Javier Valdez, who wrote several books on Mexico's drug traffickers, was murdered in 2017.
A man convicted of the homicide of a journalist in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in 2017 was sentenced on Thursday to 32 years and three months in prison.
A Culiacán court last week found Juan Francisco “El Quillo” Picos Barrueta guilty of the May 15, 2017 murder of Javier Valdez Cárdenas, founder of the weekly newspaper Río Doce.
Picos Barrueta is the second person to be sentenced for the crime after Heriberto Picos Barraza, also known as “El Koala,” was sent to jail for almost 15 years in February 2020. Picos Barraza, El Quillo’s cousin, was driving a car used to intercept Valdez near the Rio Doce offices in Culiacán.
Picos Barrueta shot the 50-year-old journalist. Another man, Luis Ildefonso “El Diablo” Sánchez Romero, also allegedly shot Valdez but was murdered himself in September 2017.
Federal prosecutors brought 32 witnesses before a judge to support its argument that the killing of Valdez, who also contributed to the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada, was premeditated and in retaliation for articles he had written about organized crime.
Valdez’s murder was found to be retaliation for a series of stories he wrote about Sinaloa Cartel leaders Dámaso López Núñez, also known as “El Licenciado” (The Graduate), and his son, Dámaso “El Mini Lic” López Serrano. (“Lic” is a nickname for one who is a licenciado.)
The latter, currently imprisoned in the United States on drug trafficking charges, allegedly ordered the homicide.
Last year, Picos Barrueta rejected an offer of a prison sentence of 20 years and eight months in exchange for accepting responsibility for the murder. He turned the offer down because he had previously been offered a term of 14 years and eight months. Prosecutors increased the length of the sentence on offer because Picos Barrueta also faced weapons charges in Mexicali, Baja California, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the sentencing of Picos Barrueta is “an important and welcome step forward to end impunity in a murder that shocked Mexico and the world.”
“We now call on the Federal Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression to continue pushing for justice in the case and pursue the extradition of Dámaso López Serrano so that he can be tried in Mexico and be held accountable,” he added.
PAN Senator Julen Rementería accused the government of energy policy 'ineptitude' and predicted higher electric bills and more blackouts this summer.
The federal government has rejected claims there will be power outages this summer due to high demand for electricity and policies that make it harder for private companies to enter the Mexican energy market.
The leader of the National Action Party (PAN) in the upper house of Congress said Thursday that there have been at least nine major blackouts due to government “ineptitude” and asserted that there will be more.
“So far in this six-year term [of government], we’ve suffered at least nine massive power outages, and they always look for whom to blame. When it’s not hurricanes, it’s the wind or snowfall. The truth is that the origin is ineptitude,” Senator Julen Rementería said.
“… If every year, the need for more energy grows between 3% and 4% in the country, this has to be covered by energy that is generated in some way,” he said. “But if the Federal Electricity Commission [CFE] doesn’t invest in transmission and generation of energy and if the participation of renewable energy companies is not permitted, we will continue suffering the consequences: more expensive power bills and of course more blackouts,” Rementería said.
The federal government published a new energy policy last year that imposed restrictive measures on the renewable energy sector but it was subsequently suspended by the Supreme Court. President López Obrador, a staunch energy nationalist, is also attempting to overhaul the electricity market to favor the state-owned CFE, but his government is facing stern legal opposition from numerous private companies. In addition, the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) suspended national grid trials last year for renewable energy projects, justifying the decision by saying that the reliability of supply had to be guaranteed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bartlett said that there is a media onslaught against him and the CFE by those who want to hand control of Mexico’s electricity market to foreign companies. File photo
Rementería claimed that more than half of Mexico’s population has been affected by power outages in the 2 1/2 years since the current federal government took office and asserted that a change in energy policy is needed. Almost 2,000 blackouts have affected Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, alone this year, creating water supply water problems in the northern border city.
“What has to be done at the Federal Electricity Commission is to make technical and economic decisions instead of ideological ones,” the PAN senator said. He also stressed the need to have trained experts at the CFE, as well as at the state oil company Pemex and at Cenace, to reactivate auctions for energy generators to sell power to the CFE and to invest in renewable energy.
“Mexican homes need sufficient, cheap and clean energy whose flow is continuous, but for that to happen, we have to correct the course the government is taking … because up until now, they’ve unfortunately got the strategy wrong … and who suffers the consequences is the population of our country.”
