Brigades searched mile after mile of barren scrubland for signs of him. Rarely did she talk to her co-workers about her sensitive investigations. He also said hed had good luck since childhood, which is how he explained twice winning the national lottery, pocketing $6.8million in 2008 and $3.6million the following year. The series examines the power and activities of Mexican cartels and their collusion with corrupt government officials. Authorities in Mexico say a journalist has been murdered in Tijuana, the second killing of a media worker in the border city in less than a week and the latest in a string of killings in one of . Mrs. Garza ignored the calls, as Mrs. Rodrguez had, but the family asked for security from the government. Karens father dropped off a bag of cash near the health clinic, then waited in vain at the local cemetery for the kidnappers to free her. He called his mother and followed him, careful not to lose him before the police arrived. mexican woman sound . Now she finally had one a widow called to tell her that he was peddling flowers on the border. Luis arrived late to the funeral, after the procession had already made its way down streets lined with residents watching little Lucianos casket en route to the cemetery. But Karen stayed, to finish school and help run her moms small cowboy apparel shop, Rodeo Boots. Signs were displayed around San Fernando during the long search for Luciano Leal Garza, who was lured to a park and abducted in San Fernando. At 17, he was convicted for two murders and sentenced to 70 years in a Texas states prison . Luis took charge of the collective of San Fernando families with disappeared relatives that his slain mother had created. She invented excuses to meet their families, unsuspecting grandmothers and cousins who gave her details, however small. Lakhani, of the Guardian, is based in New York. One morning, while stretched across the sofa, she discovered a Facebook photograph tagged with the name Sama. That Karen and Mrs. Rodrguez now lay together was a small solace. He insisted that the cartel did not have her daughter, but offered to help find her for a fee of $2,000, and Mrs. Rodrguez paid. Luis and Azalea sat for a while as the suns bite softened, reminiscing in a way they rarely allowed themselves to do anymore. . On February 15, 2023, Vctor Hugo Lpez Ramrez, a criminal lawyer from Mexico City, was gunned down at a taco stand in the Zona Rio neighborhood of Tijuana. 1. nycboots 3 days ago. They had a sort of buzzer for giving electric shocks, and they put it on my chest and gave me shocks. Look, we all want to do what Miriam did, said the teenagers father, also named Luciano, on the three-month anniversary of his sons disappearance. In September, when the state police detained a cartel leader in San Fernando, he refused to cooperate. Just before her killing, Martnez had begun visiting pauper cemeteries in Veracruz to compare the number of bodies buried to official death records. They either purge it and try to move on from their loved ones, or they sustain it, and it destroys them. I would love to meet you one day.. Its really amazing, their bravery.. The international collaboration was organized by Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit group based in Paris whose mission is to continue the reporting of murdered journalists. At the time, the Veracruz government had set up a secret espionage unit to monitor critics, among them local journalists, according to two former officials with knowledge of the unit. Indian . (Alberto Morales Garcia/Forbidden Stories) RIGHT: Martnez with Patricio Chirinos Calero, former governor of Veracruz. On the bridge, she scoured the vendors for flower carts, but that day he was selling sunglasses instead. Frustrated, Mrs. Rodrguez redoubled her efforts to identify the rest of the crew, and before long had a stack of photos of Sama posing with others. Mexican authorities discovered the charred remains of Salvador Adame's body this week, more than a month after a group of armed assailants reportedly abducted the veteran TV reporter in the crime-plagued state of Michoacn. The day came on July 8, 2020, with an agreement to meet briefly in a park. He had learned the lesson her murder was meant to impart: one could only push so far for justice, at least publicly. But it came with a price. Lucianos father expressed gratitude. The corpses of 72 Central American migrants were discovered at this ranch. He was frightened during questioning. Her public campaign threatened more than just a few kidnappers. Many bars and restaurants had closed for fear of shootouts. The day after, the kidnappers said they wanted more. Dec. 6, 2020. to do drilling, to do cleanup, things like that anything that the government hired them to do, the accountant testified. Frightened colleagues sometimes tried to warn her off investigations. Last month, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) drug cartel, which is among Mexico's most powerful, released shocking footage of a rival gangster being interrogated and then slaughtered. Keith Melvin Moses (left), 19, shot and killed Nathacha Augustin, 38, T'yonna Major, 9, and Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons (right), 24, according The abandoned gas station on the edge of town where Lucianos father left the second ransom. When he finally did, she followed the couple home and marked their address. 