Mrs. Rodrguez, already separated from her husband, moved in with her older daughter, Azalea. For Karen, it was Cristian, the teenager Mrs. Rodrguez had fed. Both were taken to a nearby hospital, where the girl died. A scarf that belonged to Karen and a seat cushion from her truck lay near the top. Jun 30, 2017, 01:01 PM EDT. Enrique Pea Nieto, who once described Herrera as his best friend, ran and won the presidency instead. The inquiries attempted to determine whether Herrera could be related to money-laundering networks and have criminal relationships with important drug traffickers in Catalonia, said Toni Rodrguez, chief of the criminal investigation division of the Catalonian police force. A former Zetas cartel accountant, Jos Carlos Hinojosa, testified that Torres gave Colorado-Cessa $12million for the governors campaign in 2003. The first thing he asked was whether his two little sisters were safe. It was headline news in Mexico, with calls for a thorough investigation. Raul aka "Mini 6", born in 1991 and was killed by police in Jalisco in 2010 when he was 18 years old. Cartel violence has long scarred San . Miroslava Breach, 54, was shot eight times in her car while pulling out of her driveway to take one of her children to school. But the kidnappers knew exactly how to strike. Sign in Women Are Being Killed With Impunity. At least, until the following year, when rampant abductions of bus passengers led to the unearthing of nearly 200 bodies dumped in mass graves along San Fernandos peripheries. But Karen stayed, to finish school and help run her moms small cowboy apparel shop, Rodeo Boots. Many justify their silence with the belief that victims were engaged in illegal activity themselves. Escobar cheated with . A tough lawyer who had extradited cartel bosses, she brought 14 federal police officers with her. She would hunt them down, one by one, until the day she died. Duarte had none of Herreras political charm. The suspect killed a woman near Orlando on Wednesday morning, then returned later in the day and killed a 9-year-old girl and a journalist who was covering the original shooting, the authorities said. Since that day, theories have proliferated as to who fired. He drove over in a truck that his family let him use to get around town, and within seconds, armed men forced their way in, shoving him to the side and driving off just as the kidnappers had done to Karen six years earlier. The unit also collected personal information about them, including the names of family members and co-workers, places they frequented, their political affiliations and sexual orientations. Luciano was watching one of his sisters and couldnt be long, he messaged. Azalea hugged Lucianos mother for more than a minute, weeping. The authorities pledged to capture her killers. Im willing to take you to the ranch where they killed them and where their bodies should still be buried, he said in his statement to the police, referring to the victims of the kidnapping ring. In the years after Martnezs death, the mothers of the disappeared across Mexico formed collectives to demand that authorities find the bodies of their missing loved ones. There was never a single illicit penny in my campaign, he told the outlet Grupo Frmula in 2014. I am a man with clean hands.. Duartes public security secretary, Arturo Bermdez, was charged with heading a death squad that disappeared at least 15 people. Some of the culprits were dead, others in jail. To pay the first ransom, Mrs. Rodrguezs family took out a loan from a bank that offered lines of credit for such payments. On Jan. 23, as Karen prepared to merge into traffic, two trucks pulled up on either side, stopping her. The suspect killed a woman near Orlando on Wednesday morning, then returned later in the day and killed a 9-year-old girl and a journalist who was covering the original shooting, the authorities said. The following day, Lucianos father deposited a bag of cash on an abandoned dirt road that ran perpendicular to the highway, as Karens father had. In three years, Mrs. Rodrguez captured nearly every living member of the crew that had abducted her daughter for ransom, a rogues gallery of criminals who tried to start new lives as a born-again Christian, a taxi driver, a car salesman, a babysitter. It is being published by Forbidden Stories and its partners beginning today. Those who really control everything and who benefit most are powerful political figures and senior security-force officers., [Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexicos authority and claiming more territory]. He escaped the country in a helicopter and was later arrested in Guatemala. I would love to meet you one day.. Police said a witness had told them he had seen two men near Martnezs house hours before she was killed. They stripped their hopes to something far more basic the return of their son. Sheriff Mina emphasized that officials did not yet know the suspects motive for shooting five people or the nature of his connections to them. Meanwhile, she wrote in 2006, Herrera assures Veracruz that nothing is happening, that there is social tranquility in the state. Martnez was considered by her peers to be the leader of a group of five journalists whose reputations were above reproach. Others called, claiming to be the kidnappers. You Might Be Interested In. (Alberto Morales Garcia/Forbidden Stories). Drug cartel assassin from Colombia, 39, said loved to kill people and killed many. About five hours