Several media outlets published articles on Thursday about the risk of power outages this summer. The newspaper Reforma said “while the government hinders the entry into operation of private generators that produce cheap and clean electricity, the CFE could face blackouts this summer due to the lack of capacity to meet demand.”
Some reports said the CFE could periodically cut power supply to some parts of the country to ensure that the entire electricity system doesn’t collapse due to high demand. It has previously done so on a scheduled, staggered basis to reduce pressure when needed on the national system.
But López Obrador, his communications coordinator Jesús Ramírez and CFE director Manuel Bartlett all rejected the claims that Mexico will suffer blackouts — intentional or otherwise — in the coming months.
CFE distribution chief Guillermo Nevárez Elizondo said the state-owned utility is ready to maintain power through adverse weather conditions.
Bartlett claimed Thursday that a “dirty war” against the company he heads is underway.
“We guarantee that the CFE will be at the service of the population and that we’re going to do everything so that there are no outages. We’re all ready,” he said.
“… Stop spending your money on dirty campaigns, you’re not going to achieve anything,” Bartlett said after claiming that unnamed people who want to abolish the CFE and hand control of Mexico’s electricity market to foreign companies are funding a media onslaught against him and the state-owned utility.
“We’re going to rescue the CFE [from what the government calls years of neglect] despite the personal attacks, the lies, the whole campaign paid for by those who want to conserve their dirty tricks,” he said.
CFE distribution chief Guillermo Nevárez Elizondo said there will be no scheduled power outages and provided an assurance that the state-owned utility is prepared to maintain electricity supply in any adverse weather conditions that might occur.
Reports of groping and other sexual acts are not uncommon on the Mexico City Metro, but police officers are not normally at the center of them.
One cop is now without a job after a video captured him touching a woman’s butt in the Metro while on duty.
The officer, a member of the Bank and Industrial Police, was at the Line 3 Juárez station of the Metro. In the video, which was recorded by another officer, a blue-haired woman appears with her skirt lifted.
Both the cop and the woman can be seen glancing around to make sure no one is watching.
City officials fired the police officer as a result.
In other police-related news, on Tuesday a man in the Historic Center of Mexico City hit a transit official with his car then fled in an attempt to avoid being fined. The maneuver was unsuccessful; minutes later, the man was apprehended by police.
The US raised its travel warnings for Baja California, which includes tourism destinations like Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada.
The United States raised its travel alerts Thursday for two Mexican states and downgraded them for four others.
The Department of State increased its warnings for Baja California and Guanajuato from Level 2 “Exercise increased caution” to Level 3 “Reconsider travel.”
The updated travel advisory cited crime and kidnapping as dangers in Baja California, home to cities such as Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada.
“Violent crime and gang activity are common. Of particular concern is the high number of homicides in the non-tourist areas of Tijuana. Most homicides appeared to be targeted; however, criminal organization assassinations and territorial disputes can result in bystanders being injured or killed. U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) have been victims of kidnapping,” the State Department said.
The advisory warns citizens to reconsider travel to Guanajuato — currently Mexico’s most violent state and home to popular expatriate and tourism destinations such as Guanajuato city and San Miguel de Allende — due to crime.
“Gang violence, often associated with the theft of petroleum and natural gas from the state oil company and other suppliers, occurs in Guanajuato, primarily in the south and central areas of the state. Of particular concern is the high number of murders in the southern region of the state associated with cartel-related violence,” the State Department said.
The new travel advisory downgrades the alerts for Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí from Level 3 to Level 2 and reduces those for Campeche and Yucatán from Level 2 to Level 1, or “Exercise normal precautions.”
The latest advisory continues to warn U.S. citizens not to travel to five Level 4 states — Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas — due to crime and kidnapping.
There are 11 Level 3 states: Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México state, Morelos, Nayarit, Sonora and Zacatecas.
The State Department advises citizens to reconsider travel to eight of those states due to crime and kidnapping, while for three — Durango, Guanajuato, Nayarit — crime is the only cited risk.
There are 14 Level 2 states: Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Mexico City, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and Veracruz. Campeche and Yucatán are the only Level 1 states.
The United States alert level for Mexico as a whole remains at Level 3, having been downgraded earlier this month, citing the CDC’s Level 3 Travel Health Notice for the country, indicating a high level of the disease in Mexico.
It also says that “violent crime — such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery — is widespread and common in Mexico.” and warns that “the U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in many areas of Mexico, as travel by U.S. government employees to certain areas is prohibited or restricted.”
