Víctor Villegas and Brenda Guzmán allege that San Luis Potosí officers assaulted them and caused Guzmán to miscarry.
A San Luis Potosí couple have accused state police of an unwarranted assault that caused the woman to lose her unborn baby.
According to the news website Infobae, police arrived outside the San Luis Potosí city home of Víctor Villegas and Brenda Guzmán on May 1 because a neighbor complained that a vehicle was blocking access to his house.
Officers from the state police metropolitan force responded to the call and are alleged to have physically assaulted the couple, both of whom are doctors.
Infobae reported that Villegas and Guzmán were initially involved in an argument with police over the improperly parked car because the officers wanted to impound it due to registration irregularities.
The couple were involved in a scuffle with the officers when the police indicated that they were going to arrest them. Guzmán says she suffered injuries inflicted by a policewoman that caused her to lose her baby hours later. She was allegedly yanked and hit in the abdomen by the officer.
Villegas and Guzmán met on Thursday with Edgardo Hernández Contreras, a state deputy and president of the public security committee of the state Congress.
Due to what they said was the indifference of authorities to what happened to them, the couple sought the assistance of the committee. Villegas and Guzmán, who have filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE), said they were the victims of police abuse and demanded that the officers responsible be held to account.
“We have no way of demanding that the life of our child be given back to us — it’s impossible — but justice should at least be served, and hopefully this won’t happen to anyone else,” Villegas said.
The state Public Security Ministry (SSPE) told Infobae that five officers involved in the incident — three men and two women — currently remain at their jobs. The FGE is investigating and will determine whether the officers have a case to answer, the SSPE said.
The Attorney General’s Office said Thursday that its investigation was 80% complete and that it expected it would be finalized in the coming days.
Hernández, the state deputy, said police committed “shocking” and “unforgivable” acts of violence that resulted in a tragedy for both Guzmán and Villegas. He attributed the incident to a lack of police training.
The lawmaker pledged to support the couple in their fight for justice, asserting that it’s “necessary to continue working to avoid these kinds of police abuse.”
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) recently published a call for tenders to build five electrical generation plants around the country, but with one notable omission. A plant for Baja California Sur was not included.
In March, the CFE said it would publish a call for tenders for a combined cycle plant in the state, with construction to start in 2021. Yet in April it published calls for tenders for five new plants as part of its business plan for 2021 to 2025 but made no mention of Baja California Sur.
It turns out that the business plan for that period now calls for the new plant to begin operating in 2024.
President López Obrador said during a visit to the state in August last year that a new plant would be build “in the short term” and end the power blackouts.
Meanwhile, the blackouts continue due to what the CFE has called “technical failures” and “deficits in energy generation.” Similar reasons were cited for blackouts in the summer of 2019.
The outages have come as summer temperatures begin to rise, creating more demand for electricity as people turn on their air conditioners.
“The blackouts started in May, a situation that will make us more vulnerable to energy shortages in the month of August, when temperatures peak and a fan or even air conditioner are basic necessities in any Baja California home,” said Senator Audelia Villarreal, who had questioned the new plant’s absence in the call for tenders.
She called on the CFE to resolve the energy shortages, and asked that it CFE provide more information on the cause of the energy shortage. She explained that the exclusion of her state from the call for tenders was a grave setback.
Valle de Bravo candidate Zudikey Rodríguez was kidnapped and told to drop out of the June 6 election. She hasn't campaigned since.
Criminal groups are threatening, installing and even kidnapping political candidates in México state as they seek favorable conditions to operate under after the June 6 elections.
The newspaper Reforma spoke with local leaders of several political parties, who revealed that threats have been made against their candidates in Valle de Bravo, Donato Guerra, Ixtapan de la Sal, Tejupilco, Temascaltepec and Sultepec, all municipalities in southern México state, where there is a strong criminal presence.
In Donato Guerra, which borders Michoacán, criminal groups blocked Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Mayor Eliza Ojeda from seeking reelection, Reforma reported. They also prevented her husband, Tomás Octaviano Félix, from contesting the mayoral election.
