Posted on Borderland Beat by Otis B Fly-Wheel, from youtube
[Subject Matter: Drug violence in Juarez and its history Recommendation: no prior knowledge needed, this is an in depth study and highly recommended for newcomers to Mexico's narco war.]
Jose Reyes Ferriz ex Mayor of Juarez discusses the history of drug violence in Juarez from the 1950,s to 2010.
Video shot at Texas University in English.
Otis: this was originally reported by Buggs in 2010 see link, but I considered it well worth a repost, for newcomers and seasoned veterans of the narco war in Mexico, the history of Juarez is fascinating as told by Mayor Ferriz.
Lucio R Borderland Beat, written using material from Reforma, Michoacan 3.0, Borderland Beat, and Urbistv Noticias
Two new recordings of Rodrigo Vallejo aka ‘ El Gerber” and Servando Gomez Martinez “La Tuta” were made known in a report that was presented Tuesday Morning in Primero Noticias. (video footage is combines in one video at bottom of this post)
One of the videos has footage of Vallejo, the son of the .former Governor from Michoacán, Fausto Vallejo Mora, skipping protocol while strolling into the Public security secretary (SSP) detainment section. He shows no ID, is not stopped, and does not sign in as he walks to a cell to visit a man wearing a black jacket.
The second video shows yet another TutaVision meeting between Vallejo and La Tuta, where decisions and political issues are discussed that would affect the future of Michoacan.
In the video, there is discussion of Ascension “Chon” Orihuela Barcenas, now a candidate for the governorship of Michoacán.
Vallejo expresses his detestation against Chon, and is concerned about the possibility that when his father would leave the governor’s position and Chon would fill the position. At the time of the video the governor was very ill and in need of a liver transplant.
Vallejo blamed Chon as being the person responsible, “for making all this mess”.
The video begins with Vallejo asking for a little more (whisky?) in his glass, Tuta responds by saying the glass is full.
Vallejo starts speaking about Chon, asking Tuta who is behind the decisions about Chon.
He continues, saying that he has direct orders from “the party” (PRI) that “if they kill a deputy” Chon is the replacement, in other words he is the replacement for any vacant position that would arise. “If my father leaves then he would replace him.”
He speaks about wanting Jose de Jesus Reyna to replace his father’s vacancy. He says he doesn’t like him, but it is because Reyna can be trusted.
Eventually Governor Fausto Vallejo did leave to the United States for his new liver, and it was not Chon that took over the governor’s position, it was Reyna.
The following footage is a brief exchange between a reporter and Chon, about the conversation in the Tuta video. The reporter asked about Vallejo’s discussion featuring Chon.
“Oh the bastard, he is crazy” replied Chon.
The reporter asks why Vallejo is discussing him.
Chon says, “Well, because they are afraid of me, I think. Because if his father left, I was to replace him.”
And he adds that they were worried about maintaining control.
Reyna
Reyna becomes Governor, then is arrested
The son of Fausto Vallejo was accused with the offence of covering up crime, while Jesus Reyna Garcia who also appears in a video with the leader of Templarios, was accused of drug trafficking and was arrested and remains incarcerated.
The PGR added no other charges against Vallejo, no trafficking, organized crime collusion, nothing. Even though there have been three videos so far featuring meetings with Tuta, in one he was carrying a weapon. This despite the fact the PGR considered La Tuta, "the most dangerous criminal in Mexico" at the time of his capture.
Rodrigo Vallejo Mora was released on bail on April 11th after paying a bond of nearly 7 thousand pesos, about 460 USD. This figure was 1,853 pesos less the bail imposed on the normalistas of Escuela Normal de Tiripetío after their arrest during a protest.
Full video
“Pepe” sent in the video from Primeria Noticias which is the original and has greater detail. It was released by Televisa's Carlos Loret de Mola, on his morning news program (Primeria Noticias) yesterday.
The inebriated Vallejo, tells Tuta about “his house”.He talks about the swimming pool, and area of sand to lay out.
He tells Tuta he does not like to leave the home.Tuta says he likes to be out and about, but he can’t do that.
Vallejo invites Tuta to his home. (Pepe says he is talking about the governor’s mansion)
He then tells Tuta they have a helicopter that Tuta can be transported to the estate in.
That is when Tuta howls with laughter.
The video ends
Why Loret de Mola published the video appears to have stemmed from a personal vendetta. Gerber Vallejo's father the former governor, accused Loret de Mola of lying when he reported the existence of additional Gerber Tutateca videos, after the first of the series came out.
That propelled Loret de Mola into a mission to assure the videos were released so that Gerber Vallejo returns to prison.