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. Mr. Moses had walked into a brown house nearby and shot the 9-year-old girl and her mother, he said. Sure enough, she found him there. I dont care if they kill me, Mrs. Rodrguez once told Ms. Saldivar Villavicencio. In 2017, remains of 250 people were unearthed in Veracruz. This is the first in a series of five articles, called "The Cartel Project," involving 60 journalists from 18 countries. She quoted people saying they knew Herrera had given the orders. A colleague of Martnez said that she had calculated that the number of dead had increased tenfold in Veracruz between 2000 and 2012, a toll not reflected in official records. Sheriff Mina said his office would be conducting additional ballistic testing on the recovered gun. Bermdez has pleaded not guilty, and the case is pending. When I heard him just now it was like my own child.. His mother, Anabel Garza, charismatic and fearless, became a spokeswoman for the staggering number of missing people in Mexico more than 70,000 nationwide and the unrelenting tide of loss in a country where homicides have nearly doubled in the last five years alone. Source: Twitter. Having confessed to the murders of at least five men, she revealed she enjoyed both drinking the warm blood of her victims and having sex with the dead bodies following the homicide. They felt almost perfunctory now, performative. Anabel Garza Rivera and Luciano Leal Vela kneeling before the coffin of their murdered son. They spent weeks baiting Luciano with a false Facebook account of a young girl. Even before her death, Herrera was facing mounting allegations. One official claimed that investigators had managed to triangulate the location based on cellphone tower pings. Luis, Karens older brother, had moved away to escape the danger. 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.. She also documented a 40percent surge in violence under Herrera a family wiped out with submachine guns; a mayor shot at the airport; even the governors bodyguard, dead. SOUTH BRUNSWICK - Police have asked for the public's help in the investigation of a hit-and-run crash that killed an East Windsor woman Saturday night, announced the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. After a week, he stopped answering the phone. The assailant broke her jaw with brass knuckles, then wrapped a rag around her neck, squeezing the life out of the regions best hope for accountability and justice. These horrific crimes prompted the 15 reporters who covered crime in Veracruz to flee town, according to an investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Her family was not satisfied, but she didnt let that stop her. The dread twisted into rage. Zetas behead and dismember four women from the Gulf Cartel The video shows four women on their knees in a field, their hands tied behind their backs. The family doubted it would bring Karen home, but they sent the money anyway. Martnez was considered by her peers to be the leader of a group of five journalists whose reputations were above reproach. Duarte is serving a nine-year sentence for embezzlement and money laundering. Not long after Luciano was taken, the kidnappers called his father and handed the phone to the teenager. Eight others have disappeared. Herrera has not been charged with a crime, and he denied all the allegations against him. For the most part, residents dont speak out against organized crime. [The death of Mexican news in the age of drug cartels], The violence became news all over the world. The killers covered the site with trash to throw off anyone searching. For Luis and Azalea, it was hard not to hear the parallels with their own mother, buried not 100 feet away. The city of San Fernando has been scarred by a decade-long war between cartel factions. The demonic cartels left a message on the body: "This is for ALL [] The woman had beaten and tortured Karen during the kidnapping, hanging her up like a boxing bag and punching her. She had been hunting him for a year, stalking him online, interrogating the criminals he worked with, even befriending unwitting relatives for tips on his whereabouts. He outlawed crime reporting on social media an action that was quickly overturned in court. As Karen lay on the living room floor, bound and gagged, a knock came at the door: her uncles unsuspecting mechanic, who had come to work on the family truck. Benjamin LeBaron, an anti-crime activist who founded neighborhood patrols against cartels, was killed in 2009. For Karen, it was Cristian, the teenager Mrs. Rodrguez had fed. But the kidnappers knew exactly how to strike. 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. Even young women who attended their sex parties. 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. 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. 4:38 A gunman shot and killed a journalist in Tijuana Sunday. 1 min read. Mexican marines had killed six of the accomplices, Cristian said in his statement. Now he was on the run and back to what he knew, selling roses to make ends meet. the woman would have been killed in retaliation after the United Cartels did the same with a CJNG hit man identified as La Guadaa. At 10:21 p.m., she headed home; she was once again living with her husband in the small, orange house where Karen once stayed. [The search for the disappeared points to Mexicos darkest secrets], Martnez contacted photographer Julio Argumedo to take pictures for Proceso. Borbolla had other problems with the crime investigation, which was supposed to be done jointly with state authorities. You have all taught my family that together we can fight back, she said. Farmers and politicians. Since that day, theories have proliferated as to who fired. Forensic agents claimed that Karen was not among the dozens of bodies they had identified at the ranch. 