Criminal groups demanded that Carmen Albarrán be installed as the mayoral candidate for a coalition made up of the PRD, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN).
Those three parties formed an alliance in December to increase their chances of beating Morena party candidates in many municipalities and federal and state electoral districts across Mexico.
According to the newspaper Reforma, organized crime prevented Donata Guerra Mayor Eliza Ojeda (seen here in 2019) from seeking reelection on June 6. From Twitter
In Sultepec, which borders Guerrero, coalition candidate Luisa Martínez González has received threats from organized crime, Reforma said. The PRD has reported the threats to México state electoral authorities but the state government has not publicly commented on organized crime’s intervention in the electoral process.
In Temascaltepec, criminal groups also allegedly “imposed” the Morena party candidate for mayor, and in Tejupilco, part of México state’s Tierra Caliente region, PRI-PAN-PRD candidate Rigoberto López has received threats.
In Valle de Bravo, a popular tourist town and weekend destination for Mexico City residents, organized crime took an even more hands-on approach this week.
Zudikey Rodríguez, mayoral candidate for the PRI-PAN-PRD coalition, was kidnapped on Monday while she was campaigning at the Velo de Novia waterfall in Avándaro, a nearby town. The former sprinter and hurdler who competed at the 2008 Olympic Games was allegedly abducted by members of the Familia Michoacana cartel.
According to witness accounts cited by noted political columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio in a piece published by the news website Eje Central on Thursday, Rodríguez was approached by two people and subsequently forced into a vehicle. Riva wrote that the candidate was driven 64 kilometers to Tejupilco, where a “person soaked in alcohol surrounded by an armed group” told her: “’Look, Zudy, they’ve ordered me to kill you, but I’m going to spare your life. I just ask you to hide and drop out of the campaign.’”
Rodríguez asked whether she should leave the country and the person — who Riva said has been identified as Familia Michoacana leader Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, also known as “El Pez” (The Fish) — reiterated that she should go into hiding and withdraw her candidacy for mayor.
In México state, criminal groups allegedly demanded that Carmen Albarrán be installed as a mayoral candidate in Donata Guerra and threatened Tejupilco mayoral candidate Rigoberto López.
Hurtado and his brother José Alfredo lead a faction of the Familia Michoacana that has operated for more than a decade in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero and which controls the “criminal corridor” between Arcelia, Guerrero, and Valle de Bravo, Riva wrote. He said the criminal cell is currently in an alliance with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, generally considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization.
“’El Pez’ could have killed Rodríguez without any problem, but it’s clear that wasn’t his final intention. They [the Familia Michoacana] wanted to intimidate her. They wanted her to abandon her electoral campaign without violence and without attracting national attention. So far, it has to be said, they achieved it: after the same criminals who abducted her at the Velo de Novia [waterfall] returned her to Avándaro, Rodríguez went into hiding,” Riva wrote.
The former candidate, who hadn’t been seen in public since her abduction, appeared in a video on Thursday in which she said that she was well. She thanked her team for their “unconditional support” but didn’t speak about her political campaign or ask citizens to vote for her on June 6.
Riva wrote that the motivation for the Familia Michoacana’s actions was to help the Morena party mayoral candidate, Michelle Núñez.
“This hadn’t happened before. The Olascoaga brothers had injected resources into electoral campaigns, according to people with knowledge of the political life in the south of México state, to gain protection, install their people in the municipal ministries of Security and Public Works or to pressure and extort council members. … What is unprecedented is that they bet on a specific candidate,” he wrote.
At the same time as Rodríguez was kidnapped, Riva wrote, federal customs chief Horacio Duarte — in concert “deliberately or coincidentally” with the criminals — arrived unannounced at the offices of the current PRI mayor of Valle de Bravo, Mauricio Osorio, to warn him to withdraw his support for the PRI-PAN-PRD candidate.
Morena party candidate Michelle Nuñez campaigning in April in Valle de Bravo.
