Saturday, July 26, 2025

Puebla police officer arrested in 13-year-old case of journalist’s torture

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Cacho and the officer arrested in connection with torturing her.
Cacho and the officer arrested in connection with torturing her.

A police officer accused of torturing a journalist after she was detained in Cancún in 2005 was arrested in Puebla yesterday.

The federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) said in a statement that Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) officers had executed an arrest warrant against 53-year-old Alejandro R. “for his probable responsibility in the crime of torture.”

The suspect is actively employed in the state prosecutor’s office.

Lydia Cacho, one of Mexico’s best known investigative journalists, was arrested by Puebla state police in Cancún 13 years ago on defamation charges.

The police, operating 1,500 kilometers beyond their jurisdiction, were allegedly acting on the orders of then-Puebla governor Mario Marín and businessman Kamel Nacif, known as “El rey de la mezclilla” (the denim king).

Cacho’s arrest followed the publication of her 2005 book The Demons of Eden, in which she exposed a pedophile ring in Cancún that she alleged was run by businessman Jean Succar Kuri. He was later convicted of the crime.

Cacho also mentioned that Nacif was a friend of Succar and wrote about parties that he hosted at which she alleged children were sexually abused. Nacif subsequently filed a defamation complaint against her.

After Cacho was detained, police drove her 20 hours to Puebla, during which time they taunted her, threatened her with rape, forced a gun into her mouth and debated drowning her in the Gulf of Mexico’s Campeche Bay.

The journalist was later released from police custody on bail and the defamation charges against her were eventually dropped.

A recording of a telephone conversation was later leaked in which Nacif is heard congratulating governor Marín for arresting Cacho, ensuring that the case became a national scandal.

In August this year, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council rebuked Mexico over the case, stating that Cacho was arbitrarily detained, subjected to torture and gender violence and had her right to free speech violated.

The Human Rights Council ordered that reparation be paid to Cacho, that those responsible be held accountable and that measures be taken to avoid any repeat of a similar incident.

Cacho responded to news of yesterday’s arrest on Twitter.

“I’ve been defending myself from my torturers and the masterminds for 13 years; all of them accomplices of a child pornography and child-trafficking ring. For the past five days, I’ve had armed bodyguards and worn a bulletproof vest again. Today the third of 17 fell.”

Former Puebla police commander José Montaño Quiroz was sentenced last year to more than five years in jail for his role in the case.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. At least 10 reporters have been killed in the country this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The most recent murder was that of Nayarit reporter Alejandro Márquez Jiménez, whose body was found on December 1 near the state capital Tepic.

Source: Animal Político (sp), ADN Político (sp) 

With highway robbery up 90%, truckers call for tougher penalties

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Highway robbery on the rise.
Highway robbery on the rise.

Highway robbery is up 90% this year compared to 2017, according to the president of the National Chamber of Trucking (Canacar), who is calling for tougher penalties for offenders.

Speaking at a transportation industry event, Enrique González Muñoz said “there is no similar precedent” for the year-on-year increase in the crime.

According to National Public Security System (SNSP) statistics, there were 11,382 truck robberies last year, meaning that with a 90% surge, 2018 will end with 21,625 robberies.

The increase in the number of robberies between 2016 and 2017 was a more modest 32%.

González said that since 2012, the year former president Enrique Peña Nieto took office, highway robbery has increased by an alarming 168%.

He added that Canacar is pushing for highway and railroad robbery to be classified as serious crimes in order to deter would-be offenders.

González also said that due to rising insecurity on the nation’s roads, the cost of operating cargo transport services has increased. Insurance costs, he explained, have increased by around 130% in the space of a single year.

The Canacar chief said he had met with new federal Public Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, to whom he suggested that the government implement preventative measures against highway robbery, especially in parts of the country where the incidence of the crime is high.

Statistics from security consultancy SensiGuard show that 28% of all truck robberies this year occurred in México state, followed by Puebla with 25%; Michoacán with 10%; Tlaxcala with 9%; and Nuevo León with 6%.