later, several 911 calls came in from the site of the first shooting. He slowly shrank, physically and spiritually, until his children struggled to recognize him. For Luis and Azalea, it was hard not to hear the parallels with their own mother, buried not 100 feet away. As the funeral crowd dispersed, Luis and Azalea went to their mothers grave, a church-like structure lined with cypress trees. She scoffed. Her stunning campaign recounted in case files, witness testimony, confessions from the criminals she tracked down and dozens of interviews with relatives, police officers, friends, officials and local residents changed San Fernando, for a while at least. But Mrs. Rodrguez fought the government on its analysis, and rightly so. Many of her peers believe he or Herrera was behind her homicide. . A man riding in a car with his cousin shot and killed another passenger then returned to the same neighborhood near Orlando hours later and shot four more people, killing a journalist covering. In August of this year, the family went to Mexico City to pressure the government. Mexican and U.S. authorities declined to say whether their investigations are still active. Veracruz, once best known for its thriving port, lush beaches and colonial architecture, got a new name: The mass grave of Mexico.. SAN FERNANDO, Mexico Miriam Rodrguez clutched a pistol in her purse as she ran past the morning crowds on the bridge to Texas. A disturbing video surfaced of . So many families never found their loved ones. Farmers and politicians. They either purge it and try to move on from their loved ones, or they sustain it, and it destroys them. It was an indicator that she was getting close and that the response from drug cartels had to be certain and definitive.. Law enforcement officers at the scene of a shooting in Pine Hills, Fla., on Wednesday. LEFT: Writer and journalist Elena Poniatowska holds a photo of Regina Martnez during a 2017 protest in Mexico City calling for an end to violence against journalists. The promise, then, was of a book that could not only be a rewarding read but a transcendental one, a novel that would be emblematic, even canonical. Her articles had an outsize impact. Unlike Mrs. Rodrguezs relentless pursuit of her daughters killers, Lucianos parents did not seek to punish the powerful cartel. 1. nycboots 3 days ago. Graphics by Daniela Santamaria. Los Zetas could not operate in Veracruz without his permission LEFT: Soldiers and police block off an area in Veracruz where 35 bodies were dumped on a roadway in September 2011. The greatest fear one could have as a parent is losing a child, said his mother, Mrs. Garza. Martnez pored over state spending records, writing in 2008 that Herrera invested millions from the budget in a failing soccer team called the Red Sharks owned by a friend. Argumedo, who has never before spoken publicly about her investigation, said he remembers that the graves were so full that the bodies were overflowing., One co-worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for personal safety reasons, remembers telling her: Regina, be very careful. In the time since Martnezs death, her instincts have been validated. And with every failed bid to reclaim Karen, she fell further into despair. She froze when she found a stack of personal belongings tossed in a pile. Her husband, inside watching television, found her face down on the street, hand tucked inside her purse, next to her pistol. Millan-Vasquez was found guilty last July of murder, violence, drug and weapons trafficking, and employing minors in a drug crime - a total of 10 counts. She needed a name. Off the motorways, dirt roads in the scrubland provide a web of smuggling routes ideal for traffickers. She parked on the street and lumbered out of the car, moving slowly because of her injury. The condition of the 9-year-olds mother, whose name has not been released, was unclear. The warning. XALAPA, Mexico Regina Martnez's death was brutal. She recognized him immediately from their lunch, the same slender frame and clean-shaven face. I very much regret each death and each person who receives some mistreatment. Rarely did she talk to her co-workers about her sensitive investigations. She is the Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland. Authorities responded around 9:58 p.m. Saturday to the intersection of routes 130 and 32 . But by then, the cousins were nowhere to be found. Her public campaign threatened more than just a few kidnappers. FORMER CBS News reporter Lara Logan was gang raped "with flagpoles and sticks" while covering the Arab Spring in Egypt nine years ago, she says in a new interview. When she returned, the officer asked her what she had been thinking. Bullet holes pockmarked the outer walls of the adobe house, remnants of a gunfight months earlier. Only after his sister opened his Facebook account did they realize what had happened. She held him there for nearly an hour, awaiting the police to make the arrest. Linares served as director at the Monitor Michoacan website, which on Tuesday continued to show an . The intersection where Mrs. Rodrguezs daughter, Karen, was kidnapped. He and others of his time were fortunate that the governors who followed them were successors theyd chosen from their own party who covered the traces of the previous corruption.. The woman had beaten and tortured Karen during the kidnapping, hanging her up like a boxing bag and punching her. 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