Duarte, who is apparently close to Núñez, allegedly threatened to have the federal tax agency, SAT, of which customs is part, investigate the mayor if he didn’t do as he was told.
Citing information provided by people who personally know Rodríguez, Riva also wrote that people identified as members of Morena are watching her house to see who is visiting her. The aim, he said, is to infer whether the former athlete still plans to contest the June 6 election.
“… The state can’t allow actions of this nature in which a criminal group meddles in an electoral process where — if their apparent candidate is successful — they will implant criminal power into public power,” the columnist wrote.
He urged the federal government to investigate Rodríguez’s abduction and the actions of Duarte to determine “his alleged responsibility in the criminal events” of this week.
“The symptoms shown by the microcosm of Valle de Bravo are clearly those of narco-politics,” Riva wrote, adding that given the increasing number of examples of criminal involvement in politics, the federal government cannot continue to stand on the margins and not act against “this accelerated deterioration of public life.”
As the number of people displaced by violence in Aguililla, Michoacán, continues to grow, religious networks are planning a shelter in Tijuana to house them.
Aguililla has become a center of operations for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as it seeks to extend its territory into neighboring municipalities. But the violence has been too much for more than 500 families who have fled north, hoping to apply for asylum in the United States.
The shelter will have a food bank, cafeteria and a medical dispensary, and provide clothing. It will also provide migrant rights lawyers to assist refugees with their asylum applications. Services will be free thanks to the support of Catholic priests on both sides of the border.
Michoacán Catholic priest Gregorio López said about 90 families have arrived in Tijuana and 50 have entered the U.S.
López, also known as “Padre Goyo,” operates 30 shelters in Apatzingán which have been receiving refugees from Aguililla since the beginning of the year.
“Up until today we have had more than 500 families. We are talking about a whole town fleeing because the drug traffickers are operating with full impunity, killing innocent people,” López told Business Insider last week.
“Mexico is now overwhelmed and out of capacity to attend what is going on in Aguililla, and we really need a U.S. intervention. I’m calling the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] to come and help us,” López said.
In Aguililla, parish priest Gilberto Vergara said the church and local government have written more than 500 letters of recommendation for Aguililla residents who hope to apply for asylum in the U.S. The documents introduce the applicant and provide evidence of the violence they fled.
Vergara added that every night for the past month roads into Aguililla have been been blocked with ditches dug by criminal gangs to prevent passage. In the morning, police and residents fill in the holes. Wednesday night, Aguililla residents were awakened by the shots of another CJNG attack, which residents said left at least three people dead.
Some observers blame the situation in Aguililla on reduced security cooperation between Mexico and the U.S., which dates back to the latter’s arrest of former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos. Now, criminal organizations directly benefit, said Cecilia Farfan-Méndez of the University of California at San Diego.
“López Obrador’s administration is thinking on Mexico’s sovereignty, and it’s getting the U.S. authorities frustrated since it’s very unclear what Mexican authorities are actually looking for,” she told Business Insider.
Texas immigration lawyer Carlos Spector said the exodus of refugees to the border “is a direct responsibility of U.S. and Mexican authorities failing to accept Mexico has a failed state — the organized crime is more of an authorized crime.”
'We want to go back home,' read the banners of displaced people at a protest in Guadalajara last week.
The ongoing turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CNJG) and the Sinaloa Cartel in northeastern Jalisco has forced nearly 900 refugees to flee their homes.
Catholic priest Manuel Sandate told the newspaper El Universal that 894 people have been forced out of their homes in Teocaltiche, Jalisco, according to the most recent count by the Divino Salvador parish in Mechoacanejo, where many refugees have found safety.
Some families from the communities of Aguatinta and Los Pocitos have returned home, but those from other communities have not. Due to the presence of the National Guard, the army and state police, some residents have been able to return home during the day to care for their animals and their land, but most do not dare stay the night, Sandate said.
“In the evening they have come back to stay here with the families who have opened their homes [to refugees],” Sandate said, who also called for continued support of the displaced people.