Bartlett denies allegations by the magazine Proceso that US Department of Justice officials want to question him about the murder of DEA special agent Enrique Camarena in 1985.
Manuel Bartlett Díaz, director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), has denied that he is being investigated by the United States government in connection with the 1985 murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a crime that occurred when he was federal interior minister.
His denial on Thursday came almost a month after the news magazine Proceso published a report that cited U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials saying that he would be immediately detained in connection with the abduction, torture and murder of Camarena if he were to set foot in the U.S.
Bartlett, also a former governor of Puebla, former federal education minister and ex-secretary general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, told a press conference that the assertion that he is under investigation in the United States is “a lie” and “false.”
He claimed that the Proceso article — and the cover page on which he appeared under the title “United States insists on questioning Bartlett” — was funded by people who want to abolish the CFE and hand control of Mexico’s electricity market to foreign companies.
“[The report] is a lie, a fallacy. … They brought it out a few days before the [June 6] elections. It’s shamelessness; it’s a paid front cover [story],” Bartlett said.
DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, seen here with his wife Mika, was kidnapped and killed by orders of the Guadalajara Cartel.
The 85-year-old also asserted that the report is a “rehash” of a “false” story from three years ago. He claimed that its publication is an attempt to intimidate him and the federal government into not carrying out energy sector changes to favor the CFE over private companies.
But Bartlett said he wouldn’t be intimidated, declaring that “we’re going to continue to defend the national interest.”
President López Obrador said this week his administration had no knowledge of such an investigation and claimed the Proceso report was part of a “smear campaign” against his government.
The Proceso report is based on an interview with unnamed DOJ officials and extracts from a government file on the case.
“His name appears numerous times and on various pages of the investigation files that are open in the Camarena case,” one U.S. official told Proceso. “If he [Bartlett] enters the United States he will be detained for questioning.”
“Mr. Bartlett knows that his name has been mentioned during the decades that this investigation into the Camarena case has been going on, and that is why he would have to testify before a grand jury,” said another Department of Justice official.
President López Obrador says he knows of no US investigation of Bartlett and that the Proceso report is a ‘smear campaign’ against his administration.
Camarena, a Mexican-born special agent, was abducted on February 7, 1985 in Guadalajara and killed two days later on the orders of Guadalajara Cartel leaders Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero. The traffickers allegedly operated in cahoots with both federal and state authorities in Jalisco.
Proceso said the documents it obtained — which it said are currently “sealed in a federal court in California” — state that Bartlett, as interior minister in former president Miguel de la Madrid’s government, participated in meetings between drug traffickers and officials before the abduction of Camarena and after his murder.
Proceso said the Department of Justice officials confirmed the authenticity of the documents it obtained, in which other de la Madrid officials, including national defense minister Juan Arévalo Gardoqui and José Antonio Zorrilla Pérez, director of the now-defunct Federal Directorate of Security, are also mentioned.
Bartlett Díaz “was ultimately responsible for the Federal Directorate of Security (DFS). DFS was so deeply involved with the traffickers that witnesses have testified that it was impossible to tell the difference between them. There are approximately 800 DEA files reflecting reports of DFS corruption from 1980–1990,” one document said.
“Bartlett Díaz was present at several pre-abduction meetings during which the kidnapping of S/A [special agent] Camarena was discussed,” it said, adding that witnesses “have also placed” the then interior minister at 881 Lope de Vega street in Guadalajara on the night of February 7, 1985 — the day Camarena was abducted.
Proceso said the house on Lope de Vega street belonged to Rubén Zuno Arce, brother-in-law of Luis Echeverría Álvarez, president of Mexico between 1970 and 1976.
From left: Guadalajara Cartel leaders Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carillo.
“It was at that property where Camarena was interrogated with atrocious torture methods before he was murdered,” Proceso said.
The same document said the CFE chief “was reported to have attended a meeting in Mexico City on February 25, 1985, regarding information leaks to DEA” adding that “an eyewitness said that a copy of the Camarena interrogation tapes were delivered to Bartlett Díaz.”
Another government file extract obtained by Proceso cited a witness as saying that he or she on February 7, 1985 “looked into one of the main living rooms of the residence” owned by Zuno Arce and saw numerous officials including Bartlett, Arévalo, Zorrilla, then Jalisco governor Enrique Álvarez del Castillo, then Interpol Mexico director Miguel Aldana Ibarra and then Federal Judicial Police director Manuel Ibarra Herrera as well as traffickers, including Félix Gallardo.