Highway theft is one of several security challenges faced by the new government, which took office on December 1.

Others include a soaring homicide rate and high levels of pipeline petroleum theft.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Alternative new year’s festival comes to Oaxaca

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Restival Oaxaca accommodation is billed as either boutique (pictured) or nomadic.
Restival Oaxaca accommodation is billed as either boutique (pictured) or nomadic.

The debut edition of Restival Oaxaca will bring a unique and alternative festival-meets-destination-spa-experience, all revolving around the new year’s celebration to the valley outside Oaxaca city.

Restival is described by organizers as an intimate retreat for only 70 people with a celebration that combines “the best of fest & rest to create a New Year’s experience which (until now) only existed in your dreams.”

The event offers to take people away from crowded parties and exorbitant bar tabs, to stars and mountains, luxury bungalows, a spa, wisdom teachers, a traditional Zapotec sweat lodge and a sensory buffet of creative workshops.

The six-day event takes place on a new “eco-luxe ranch beside a modernist mezcal distillery in the middle of an agave field” outside the city.

Along with internationally acclaimed musicians and DJs the festival also includes four days of “workshops, fire ceremonies and intention setting to get you ready for 2019.”

Other activities will include meeting a family of Zapotec weavers and learning about their indigenous traditions, a visit to the nearby petrified waterfalls of Hierve El Agua, yoga and meditation classes at an ancient temple, cacao ceremonies, mezcal tastings, art exhibitions and a chance to relax in Restival’s spa.

Restival Oaxaca kicks off on December 29 and will conclude on January 3. Tickets for the New Year’s Eve celebration are US $195 per person, while the entire experience ranges in price from $950 to $2,650 per person.

According to information on the Restival website, the event “is a cultural retreat like no other. We bring together world-class wisdom and yoga teachers with indigenous cultures in off-grid eco-luxe properties and cities around the world.”

Mexico News Daily

US offers $20,000 reward in Guadalajara consulate grenade attack

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The US Consulate in Guadalajara.
The US consulate in Guadalajara.

The United States government is offering a US $20,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or group responsible for a grenade attack on the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara the night before the inauguration of President López Obrador.

A statement issued yesterday by the United States Embassy in Mexico said that “on November 30, 2018 at 10:48pm, an unidentified individual threw two grenades, which exploded on the United States Consulate compound in Guadalajara, Jalisco.”

The person who threw the grenades was caught on film by surveillance cameras.

A separate statement issued the day after the attack said that “no one was injured and there was minimal damage to the structure.”

It added: “Mexican and U.S. authorities are investigating and strengthening the security posture around the Consulate facility. U.S. government personnel are advised to review personal security measures.”

The consulate resumed normal business yesterday after limiting its operations on Monday.

The Jalisco Attorney General’s office said “the investigation has been handed over to federal authorities, who will give information on developments in due time.”

The timing of the attack, just 12 hours before Andrés Manuel López Obrador was sworn in as president, has caused alarm among officials and security experts who are questioning whether it was meant as a test for the new federal government, to provoke the United States administration, or both.

United States Vice-President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka were among a delegation of U.S. dignitaries who attended López Obrador’s inauguration.

“The situation in Mexico is a powder keg,” Arturo Fontes, a security consultant and former FBI agent who was once stationed in Guadalajara, told The Dallas Morning News.

“The timing and target are key: a presidential inauguration. Political transition. The Chapo trial, which threatens to expose names of corrupt officials, and the migrant caravan.”

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization, is suspected of being responsible for the attack and two weeks ago allegedly posted a video online in which it threatened to attack the consulate.

However, The Dallas Morning News, which reported the contents of the video, said it couldn’t independently confirm its authenticity.

The recording shows a man with part of his face bandaged who appears to be under interrogation. He says he was ordered to attack the consulate and, with the help of municipal and state police, to kidnap Central American migrants and hold them for ransom to generate income to pay corrupt authorities to overlook criminal activity.

