This 2016 BMW i8 Coupe will be on the block in March.
An armored Cadillac, a luxury home in Cancún and a US $7,600 Rolex watch are among the items going to the highest bidder at the government’s eighth auction of confiscated goods to be held the second Sunday in March.
The director of the Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, Ricardo Rodríguez Vargas, announced that the next in the government’s series of auctions, meant to generate funds for poor communities, will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 8 at the Los Pinos Cultural Center in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park.
He said the goods up for sale are valued at 66 million pesos (US $3.3 million).
“I’m inviting people to participate in our eighth socially focused auction, the first of 2020. In 2019 we had enough success to move on to the next level,” Rodríguez said at the president’s Friday morning press conference.
In total, the auction will present 325 lots for bidding, including nine pieces of real estate, 24 luxury vehicles, 157 pieces of jewelry, 132 non-luxury vehicles and three airplanes.
Rodríguez said that a BMW hybrid on the auction block “is a very luxurious vehicle and [buyers] will find a much higher price on the regular market.”
“All of the vehicles are priced at extremely competitive rates. It’s a great opportunity because they are very competitive prices,” he said.
Among the jewelry, he highlighted three Rolex watches, one of which is a woman’s watch for which the bidding will begin at 151,000 pesos. He claimed that they are part of a “difficult to find” collection.
He said that many jewelry lots have very accessible prices, noting a lot of four rings priced at 5,000 pesos (US $251) and saying it was a good gift for anyone looking to “get in good with their girlfriend [or] wife.”
The nine real estate lots include properties located in Cancún, Cuernavaca, Jalisco, Tijuana and Monterrey. The house in Cancún has a pool and a dock for a medium-sized yacht.
“One house in Cuernavaca, just an hour from Mexico City, is in a luxurious neighborhood called El Limonero,” he added.
“This is a diverse, versatile auction. As you all know, the profits are destined for the poorest municipalities in the country, sports scholarships, cultural programs. The last auction went to buy instruments for musicians in Oaxaca and in 2020 we want to surpass the goal we had for 2019.”
Former Nayarit officials Sandoval, left and Veytia.
The United States government announced on Friday that former Nayarit governor Roberto Sandoval Castañeda and his immediate family members are ineligible for U.S. visas due to involvement in corruption.
Noting that the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Sandoval in May 2019 for corruption-related conduct, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the public designation of Sandoval in accordance with the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act due to “significant involvement in corruption.”
Pompeo said that the ex-governor misappropriated state assets and received bribes from drug trafficking organizations, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
“In addition, Mr. Sandoval accepted bribes from the Beltrán Leyva Organization, which President George W. Bush identified as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Kingpin Act in 2008,” he added.
Pompeo said that once the Secretary of State designates officials of foreign governments for their direct or indirect involvement in significant corruption, those individuals are ineligible for visas to the United States.
The law also requires the Secretary of State to publicly or privately designate the immediate family members of such officials, he said.
“In addition to Mr. Sandoval, the department is publicly designating his spouse, Ana Lilia López Torres; his daughter, Lidy Alejandra Sandoval López; and his son, Pablo Roberto Sandoval López,” Pompeo said.
“Today’s action sends a strong signal that the United States is committed to fighting systemic corruption in Mexico. The United States stands with the people of Mexico in their fight against corruption. The department will continue to use these authorities to promote accountability for corrupt actors globally and near our border, particularly when that corruption is connected to drug trafficking.”
Although Sandoval – Institutional Revolutionary Party governor between 2011 and 2017 – has now been designated by both the U.S. Treasury and Department of State, he does not currently face any criminal charges in the United States.
In Mexico, Sandoval’s bank accounts were frozen by the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) after his U.S. Treasury designation last May.
A federal court last month rejected an application by Sandoval to have access to his bank accounts reinstated, ruling that information provided to the UIF by the U.S. Treasury about the ex-governor’s designation is sufficient grounds to keep the accounts blocked.
Sandoval, who has denied all the accusations against him, had argued that the United States does not have jurisdiction over the acts of corruption of which it accuses him because they allegedly took place in Nayarit. It consequently doesn’t have the right to advise Mexico to freeze his accounts, the ex-governor said.
The ex-governor’s attorney general, Édgar Veytia, was sentenced last September to 20 years in jail in the United States for drug trafficking.
He pleaded guilty to accepting payments from drug cartels to help them smuggle cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine into the United States from 2013 until his arrest in San Diego, California, in March 2017.