34. She was identified as Christina Langford Johnson. LEFT: Martnez in an undated photo. Azalea hugged Lucianos mother for more than a minute, weeping. Luis Rodrguez during Luciano Leal Garzas funeral. It was a witchs brew, said Seeley, who now runs Constos Global Risk Management. It was an indicator that she was getting close and that the response from drug cartels had to be certain and definitive.. In June of that year, nearly a month after Mrs. Rodrguezs death, officials in the state of Veracruz, acting with information she had provided, arrested yet another suspect in Karens case. The story of Martnezs death and her work is the first of a five-part series, The Cartel Project, which involved 60 journalists from 25 media outlets. In the first shooting on Wednesday, the suspect fatally shot Ms. Augustin around 11 a.m. as she was in the car with the suspects cousin, Sheriff Mina said, adding that it was unclear whether the suspect knew the victim personally. And I wouldnt kill anyone because Im already dying bit by bit since I have HIV., Coq described Silva as the perfect scapegoat.. In Mexico, politicians rely on narcos for campaign funds. About five hours later, several 911 calls came in from the site of the first shooting. At barely 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, she scratched and struggled to fight off her attacker, leaving skin under her fingernails. It is being published by Forbidden Stories and its partners beginning today. Martnezs homicide shocked many who assumed a reporter at such a respected national outlet was too high-profile to be killed. Police said a witness had told them he had seen two men near Martnezs house hours before she was killed. Duarte, had used public funds to purchase fake chemotherapy medication for children. Family, friends, even strangers. (Flix Mrquez/AP). Abigail Geiger contributed reporting from Orlando, Fla. New Details Emerge in Killing of Reporter, Woman and 9-Year-Old, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/us/florida-shooting-news.html. A mother of two sons killed by fentanyl gave emotional testimony Tuesday at the House Homeland Security hearing on the border crisis. The shooting stunned some of the local reporters who were also on the scene that day, as well as some of their colleagues, who expressed disbelief on Twitter that journalists had been attacked while doing their jobs. The Client Who Got Him Killed. He was like a clown in a rodeo. At around 4 p.m., Mr. Moses returned to the site and shot two Spectrum News 13 journalists who were in a vehicle near the homicide scene, Sheriff Mina said. LEFT: Soldiers and police block off an area in Veracruz where 35 bodies were dumped on a roadway in September 2011. The police said they sent periodic patrols by her home and work. To gather information for this account, reporters traveled to Veracruz for interviews and to obtain documents. If you move, Ill shoot you, she told him, according to family members involved in her scramble to capture the florist that day. The vicious Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) are considered the most dangerous and powerful criminal enterprise in Mexico. The gunman shot two other people in Pine Hills, Fla., the Orange County Sheriffs Office said in a news conference on Wednesday: the mother of the 9-year-old and a photographer who worked with the TV news reporter at Spectrum News 13 in Orlando. In custody, he filled in details missing from Mrs. Rodrguezs investigation, coughing up the names and locations of some accomplices. Borbolla said she believed Enoc Maldonado Caraza, chief of the Veracruz Investigative Agency, delayed handing over other evidence. Instead, he agreed to become a political adviser to the PRI, Mexicos long-ruling conservative party. True to form, Mrs. Rodrguez spent days parked near the familys home, waiting for the young woman to emerge. A female cartel boss known as "La Doa" has been sentenced to 22 years in prison in the US after her two sons were murdered in killings that could have been a warning not to cooperate with US. She had said as much in her time, words now carved onto a plaque affixed to her mausoleum. Sheriff Mina said on Thursday that the news vehicle didnt have any markings that stood out, adding that the suspect had passed by another news vehicle.. The gunman, a former reporter for the TV station . Eventually, she found a federal policeman willing to assist. 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. His son, Javier, said via Twitter that his father was ill and unable to comment: My father has been in a hospital since April; this is a fact that you can easily corroborate; he suffered a stroke in April and has been in intensive care ever since. Drivers circled town playing it over a loudspeaker. In August of this year, the family went to Mexico City to pressure the government. As a private lawyer, he was also representing the LeBaron family, a family with dual US-Mexico citizenship that lost nine. Lucianos family paid two ransoms for their son, just as Mrs. Rodrguezs family had in its fruitless attempt to free Karen. After tracing the fake Facebook account, the police discovered what Mrs. Garza had long suspected that several of her cousins were involved in organized crime and had teamed up with local cartel members to extort the family. The country is so torn apart by violence and impunity that a grieving mother had to solve the disappearance of her daughter largely on her own, and died violently because of it. The reports led to a government investigation that eventually stalled. The place where the body of 14-year-old Luciano Leal Garza was found. On the drive back from the ranch, Mrs. Rodrguez passed a barbecue restaurant near the entrance of the dirt road to the ranch. But Mrs. Rodrguez fought the government on its analysis, and rightly so. They were both in critical condition on Wednesday night. . A lot of Narcos: Mexico is based on truth and is a retelling of historical events, but not everything is actually what happened. Drug cartel assassin from Colombia, 39, said loved to kill people and killed many. We learn how to do that in the first year of criminal studies and it didnt happen only once.. 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. One of these five, who asked to remain anonymous for personal safety reasons, nicknamed this group the band of undesirables. Martnez and the other four journalists often coordinated to publish sensitive news simultaneously to cover up which one had done the work and to ensure that no one journalist was stranded at sea.. Mexican marines had killed six of the collective of San Fernando has been by. The young woman to Emerge the vicious Jalisco New Generation cartel ( CJNG ) are considered the dangerous. To her mausoleum that he was also representing the LeBaron family, a family with dual US-Mexico that... 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