The planned attack on the Guadalajara consulate was designed to send a message to the United States to leave “Mencho alone,” the man said, referring to CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.

In October, the United States government doubled the reward being offered for information leading to Oseguera’s arrest to US $10 million.

Attacks on United States facilities and personnel in Mexico are rare but not unprecedented.

A U.S. consular official was shot in a Guadalajara shopping center in January 2017 , U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in San Luis Potosí in 2011 and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped, tortured and killed in 1985 on the orders of Guadalajara Cartel founder Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo.

Gunmen also shot at the United States consulate in Monterrey, Nuevo León, in 2008 and threw a grenade at the building although it didn’t explode.

The attack on the Guadalajara consulate Friday serves as yet another reminder of the security crisis López Obrador inherits 12 years after the military was deployed to combat the nation’s notorious drug cartels.

There were more than 31,000 homicides last year, according to statistics institute Inegi, and 2018 could go down in history as an even bloodier year.

López Obrador, who made no mention of the consulate attack at his first daily press briefing Monday, announced last month that his administration intends to create a National Guard under the control of the army to combat high levels of violence.

The idea to create the new security force, a central element of a new national security plan, was criticized by a range of non-governmental organizations who said that it only perpetuates the unsuccessful militarization model.

Source: The Dallas Morning News (en), Business Insider (en), Infobae (sp) 

Police commander ambushed and killed in Jalisco

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Scene of this morning's ambush in Jalisco.
Scene of this morning's ambush in El Salto.

Armed civilians killed a police officer in Jalisco today, the second such attack in two days.

Municipal police commander José Manuel de Anda Tapia was killed in an ambush while driving home in the company of another officer, who was wounded in the shooting.

The attack followed the release of a warning video earlier this week by a suspected local gang leader who demanded police return firearms and drugs seized in a confrontation on November 28. He gave them three hours to respond.

The attackers fired on the police officers from two vehicles in the Alcantarilla neighborhood of El Salto, which is within the metropolitan area of Guadalajara.

On Monday, six state police officers were killed in the southern coast town of La Huerta by gunmen believed to be part of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. They were attempting to free a man who was in the custody of police.

The gunmen fled towards Autlán in three vehicles, leaving two burning vehicles in their wake in the nearby municipality of Tomatlán in an attempt to hinder pursuit.

Source: Diario de México (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Time to push harder against US metal tariffs: foreign affairs undersecretary

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Undersecretary Seade: time for pressure on US.
Undersecretary Seade: time for pressure on US.

Mexico could impose like-for-like tariffs on United States steel and aluminum in the coming weeks, a new government official has indicated.

Jesús Seade, foreign affairs undersecretary for North America, advocated the move, charging that the previous government’s response to the United States’ metal tariffs imposed on June 1 was not strong enough to pressure U.S. President Donald Trump to remove them.

In an interview with the newspaper Milenio, he also said that Mexico should have resisted signing the new North American free trade pact, now known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), before the duties disappear.

“Eliminating [the tariffs] is urgent, in reality it’s very regrettable that we signed [the new trade pact] without them having been removed. We should have pushed harder. Now that we have entered [government] we have to push very hard on this matter and I hope that will happen in the first weeks of the new regime . . .” Seade said.

The new official, who represented then president-elect López Obrador in the tail end of the trade negotiations between Mexico, the United States and Canada, added that Mexico’s response to the 25% duties on steel and 10% on aluminum should be “something symmetrical,” adding “like-for-like measures is what I believe we must enforce immediately.”

Seade made a similar comment to the news agency EFE last week while in Buenos Aires, where former president Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the new trade deal on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

“The first thing that Mexico has to do is smile, extend a hand to the United States and say: ‘we have to work together, we’re friends’ and change the [current] tariffs to like-for-like tariffs that hit the [U.S. steel] sector that benefits,” he said.

Mexico responded swiftly to the United States’ announcement that it would impose metal tariffs on its southern neighbor, imposing reciprocal duties on products such as pork, apples, potatoes, cheese, bourbon and some steel products.