A 25-year-old from Mérida, Yucatán, won a contest held by a local pizzeria for the strangest name in the city: Cero Cero Tres — or Zero Zero Three — Miler Santos.
“My cousin was the one who encouraged me to participate and share my curious name,” said Cero Cero Tres in an interview with El Universal.
“I read in the comments that many people didn’t believe me, so I decided to show photos [and] documentation of my identity.”
The numbered name won out against other such rarities as Vercingétorix, Baninu, Nívea, Marcio and others.
After providing proof to the pizzamakers that his name really is as strange as they consider it to be, Cero Cero Tres was awarded two pizzas, one in the shape of his name: 003.
He said that the name came from an agreement between his parents.
“My parents wanted to have three children, and that’s where ‘003’ comes from. I’m the three and my siblings are the zeros, but they don’t have their names in numbers, they have common names,” he said.
Cero Cero Tres said that he was bullied by some as a teenager, but many at his preparatory school actually asked for his autograph.
In the United States, where he grew up, his family called him Bambino, which he thought was his name until he became a teenager. It wasn’t until they moved back to Yucatán that he found out what his real name is.
“They told me that since I was 15 years old I should be responsible for my own paperwork. So when I looked at my birth certificate I saw the numbers and I asked my dad what it meant. Then he said ‘That’s your name,’ and I was surprised.”
The only time the numbers gave him a problem was when he went to apply for his voter’s registration card. He was told that he could not register with numbers, so his official name on the ballot is Cero Cero Tres.
“I felt like people bullied me for my name [in the past], but with time I really learned that it is part of my identity. It’s given me so many anecdotes and such good friends that I really am not ashamed to say that it’s my name,” he said.
Three suspects in the murder of three medical students and an Uber driver in Puebla were released from custody on Thursday but immediately rearrested by state police and the National Guard.
A judge ordered the release of Pablo N., Lisset N. and Ángel N. on charges of police impersonation but as soon as they left a court in San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, they were arrested for the homicide of the Uber driver and students, two of whom were Colombian nationals.
The suspects were arrested on Monday in Huejotzingo, the same municipality where the bodies of Colombians Ximena Quijano Hernández, 25, and José Antonio Parada Cerpa, 22, as well as fellow medical student Francisco Javier Tirado Márquez, 22, and Uber driver Josué Emmanuel Vital, 28, were found the same day.
Police detained the three alleged murderers after stopping the BMW SUV in which they were traveling. The vehicle was fitted out with a siren and other equipment whose use is limited to law enforcement vehicles.
Human brain matter, blood stains and bullets were found inside the vehicle, which had a bullet hole in its rear. Pablo N., 46, was driving the vehicle before the arrest occurred while Lisset N., 22, and Ángel N., 23, were wearing bullet-proof vests.
Despite the damning evidence, the judge ruled that Lisset N. and Ángel N. could not be held after determining that their arrest on impersonation charges was illegal because they were merely passengers in the vehicle.
The judge found that Pablo N, as the driver, was responsible for the vehicle. However, the judge ordered his release on the grounds that impersonating a police officer does not warrant preventative custody.
After their second arrest, the suspects were transferred to state Attorney General’s Office facilities. They will face a hearing on murder charges within 48 hours of their detention on Thursday.
The two Colombians, exchange students at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, and Tirado, a medical student at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, attended the Carnival of Huejotzingo on Sunday before booking an Uber to return to Puebla city.
The vehicle driven by Vital was apparently intercepted and all four occupants were shot dead. Their bodies were found Monday morning on a lot in Santa Ana Xalmimilulco, a community in Huejotzingo. Vital’s vehicle was located nearby.
Puebla authorities said Wednesday that the murders could be linked to an argument that Quijano, the Colombian female victim, allegedly had with another woman at the Huejotzingo Carnival over the hat she was wearing.
“At the carnival, a woman stole Ximena’s hat, there was an argument and she recovered her hat. I don’t want to prejudge but, without a doubt, it’s evidence that we have to include [in the investigation],” said Attorney General Gilberto Higuera Bernal.
He said that the hat and sunglasses that Quijano were wearing were found at one of three properties searched by police in Santa Ana Xalmimilulco. Higuera also said that Quijano’s body had more bullet wounds than the other victims.
The multi-homicide sparked protests on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday by students of several Puebla universities including those attended by the slain students. During a march in Puebla city on Thursday, students called for justice for the murder victims and demanded that authorities guarantee security for all citizens.
The Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla said in a statement that “it expresses its profound indignation and concern over the escalation in crime and violence in our state and our country, that condemns families to live in a constant state of fear and uncertainty.”
Speaking at his morning press conference on Thursday, President López Obrador expressed regret about the murders.
“It’s a reprehensible and very painful incident that has to do with the breakdown [of society]” caused by the neoliberal economic policies implemented by previous governments, he said, repeating a claim he made last week when speaking about the femicides of 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla and 7-year-old Fátima Aldrighett.
Meanwhile, the mother of Parada and the father of Quijano spent Thursday collecting the belongings of their children from their Puebla home before departing for Colombia.
“We’re leaving very hurt, devastated, but my heart feels neither resentment nor hate for this beautiful country,” said Jorge Quijano.
“The important thing is that they find the truth,” said Angélica Cerpa, mother of José Antonio Parada.
The quiet beauty of the Pila del Rey, a highlight of a visit to the petroglyphs at Altavista, Nayarit.
Long ago we heard rumors that the petroglyphs of Altavista — located 50 kilometers north of Puerto Vallarta as the macaw flies — were a sight we had to see.
Finally, one day in March, we decided to go visit the place, figuring that this time of year the humidity and the gnat count would be low while the temperature would be pleasant by day and cool at night: perfect ingredients for camping on the beach at the nearby pueblito of Chacala.
We left Guadalajara at 10:00 a.m. and by 1:30 p.m. we were pitching our tents in a most unusual setting: the ruins of the ancient munitions armory of the port of Chacala, one of the deepest natural harbors of the Pacific Coast and for many years a favorite hangout for pirates.
At a little table dwarfed by huge stone columns long ago overrun by strangler figs, we shared a bottle of wine with the owner of this ruin, now converted into a hotel and mini-campsite. “My name is Om,” she told us, “and I love Chacala so much, I spent nine years here living in a tree.”
The next day, we couldn’t resist hiking down the beach to see Om’s tree house (the rope ladder is still dangling from the branches) and to visit a volcanic crater which overlooks the gorgeous little beach of Las Cuevas, and — well, there was so much to see, our visit to the rock art of Altavista got pushed off to the last day. But we finally managed to get there and discovered that this out-of-the-way spot is well worth the effort required to reach it.
Chacala’s beach and bay.
Because we could see no signs indicating where to go, it took us two attempts to find the place. The road to the town of Altavista is just off Highway 200 to Puerto Vallarta. Before reaching the town, we turned left onto a dirt road which was in quite good condition, but only for 875 meters. At this point, deep and ugly ruts could be seen just ahead, so here we parked and started walking.
On our right was a huge grove of flowering mango trees and on our left we came upon a farmer spraying his rather sad-looking trees with sulfur. We figured this must be an insecticide, but he told us the treatment was meant to “estresar los árboles” (to make the trees feel stressed out) so they would flower. It looks like there’s no escape from the pressures of modern life, even for trees!
Soon the narrow dirt road turned right (and shady, and flat). Our 1.7-kilometer walk took 45 minutes and ended at a gate where we found big INAH (National Institute for Anthropology and History) signs listing numerous things we were not allowed to do (including applying chalk to the grooves of the rock art). We also found a guard who charged us 20 pesos each to enter the fenced-in zone.
We were now on a trail paralleling Las Piletas Creek, which — because it was the dry season — contained only occasional puddles of water. Every few steps we came upon large, hand-lettered signs in English and Spanish telling us all about the native people who once lived here and who created the petroglyphs. Most of this information originated with west-Mexico archaeologist Joseph Mountjoy and was truly fascinating.
These Indians turned out to be members of a tribe I had never heard of: the Tecoxquin, whose favorite sport, according to the signs, was cutting off the heads of their captives for ritual sacrifice. It is said that the Tecoxquin inhabited the area as far back as 2300 BC and were wiped out during the Conquest by a combination of European disease and the Tecoxquins’ refusal to become slaves.
Soon the trail was winding between and over large boulders: not the sort of place you could push a baby buggy or hobble along with a bad leg. Scattered among the rocks, however, were a variety of quite curious petroglyphs: several boxy, cartoon-like shapes sporting a dozen or so “legs,” a number of elaborately carved crosses, and a humanoid figure who seemed to have a graceful tree growing out of his head. One of the designs cleverly used deep pockmarks as shading and to me (and no one else!) resembled a rabbit-like creature with whiskers.