The state government said it has established an operations base in the area. State police are coordinating with the army and National Guard to patrol the zone, and have not reported further violence. The DIF family service agency has set up delivery points in the towns of Mechoacanejo and Rancho Nuevo, where affected families can receive support.
In a video message posted on social media, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro blamed 7 fires in 1 day in the Guadalajara metropolitan area on political provocateurs.
Seven forest fires that burned in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara on Tuesday were lit deliberately to “destabilize” Jalisco, Governor Enrique Alfaro claimed on Wednesday.
“Our city was attacked yesterday by interests seeking to destabilize Jalisco,” Alfaro said in a video message posted to social media.
“In an event that had never been seen in our city, seven forest fires were started at the same time in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara.”
The governor asserted that the only possible explanation for the fires was that “very specific” interests are “trying to create a political agenda with issues that are truly risky for our city.”
“[There were] seven fires that can’t be explained in another way,” Alfaro said. Such acts place the lives of firefighters and residents at risk, he said.
The governor said his government has images of the people who allegedly lit the fires, all of which were extinguished or controlled by Wednesday morning. He ruled out the possibility that they were set to clear land for agricultural or real estate purposes.
“We’re talking about areas where this can’t happen. We’re talking about fires started with another intention. Curiously, of the seven [fires] that occurred yesterday, five were in Zapopan,” Alfaro said without offering further details about why the fires might have been lit in that municipality.
He said the state Attorney General’s Office will conduct a thorough investigation to determine who is responsible for the fires and apprehend them.
“To the people who are harming the city to profit politically, you can’t do this to the city,” said Alfaro, who was flanked in the video by firefighters, civil protection personnel and his environment minister.
“… Tragedies can’t be used for political gain; … Faced with these acts, we commit to keep working, to keep taking care of our city and our state. We’re going to continue fighting despite the difficult times we’re living in, despite all this, … [these] very strange events that have put Jalisco in a very difficult situation.”
The industrial hog farm in Homún, Yucatán. greenpeace méxico
The Supreme Court has voted unanimously to uphold the suspension of a 49,000-head hog farm in Yucatán, whose operations were first halted after a 2018 Yucatán court decision.
Producción Alimentaria Porcícola (PAPO), about 50 kilometers southeast of Mérida near the Mayan town of Homún, must remain closed until the case is definitively resolved in the state’s Second District Court.
The successful 2018 claim was brought by the Mayan children of Homún on constitutional grounds.
Civic organization Kanan ts’ono’ot, youth representatives and the NGO Indignación celebrated the court’s decision in a joint statement. “Once again [the court] agrees with the Mayan people of Homún.”
The statement added that the ruling “protects the right to health, the environment and a dignified life for the girls and boys of the Mayan town …”
The fate of the farm has become a matter of international concern. Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, filed a friend of the court brief on May 5 on behalf of itself, the Center for Biological Diversity, Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, Greenpeace México, Waterkeeper Alliance and 13 experts.
The amicus curiae brief detailed “substantial scientific evidence about the grave and irreversible harm to human health and the environment associated with industrial hog operations … contamination of water, including naturally occurring freshwater wells known as cenotes; emission of noxious air pollution; the spread of dangerous pathogens and contribution to climate change.”
Industrial animal operations are notorious polluters, threatening air and water quality and human health. PAPO is expected to generate over 272 million kilograms of urine and feces each year, more than is generated by the entire human population of Tijuana.
The farm’s establishment in Homún has divided residents. Many oppose it on environmental grounds, but others support it because of the jobs it could generate. The company has said that a fully operational farm would support 75 full-time jobs.
View of Merida, Yucatán. The Mexico Peace Index listed Yucatán as Mexico's most peaceful state. deposit photos
Peacefulness in Mexico improved in 2020 after four consecutive years of deterioration, according to a global think tank.
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said in its report, Mexico Peace Index 2021, that peacefulness improved by 3.5% last year.