The witness stated that “during this time period he/she noted that Fonseca Carillo was not present at the residence but that he returned a short time later,” the document said.
Another document obtained by Proceso cited a witness as saying that Bartlett and other officials attended a meeting a few days before the abduction of Camarena at a house in Zapopan, Jalisco, owned by Caro Quintero. Félix Gallardo and Fonseca Carillo were also allegedly present.
A Department of Justice official told Proceso that if Bartlett was questioned in the United States, “he would have to make a lot of clarifications about why different witnesses, who don’t even know each other, insist on involving him in the case of the abduction, torture and murder of Camarena.”
Rubén Zuno Arce, whose Guadalajara home Bartlett and others allegedly met in to discuss Camarena, died in a US prison in 2012.
A DOJ official told the magazine that Bartlett hired a group of private investigators and lawyers in 1997 — he was governor of Puebla at the time — to find out everything they could about the protected witnesses that have linked him to the Camarena case.
“His intention was to discredit the witnesses. His investigators compiled their sins, reports that they were corrupt police officers, that they had committed murders on the orders of drug traffickers, that they raped women, that they were unfaithful, that they had children with various wives. … His idea was to strip them off their credibility,” the official said.
The official said that lawyers for Bartlett delivered the information the investigators dug up about the witnesses to a court in California.
“But the grand jury and the judge rejected [the information] because there wasn’t anything that wasn’t known and it was considered a ploy by Bartlett Díaz to avoid being questioned,” the DOJ official said.
Asked by Proceso whether Bartlett has been to the United States “since he has been mentioned in the Camarena case,” the official responded: “That’s personal and confidential information, so I’m prevented from speaking about the point.”
Proceso noted in its report that “it’s public knowledge that Bartlett Díaz denies any reference that links him to the case of the abduction, torture and murder of the DEA agent.”
Rafael Caro Quintero is on the DEA’s most wanted fugitives list after being released on a technicality from a Mexican prison in 2013. DEA
However, there are two “indisputable things,” the report added, asserting that the first is that while the investigation into the Camarena case continues, Bartlett will be detained for questioning if he enters the United States.
“The second is that his name is mentioned on many occasions and in different circumstances in declassified investigation documents, which are in a federal court in Los Angeles, California.”
United States journalist Charles Bowden has also compiled eyewitness accounts describing Bartlett’s alleged involvement in the decision to kidnap, torture and murder Camarena in order to put an end to his operation against the Guadalajara Cartel.
Ignacio Morales Lechuga, attorney general during the latter half of the 1988–1994 government of former president Carlos Salinas, said late last year that when he was the country’s top legal officer he met with United States attorney general William Barr, FBI director William Sessions and DEA administrator Robert Bonner and “they asked me to extradite Manuel Bartlett, Enrique Álvarez del Castillo and Juan Arévalo, who they accused of being the intellectual authors of the murder of Camarena.”
However, the extraditions never occurred, and Álvarez, the former Jalisco governor, and Arévalo, the defense minister when Bartlett was interior minister, are now deceased.
Sánchez was one of two journalists killed this week.
Oaxaca journalist Gustavo Sánchez was murdered Thursday morning despite having protective measures that had been provided by the state’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights.
Sánchez was killed in the community of Morros de Mazatán, located in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec municipality of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec. He had protective measures in place after he said he had been threatened by the Mayor Vilma Martínez.
According to state police, the victim was riding a motorcycle with another person when they were attacked by a group of armed men. The aggressors fled on foot, leaving Sánchez dead of a gunshot to the head, and his companion wounded.
It was not the first attack on the journalist. A year ago, Sánchez was the target of an armed attack on his home. In testimony to human rights officials, Sánchez blamed the attack on Martínez.
Attorney General Arturo Peimbert said investigators are working with a witness and have evidence of who was responsible for the attack.
The head of the Office for the Defense of Human Rights said the authorities’ efforts to protect Sánchez would be evaluated.
Just before Sánchez’s death came the news of another journalist killed in the city of Metepec in México state. Enrique García was killed around midnight on Wednesday in what appears to be a robbery. He was shot while driving home.
In 2020, Mexico ranked as the deadliest country for journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Mexico is suffering a multi-faceted crisis with regard to press freedom. The situation has been getting steadily worse over the past few years, culminating in the country’s abysmal status as the world’s deadliest for reporters in 2020. The crisis principally stems from impunity,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative in 2020.
A father and son were killed by lightning this week after seeking shelter beneath a tree in the Central Valleys region of Oaxaca.