Basalt columns at the Pila del Rey.
It seems around 2,000 petroglyphs have been registered along el Arroyo de Las Piletas, of which 56 can be seen in the area reserved for visitors. Archaeologists think these images represent a kind of prayer to the Tecoxquin gods, begging them for rain, good crops, good weather, etc.
Of course there are spirals at Altavista, as there are at just about every petroglyph site I’ve ever seen. As for their meaning, a sign at Altavista mentions that spirals “have been interpreted as the sun, rainstorms, the wind, coiled snakes or as a symbol of the natural rainy and dry cycle.” Other sources say they may represent water sources, the solstice, migrations, whirlwinds, snails, growth, energy and lots of other things, all of which seem to leave the door to interpretation wide open.
Historical records dating back to 1612 note the Spaniards’ surprise at finding numerous crosses among these petroglyphs. Some of these resemble a cross potent or Maltese Cross and helped give rise to legends about the apostle Saint Matthew having set foot in these parts. Easier to believe is the most common interpretation, that the crosses represent the five directions: north, south, east, west and “right here where you are now.”
Although the petroglyphs are most interesting, to me the most impressive attraction of this site is the so-called Pila del Rey, the Bathtub of the King: a pool of icy cold water, fed by a spring even in the dry season and surrounded by huge rectangular rocks, probably columnar basalt. This place looks like something straight out of a fantasy novel and will no doubt one day appear in some Hollywood extravaganza.
I asked Dr. Mountjoy who the “King” might have been, but he suggested the name Pila del Rey had more to do with tourist appeal than historical fact. Nevertheless, this must have been an awe-inspiring place 2,000 years ago and it remains so today.
The petroglyphs are located about 10 kilometers south of Las Varas, Nayarit. The park entrance is at N21.09201 W105.16624. Because it’s a tricky place to find, you may want to ask a touring company like Mexitreks to get you there.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Fear of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 has found a new victim with an unfortunate name association: one of the world’s favorite beers.
Corona beer producer Constellation Brands saw its stock plummet 8% this week as the Corona brand became the butt of jokes in memes and videos shared on social media.
Online search engines have also reported an increase in searches of terms like “beer coronavirus” and “corona beer virus.”
The purchase intent, or the probability that a consumer will buy a certain product, for the beer has fallen to its lowest levels in two years, according to data company YouGov.
The YouGov “buzz score” — a measure of the positive or negative associations the public has with a certain brand — for Corona has fallen from 75 at the beginning of 2020 to 51 as the virus spreads across the globe.
Corona is the third-most popular beer in the United States, according to YouGov data, just after Guinness and Heineken.
YouGov business data journalist Graeme Bruce said that the company could also be feeling the pinch from the brand’s low season, as it is considered a warm-weather summer beer associated with the sun and the beach.
Bruce said this reputation has caused the beer to have significant seasonal fluctuations in sales.
Police attempt to prevent masked protesters from entering the school, but were unsuccessful.
Just days after being reopened, the José Vasconcelos Preparatory School number 5 was retaken by masked attackers on Thursday.
Part of the system of preparatory schools for the National Autonomous University (UNAM), the school had been closed due to a student strike to demand action against sexual harassment and assault on school grounds.
The masked protesters came face to face with parents, teachers, students and police as they made their attempt to retake the school. They threw paint and eggs at a squad of at least 50 police officers sent to protect the school at the request of UNAM authorities.
UNAM rector Enrique Graue ordered an evacuation of the facilities in light of the violent incidents.
“In the face of the extreme violence carried out by a small group of masked individuals in order to gain entrance and forcibly close school number 5 of the National Preparatory School, UNAM rector Enrique Graue ordered the evacuation of students, teachers and administrators to ensure their personal safety,” the university said in a press release.
Graue said Friday morning that he believed there would be a quick solution to the problem. He denounced the violence while still expressing support for the movement.
“It’s a legitimate movement, that of the women. We are with them, but we want to condemn this most recent act,” he said.
When asked about the strike in 12 schools in the university system, he said that “we have answered all of their demands. … We are working and we hope for a quick resolution.”
Instances of sexual assault continue on the system’s campuses despite the numerous and often violent actions taken to demand something be done about the problem.
On February 21 a woman was sexually assaulted by two masked men in a bathroom at the College of Sciences and Humanities in the Azcapotzalco borough of Mexico City.