“After four years of successive deteriorations, this marks a change in trend following the sharp increases in violence recorded between 2015 and 2018,” the report said. “This change can be traced to well before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The IEP said that the violent crime rate fell 13.3% last year, mainly due to a decline in “opportunistic crimes.”
It said that there were reductions in certain types of violence in 2020 following the implementation of public health measures and stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Institute for Economics and Peace 2021 rankings of Mexico’s states for peacefulness. The most peaceful states are dark green. Institute for Economics and Peace
“Crimes typically associated with people’s everyday movements — such as robberies, assaults, kidnappings and extortion — all recorded notable improvements in 2020,” the think tank said.
Still, the IEP determined that peacefulness improved in 22 of Mexico’s states last year and only deteriorated in 10.
“Violence in Mexico has become increasingly concentrated, particularly along key drug trafficking routes,” the report said.
“In these areas, rival groups are engaged in violent contests over territory that continue to drive the high homicide rates. In 2020, just six states accounted for more than half of all homicides: Guanajuato, the state of México, Baja California, Chihuahua, Jalisco, and Michoacán.”
The IEP’s Mexico Peace Index (MPI) showed that Yucatán was the most peaceful state in 2020, followed by Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Campeche and Nayarit.
For a third consecutive year, Baja California was the county’s least peaceful state, followed by Colima, Zacatecas, Chihuahua and Guanajuato. All of the five least peaceful states had homicide rates above 64 per 100,000 people, the IEP said.
The think tank said Quintana Roo, Mexico City, Guerrero, Tabasco and Campeche made the biggest improvements on the MPI.
“Quintana Roo recorded the largest improvement in overall score, driven by a 35% decline in its firearms crime rate,” it said.
Zacatecas — where the IEP said homicides surged 65.5% — San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Guanajuato and Michoacán recorded the largest deteriorations.
“Three of these states — Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Guanajuato — are located in the greater Bajío region of northern central Mexico and share borders with one another. In recent years, this region has become the location of a violent struggle between several national drug cartels for dominance in the surging fentanyl market,” the IEP said.
Despite the overall improvement, Mexico remains the country with the ninth highest homicide rate in the world, the think tank said. Over the past six years, Mexico’s peacefulness has declined by 18.8%, the IEP said, adding that the deterioration is mainly attributable to an 84% increase in the national homicide rate, “rising from 15.1 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015 to 27.8 in 2020.”
It noted that “Mexico’s homicide rate remains near historically high levels, with over 35,000 homicides recorded in 2020.”
The Australia-headquartered organization also said that 524 police officers were killed last year, a 17.5% increase compared to 2019.
“Political assassinations are also on the rise, with at least 139 politicians, government officials and candidates killed between September 2020 and March 2021,” it said.
The IEP said the economic impact of violence was estimated at 4.7 trillion pesos in 2020, or US $236 billion at today’s exchange rate.
“At this level, it is more than seven times higher than government expenditure on the public health system and more than six times higher than government expenditure on the education system in 2020,” the think tank said.
“On a per capita basis, the economic impact of violence was 36,893 pesos [US $1,854], approximately three times the average monthly salary in Mexico. If the level of violence in all states were reduced to the level in the five most peaceful states, this would result in a peace dividend of 3.3 trillion pesos [US $165.8 billion] per year — equivalent to 16% of Mexico’s GDP.”
Police on the Zacatecas-San Luis Potosi line, where they are dealing with a violent organized crime fight over the fentanyl market.
Although violence cost Mexico trillions of pesos, the economic impact of violence improved for a second consecutive year in 2020, declining by 1.8%, or 88 billion pesos (US $4.4 billion), compared to 2019, the think tank said.
“The improvement in 2020 was led by decreases in opportunistic crimes such as kidnapping, robbery, extortion and violent assaults,” the IEP said.
The think tank argued that to effectively address violence, Mexico needs to increase its spending on the criminal justice system.