Emergency personnel responded to the incident only to find that the two victims had already died.
They were identified as Cirilo, 58, and Sergio, 23 years old of San Nicolás Yaxe. Their families said they went out to take care of livestock, then sought shelter from the rain under a tree.
The two men are the third and fourth casualties of this year’s rainy season in Oaxaca. The other two deaths were river drownings.
Heavy rains have hit the state in the past few days, leading to widespread flooding in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. At least 15 neighborhoods in Ciudad Ixtepec were flooded and 33 communities were inaccessible as of Thursday.
In Juchitán, the Perros River overflowed its banks, causing flooding in low-lying areas of the city
The rains have also damaged highways that connect Oaxaca city to Puerto Ángel and Puerto Escondido.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz will be one of the guests at this year's Hay Festival.
The 2021 Hay Festival in Querétaro will be presented this year under a new hybrid model: 30% of events will be in person, while the rest will be online.
The festival, a celebration of culture and ideas that will be held from September 1 to 5, will present all its concerts in person, as well as 33 discussions and workshops. All events are free.
Festival director Cristina Fuentes explained that the hybrid model will allow conversations that can only take place in person.
“Now more than ever we are lacking conversation, which the Hay Festival has always created: a space to discuss, to imagine the world and to give space to the experts,” Fuentes said. “In this culture of social media, where everything is black and white, we lack time to converse and imagine a new world.”
The program will include 170 participants, including four Nobel Prize winners: Svetlana Alexievich and J.M.G. Le Clézio, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, as well as Joseph Stiglitz and Esther Duflo, who won the Nobel in economics.
Other participants include Mexican writers Sabina Berman, Élmer Mendoza, Fernanda Melchor and Juan Villoro and international authors including Pilar Quintana, Santiago Roncagliolo, Amin Maalouf, David Grossman and Patrick Deville.
But the festival does not stop with literature. Scientist Avi Loeb, pianist James Rhodes, feminist collective LASTESIS and Café Tacvba guitarist and composer Joselo Rangel will also be participating in the program.
One of the Covid-sniffing dogs gives a demonstration in Yucatán.
Yucátan has two new weapons in the fight against Covid-19: Hocky and Kadet are German shepherds specially trained to detect cases of the disease based on smell.
The dogs are now part of the K-9 unit of the state’s Ministry of Public Security (SSP).
The dogs were born in Poland and Slovenia but trained in a special program in San Antonio, Texas, said Yucátan Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal. There, they learned a new technique designed by French doctor Dominique Grandjean in which the dogs detect Covid-positive patients by smelling their underarm sweat. Studies show that the technique is 95% effective.
The new K-9 unit members were acquired as part of a transfer of gear and resources from the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), arranged through the U.S. consulate in Mérida.
The INL also provided the Yucátan SSP with canine instructor training, five Ford Explorers modified for canine transportation, and eight dogs trained to detect drugs, weapons and cash.
A worker removes debris from the Metro Line 12 accident site.
Almost one-third of the elevated section of the Mexico City Metro’s Line 12, where an accident last month killed 26 people, shows signs of damage, the Mexican College of Civil Engineers said Thursday.
Bernardo Gómez Gonzáles, head of the college’s structural safety technical committee, told a press conference that 101 experts inspected most of the elevated section of the subway line, which runs between Atlalilco and Tláhuac stations, both in the Iztapalapa borough.
Gómez said the inspection determined that 32% of the elevated section of Line 12, the Metro system’s newest, has “grade B” damage that requires repair.
Among the problems engineers detected were cracks in concrete support columns, insufficient separation between steel beams and concrete slabs on the overpass and welding deficiencies.
The sections on the line where damage was found are not necessarily “high-risk” but “must be analyzed with greater detail,” Gómez said, adding that 68% of the elevated section has “grade C” damage, or common wear and tear, that requires routine maintenance.
The committee Gómez heads advised against resuming services on any section of the line until further inspections and the required repair work are carried out.
It offered that advice even though inspections haven’t identified any structural problems with the underground section of the line, which continued to operate in 2014 while the elevated section was closed for repairs.
“The tunnel section of Line 12 of the Metro doesn’t have structural damage nor deformations that place its stability at risk,” said Francisco Suárez Fino, president of the Mexican College of Civil Engineers’ tunnels and underground projects association.
“The main problems it has are due to [water] leaks … that, with adequate maintenance and an efficient water capture and management system, can be resolved,” he said.