But UNAM is not the only university receiving these types of complaints from students. Administration at the Autonomous University of México State (UAEM) has received official complaints of sexual assault and harassment on the part of teachers, administrators and other students.
The complainants initiated strikes in the UAEM schools of Behavioral Sciences, Art, Humanities and Political Science in hopes of making the problem more visible.
Elsewhere in the public education system, the Ministry of Education announced the dismissal of a teacher at the Heriberto Enríquez Primary School in Mexico City who had been reported to have sexually abused a female student two years ago.
Two events will celebrate strawberries in the Guanajuato city.
If you’ve ever traveled along Highways 45 and 45D in Guanajuato in spring, you’ve no doubt realized from the number of vendors alongside the road that this is strawberry country.
In March, the city of Irapuato has not one, but two multi-day events dedicated to the crop.
The first, called the Festival de la Fresa (Strawberry Festival), is held from March 6 to 8. A free strawberry-and-cream tasting at Plaza Miguel Hidalgo will kick off the event at 4:00 p.m. Friday.
Tours to a local strawberry farm will be offered at 9:00 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the weekend is filled with such events as jam and dessert-making workshops, concerts by pop and traditional bands and the traditional Dance of the Toritos, most of which will take place at the city’s main square.
The complete program for Irapuato’s strawberry fest can be found on its website (in Spanish).
The other event is officially called the Feria de Irapuato, though it’s better known as the Feria de las Fresas (Strawberry Fair). The primary focus of the fair, scheduled from March 13 to 29, is a concert program (in Spanish) by nationally known acts including Gloria Trevi, Sonora Santanera and Bronco.
There will also be lucha libre bouts, a gastronomy pavilion, amusement rides, handicraft and livestock shows and all kinds of cultural and sports events. This year’s fair seeks to break the world’s record for the largest batch of strawberry jam.
Though it used to be held in June, the Feria de Irapuato has been moved to March to coincide with the 473rd anniversary of the city’s founding, as well as the fact that fields are in high production at that time.
Although strawberries are grown in much of the Bajío region, Irapuato has a particular reputation for the fruit, calling itself the World Capital of Strawberries. The crop was introduced to the area over 165 years ago by Nicolás Tejeda, who planted them in what is now the Santa Julia neighborhood. He sold his harvest in the form of ice cream, which gradually became popular in the city.
Major production started when a train station was built in Irapuato in 1960, allowing for shipping to much of Mexico and establishing the area’s reputation for sweet strawberries. The industry was nearly wiped out in the 1980s when the misapplication of fertilizer contaminated soils, forcing farmers to halt production for years. It did not truly rebound until the 2000s.
Although Irapuato is the country’s sixth largest producer of strawberries (Zamora is No. 1), those from here are considered to be of especially high quality and are regularly exported to the United States, Japan and several countries in Europe.
President López Obrador looks on as Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell announces the coronavirus cases.
Health officials have confirmed the first cases of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 in the country, one in Mexico City and the other in Sinaloa.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told the president’s morning press conference on Friday that the patients have cold-like symptoms and no pre-existing ailments, so they are not high-risk.
The patient in Mexico City is a 35-year-old male who recently traveled to Italy for a conference. He returned to Mexico on February 22 with mild symptoms, and a test sample was taken on Thursday. He and his family are currently under quarantine in the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER).
“The whole family is in isolation in the institute. They do not need to be hospitalized, but they are there according to protocol,” said President López Obrador.
Health authorities are carrying out contact tracing operations on nine people with whom the man interacted upon arriving in Mexico, one showing symptoms and the other eight asymptomatic.
López-Gatell said that the case in Sinaloa was detected in the early morning hours on Friday. The 41-year-old male has been isolated in a hotel in the state, although authorities have not announced in which city.
The man attended the same conference in Bergamo, Italy, as the patient in Mexico City.
Now that the country has its first confirmed cases, President López Obrador announced that his administration will hold nightly press conferences in order to inform the public of the government’s efforts to deal with the virus.
The conferences will be held at 9:00 p.m. and led by López-Gatell.
The president said that they will present technical and scientific information “so that there aren’t distortions, so that the people have information, to guarantee the right to information.”
As for changes to daily life in the bustling capital, López-Gatell said that there is no need for school or work closures, but he recommended that people temporarily take physical contact out of their greetings.
Passengers were allowed to disembark Friday from the Meraviglia, left, in Cozumel.