But Seade told Milenio that the previous administration should have been more specific in its response.

“I think that by imposing tariffs scattered over a range of products the intention was to hit President Trump voters but I don’t think that’s the [right] way,” he said.

“United States producers weren’t hit sufficiently hard to pick up a pen and write: President Trump, why are you doing this to us? We’re the ones who are paying, the tomato growers [are paying] for what the steelmakers did. Well, they’re not going to pick up a pen because the blow isn’t so hard, [the tariffs] are scattered among a lot of products,” Seade added.

The undersecretary said it was possible that there could be friction on trade between the new López Obrador government and the Trump administration but reiterated that like-for-like tariffs are “something we have to have – a more robust position so that this [the U.S. metal tariffs situation] is resolved as soon as possible.”

Seade said last week he hoped that a deal could be reached so that the tariffs are removed by the end of the year, but United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a press conference in Buenos Aires that “it’s difficult to set a fixed deadline” for the issue to be resolved.

“What the president has asked me is to find a satisfactory solution for the Canadians and the Mexicans . . . but also for American industry and consumers,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Economista (sp) 

Los Cabos City will provide 9,000 houses for tourism workers

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New housing planned for Los Cabos tourism workers.
New housing planned for Los Cabos tourism workers.

A residential development with 9,000 new homes for tourism sector workers and their families will be built in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, the state government has announced.

The development will be known as Ciudad Los Cabos (Los Cabos City) and will also feature parks, a school and a market, among other amenities.

The National Tourism Fund (Fonatur), working in conjunction with the Baja California government, Los Cabos municipal authorities and the federal Tourism Secretariat (Sectur), secured a parcel of federal land located next to the La Paz-Cabo San Lucas highway for the project.

A trust, authorized by Fonatur last week, will seek to attract investment for the development from both the private sector and public entities such as the National Workers’ Housing Fund (Infonavit).

The new government in Mexico City has expressed its support for the construction of dignified housing for Los Cabos tourism workers and will back the project.

Announcement of the new development follows the signing of an agreement between federal and state authorities on October 31 to collaborate. Baja California Sur Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis and former federal tourism secretary Enrique de la Madrid were honorary witnesses to the agreement.

Los Cabos, encompassing the twin towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, is located at the southern tip of the 1,200-kilometer-long Baja California peninsula.

It is one of Mexico’s premier tourist destinations but has been plagued by high levels of violent crime in recent years.

The Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, a Mexican non-governmental organization, ranked Los Cabos as the most violent city in the world last year but its finding was promptly rejected by the resort town’s private sector.

Source: El Sudcaliforniano (sp), BCS Noticias (sp) 

Debt, poverty, violence and a litany of other woes face México state municipalities

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Ecatepec is one of the municipalities whose new governments face serious challenges.
Ecatepec is one of the municipalities whose new governments face serious challenges.

Several new municipal governments in México state will face high levels of debt, poverty and violence when they take office on January 1, according to a report by the state auditor’s office (Osfem).

Ecatepec, Naucalpan, Coacalco, Tlalnepantla and Atizapán de Zaragoza – all part of greater Mexico City – also face other problems including poor water services, educational deficiencies, bad roads and underperforming government officials.

High levels of homicides, femicides, attacks on public transit, motor vehicle theft, robberies of homes and businesses and muggings have made Ecatepec the most dangerous municipality in the country, according to the people who live there.

The most recent National Survey on Urban Public Security, released by statistics institute Inegi in October, shows that 96.3% of Ecatepec residents consider their city an unsafe place to live.

The most shocking criminal conduct reported in the municipality this year was the murder of as many as 20 women by a man dubbed the “monster of Ecatepec” and his partner, who also allegedly sold the baby of one of their victims.

Naucalpan and Tlalnepantla have public debt of 246.7 million pesos (US $12 million) and 624.2 million pesos (US $30.4 million) respectively, the state’s 2017 Public Accounts report reveals, meaning that the new governments will face the challenge of finding funds to repay it.