“In 2020, Mexico reported the lowest domestic security and justice spending as a percentage of GDP of all of the 37 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at 0.73% of GDP,” it said. “This is less than half the OECD average of 1.68%. It is also the lowest percentage of all Latin America and the Caribbean countries, with the average rate in the region being similar to the OECD average,” the report said.
It also said that “tackling corruption is key to addressing violence in Mexico,” noting that — despite President López Obrador’s pledge to eliminate it — “Mexico ranks 117th out of 163 countries in terms of control of corruption, as assessed by the World Economic Forum.”
“… In order to address elevated levels of violence, a holistic, integrated public security and peace-building framework is needed,” the IEP said.
As many as 70 bags of human remains were discovered Wednesday on a vacant lot in Tonalá, Jalisco, where at least 11 bodies have been distinguished amid a grim collection of body parts.
Residents of Alamedas de Zalatitán, 30 minutes from Guadalajara, complained last month to authorities of a nauseous smell. Thirteen barely concealed bags of body parts were found at the lot when work began on April 25.
This week heavy machinery was used to dig further, revealing dozens more bags.
The lot — with an unroofed building on an area of 180 square meters — is not in a secluded location, but between houses and streets through which residents circulate every day.
State Attorney General Gerardo Octavio Solís laid out the numbers. “Seventy bags have been located with various human remains which to this point are counted as 11 victims, and the corresponding work continues,” he said.
Jalisco is the worst state in the country for the number of missing people, more than 12,790, according to the National Search Commission.
In February, 18 garbage bags with dismembered bodies were found in front of the Chivas soccer stadium in Zapopan. Three months earlier, 189 bodies were discovered in a huge clandestine grave in El Salto.
Andres N. is suspected of having murderered at least 15 women. Authorities have found the bodies of several victims in his México state home. photos: México state Attorney General's Office Twitter
A 72-year-old México state man has admitted to killing and eating numerous women over a period of 20 years.
Andrés N. of Atizapán de Zaragoza, a municipality in the greater Mexico City metropolitan area, was arrested Tuesday. According to Televisa reporter Antonio Nieto, the suspect confessed to killing 15 women.
“He asked for water and said, ‘Fifteen, I think there were 15,’” Nieto wrote on Twitter in a post that included a video of Andrés N. arriving at a police lockup in México state.
Some media outlets reported that the suspect admitted to murdering as many as 30 women over the past two decades. He has also reportedly confessed to dismembering his victims’ bodies and eating parts of them.
“Excavations are continuing … to determine how many women were murdered … and buried at his home,” Nieto wrote.
México state state officials search the suspect’s home for evidence.
The remains of several women have already been found at the suspect’s home.
The former president of an Atizapán municipal government citizens’ council, Andrés N. appeared to be an ordinary México state resident, according to media reports. Before his arrest he was on the campaign team of a mayoral candidate.
Police began investigating him after 34-year-old Reyna González Amador was reported missing last week. González was apparently in a relationship with Andrés N. but told him last week that she no longer wanted anything to do with him, according to police reports cited by the news organization ADN40.
The presumed serial murderer allegedly attacked her with a knife and killed her. Police found the woman’s dismembered remains at the suspect’s home.
Dilcya García, a gender crimes prosecutor, said the remains of several women and their belongings were found at the home, located in the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood.
“We’ve found … bone remains, women’s clothing, voter IDs and other evidence that makes us assume that he could be a serial killer of women,” she said.
Along with victims’ dismembered bodies, authorities discovered purses, ID cards and various other women’s belongings in the suspect’s home.
According to the news website Infobae, gruesome evidence was found at the suspect’s home, including women’s scalps and skulls, as well as audio recordings of 20 alleged murders. Police also reportedly located weapons, including machetes and a fretsaw.
Andrés N.’s arrest comes 2 1/2 years after a couple was arrested in Ecatepec, México state, on multiple femicide charges. The so-called “monsters of Ecatepec,” who admitted to killing at least 20 women and eating parts of their victims, are serving prison sentences in excess of 100 years.
México state, which includes many municipalities that are part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, recorded 35 femicides in the first quarter of 2021, more than any other state.