“For the moment let’s not give kisses or hugs,” he said, adding that for now “there is no scientific or technical reason to close schools [and] workplaces.”
He asked people not to panic, and the president assured the public that the situation is not critical.
“We are prepared to confront the coronavirus. We have the doctors, specialists, hospitals and the capacity to deal with this case. We will deal with other cases as they develop,” he said.
Health authorities in Quintana Roo exemplified the president’s attitude of not generating panic when they made the decision to allow the passengers from the MSC Meravigliato disembark in Cozumel.
The cruise ship docked at the Caribbean port on Thursday morning after being denied access to ports in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands over fears that a crew member with flu-like symptoms could have been carrying the coronavirus.
Mexican health officials boarded the cruise liner on Thursday to examine the man and confirmed that it was not a case of Covid-19, but of the seasonal flu, the same strain that state Health Minister Alejandra Aguirre Crespo assured the public is “a viral infection common in all of Mexico.”
“No cases of the Covid-19 virus have been reported aboard the MSC Meraviglia or any other ship in the MSC Cruises fleet,” the company said in a statement.
After this morning’s announcement of the first two cases, the peso dropped 1.21% and the Mexican Stock Exchange’s benchmark S&P/BMV IPC index was down 3.39%.
The first case of Covid-19 in Latin America was reported in Brazil on Tuesday. The patient is a 61-year-old male who had also recently traveled to Italy.
The most common symptoms of the disease include fever, dry cough, muscle aches and difficulty breathing. Serious cases can lead to pneumonia.
Health experts say that the best way to protect oneself is to wash hands thoroughly and regularly, avoid touching the mouth, nose and eyes, cover the mouth with the inside of the elbow when sneezing and coughing and avoid contact with people with flu-like symptoms.
Picos Barraza, one of those behind the murder of Sinaloa journalist Javier Valdez.
One of the murderers of Sinaloa journalist and newspaper founder Javier Valdez Cárdenas has been sentenced to almost 15 years in jail.
In a historic first sentence in the case of a journalist’s murder in Mexico, a federal judge ordered the imprisonment of Heriberto Picos Barraza, also known as “El Koala,” for 14 years and eight months.
Picos Barraza was the driver of the car used to intercept Valdez on May 15, 2017, a few blocks from the offices of the RíoDoce newspaper he founded in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
The two men accused of shooting the journalist, Juan Francisco “El Quillo” Picos Barrueta and Luis Ildefonso “El Diablo” Sánchez Romero, fled the scene in the car driven by “El Koala.”
Picos Barraza’s sentencing came after he accepted an offer from the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression (Feadle) which allowed him to avoid an oral trial. In exchange for accepting responsibility for his role in the homicide, the murderer saw his sentence reduced by a third.
Newspaper founder and journalist Valdez.
At a hearing in Culiacán on Thursday that lasted more than eight hours, the judge also ruled that Picos Barraza must pay 9 million pesos (US $457,000) in compensation to the family of Valdez, whose reporting primarily focused on organized crime.
During the hearing, federal prosecutors presented a witness who testified that he was approached by Dámaso “El Mini Lic” López Serrano, son of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Dámaso López Núñez, “El Licenciado,” who asked him to murder Valdez in exchange for 100,000 pesos. López Serrano was apparently furious at having been criticized in a story published by RíoDoce.
The witness said that he refused the offer, after which “El Mini Lic” turned to the men who did kill Valdez, who was also the author of several books on drug trafficking and a contributor to the newspaper La Jornada and the news agency AFP.
After the homicide, and amid a battle with the sons of convicted trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for control of the Sinaloa Cartel, López Serrano fled to the United States and in July 2017 turned himself in to immigration authorities in California. He is now cooperating with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
During yesterday’s hearing, Feadle also made an offer to Picos Barrueta to accept responsibility for the murder in exchange for a more lenient sentence. However, “El Quillo” rejected the offer of a prison sentence of 20 years and eight months because he was previously offered a term of 14 years and eight months.
Prosecutors increased the length of the sentence on offer because Picos Barrueta also faces weapons charges in Mexicali, Baja California, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
The sentencing of Picos Barraza, the first obtained by federal prosecutors in the murder of a journalist, is a landmark in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media workers.
A total of 131 journalists have been killed since 2000, according to press freedom advocacy organization Article 19, including 11 since President López Obrador took office in December 2018.