The Osfem assessment said that levels of transparency and institutional development in Coacalco are in a critical state and issued 181 recommendations to municipal authorities.

In its own development plan, the municipal government had committed to repaving roads but made no progress on the project, Osfem said.

For the next Atizapán de Zaragoza government, one pressing challenge will be to update the municipal development plan because no studies identifying work that needs to be done have been completed since 2003.

México state municipal governments will also inherit a collective 5-billion-peso (US $243.6-million) debt related to the supply and chlorination of water.

Municipalities that form part of the Valley of México metropolitan area, where water supply is often unreliable, have the largest outstanding bills.

The debt is payable to the México State Water Commission, which services 59 municipalities.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Judge halts Chihuahua governor’s ‘impunity expo’

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Governor Corral speaks at the inauguration of "Impunity Expo," which a judge has ordered closed.
Governor Corral speaks at the inauguration of the exhibition that a judge has ordered closed.

A federal court has ruled that a so-called “Impunity Expo” in Mexico City showcasing evidence of corruption allegedly committed by a former Chihuahua governor must be shut down because it compromises his right to the presumption of innocence.

The Mexico City-based administrative court granted a provisional suspension order to ex-governor César Duarte, who ruled the northern border state between 2010 and 2016 before fleeing Mexico early last year to avoid possible criminal charges.

The court said that photographs, video and other evidence on display at the Chihuahua government’s offices in Mexico City could discredit Duarte’s personal and professional reputation.

Current Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral, who has made bringing Duarte to justice a central aim of his administration, inaugurated the exhibition officially called “Impunity Expo: the plundering of César Duarte, protected by the regime,” on November 22.

The court order said that “upon being consulted or observed by any given person, the information exhibited in the Impunity Expo, to a greater or lesser extent, generates a certain unfavorable image of the now-plaintiff.”

The court also said that media reports about the contents of the exhibition could irreversibly affect the ex-governor’s right to the presumption of innocence.

Duarte, who held office for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is believed to be living in the United States.

Two Interpol Red Notices have been issued for him but he has so far avoided arrest and extradition to Mexico.

Governor Corral accused the previous federal government and specifically ex-president Enrique Peña Nieto of protecting Duarte.

The Supreme Court last month granted provisional protection to Peña Nieto and members of his cabinet that prevents them from being targeted by the Chihuahua government’s corruption probe.

During its investigation, state authorities have seized several ranches that Duarte allegedly bought with funds he embezzled during his governorship.

Photos of the ranches and information giving details of his alleged embezzlement of more than 1.2 billion pesos (US $58.4 million at today’s exchange rate) had been among the evidence on display.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Boy, 10, kills father for beating his mother

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Rodríguez: the boy cannot be charged.
Rodríguez: the boy cannot be charged.

A 10-year-old boy stabbed his father to death in Tabasco on Sunday after he refused to stop beating the boy’s mother.

The boy’s 30-year-old father, identified only by his first name, Higinio, was visiting at the home of his ex-wife and his son in Puerto Ceiba, Paraíso, when he began arguing with the former.

The disagreement escalated and the man became violent. The couple’s son, Alan, witnessed the incident and pleaded with his father to stop.

The boy’s pleas went unheard. So he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his father with it, puncturing a lung.

Neighbors and family transported the man to a nearby hospital but he died as he was being rushed to the operating room.

Under Mexican law Alan cannot be arrested or put on trial because he is a minor.

Tabasco deputy attorney general Aureola Rodríguez Cupil explained that there is no crime to prosecute, and that the boy is instead a victim of a violent home and should receive psychological counseling.

The Network for Children’s Rights in Mexico (Redim), advised that the boy, as a victim, should be offered all available public programs to avoid psychological repercussions.

Redim director Juan Martín Pérez García also warned that Alan is being re-victimized by several news outlets that have revealed his full name and address, with some going as far as publishing pictures of his home, in clear violation of the law and his rights.

Source: Excélsior (sp), Tabasco Hoy (sp)