Televisa is notorious for being untruthful either outright or by omission to protect government heads, but they have the best sources of all agencies at their fingertips just for the asking. In this case the PGR agency.
What is perplexing is why the PGR has not included the transcripts or the videos as evidence in a case against Gerber Vallejo for organized crime collusion.
Dr. Mireles shared with Borderland Beat, that the raid by the autodefensas of a ranch in Arteaga, Michoacán, belonging to Tuta and where his mother resided, they found a massive amount of videos inside the home.He said they were turned over to PGR.Many months later a few videos began surfacing.
Lucio R Borderland Beat, written using material from Reforma, Michoacan 3.0, Borderland Beat, and Urbistv Noticias
Two new recordings of Rodrigo Vallejo aka ‘ El Gerber” and Servando Gomez Martinez “La Tuta” were made known in a report that was presented Tuesday Morning in Primero Noticias. (video footage is combines in one video at bottom of this post)
One of the videos has footage of Vallejo, the son of the .former Governor from Michoacán, Fausto Vallejo Mora, skipping protocol while strolling into the Public security secretary (SSP) detainment section. He shows no ID, is not stopped, and does not sign in as he walks to a cell to visit a man wearing a black jacket.
The second video shows yet another TutaVision meeting between Vallejo and La Tuta, where decisions and political issues are discussed that would affect the future of Michoacan.
In the video, there is discussion of Ascension “Chon” Orihuela Barcenas, now a candidate for the governorship of Michoacán.
Vallejo expresses his detestation against Chon, and is concerned about the possibility that when his father would leave the governor’s position and Chon would fill the position. At the time of the video the governor was very ill and in need of a liver transplant.
Vallejo blamed Chon as being the person responsible, “for making all this mess”.
The video begins with Vallejo asking for a little more (whisky?beer?) in his glass, Tuta responds by saying the glass is full.
Vallejo starts speaking about Chon, asking Tuta who is behind the decisions about Chon.
He continues, saying that he has direct orders from “the party” (PRI) that “if they kill a deputy” Chon is the replacement, in other words he is the replacement for any vacant position that would arise. “If my father leaves then he would replace him.”
He speaks about wanting Jose de Jesus Reyna to replace his father’s vacancy. Because he says, Reyna can be trusted.
Eventually Governor Fausto Vallejo did leave to the United States for his new liver, and it was not Chon that took over the governor’s position, it was Reyna.
The following footage is a brief exchange between a reporter and Chon, about the conversation in the Tuta video. The reporter asked about Vallejo’s discussion featuring Chon.
“Oh the bastard, he is crazy” replied Chon.
The reporter asks why Vallejo is discussing him.
Chon says, “Well, because they are afraid of me, I think. Because if his father left, I was to replace him.”
And he adds that they were worried about maintaining control.
Reyna
Reyna becomes Governor, then is arrested
The son of Fausto Vallejo was accused with the offence of covering up crime, while Jesus Reyna Garcia who also appears in a video with the leader of Templarios, was accused of drug trafficking and was arrested and remains incarcerated.
The PGR added no other charges against Vallejo, no trafficking, organized crime collusion, nothing. Even though there have been three videos so far featuring meetings with Tuta, in one he was carrying a weapon. This despite the fact the PGR considered La Tuta, "the most dangerous criminal in Mexico" at the time of his capture.
Rodrigo Vallejo Mora was released on bail on April 11th after paying a bond of nearly 7 thousand pesos, about 460 USD. This figure was 1,853 pesos less the bail imposed on the normalistas of Escuela Normal de Tiripetío after their arrest during a protest. The video is mix news with the first 4.5 minutes or so pertaining to this story, if anyone has a better video please send it in via comments. thank you
When the infamous Iguala Mayor and his wife were arrested, a little detail of fact escaped most people outside of Mexico, we at BB did make mention that the case against Maria de los Angeles Pineda, wife of the former mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, was going to be a tough nut to crack. Fact isshe was never charged in the normalistas case.
The genesis of the case began on a night when hell showered Iguala, Guerrero with violence, murder and terror that left in the balance, over 50 people who were killed or presumed killed, by municipal police allegedly per orders by the mayor. 42 of those presumed dead have not been accounted for and are known as “The 43”. “The normalistas”, were students earning their teaching certificate to be able to teach elementary education in rural areas of Mexico. The remains of only 1 of the 43 who were taken that night was positively identified though DNA studies.
In the case of Pineda, prosecutors were never able to tie her to the normalistas case; they could not find enough evidence to successfully prosecute her.
On November 4thshe was arrested and held for 60 days on a preventative detention including an extension of 20 days. During the 60 days the PGR Attorney General failed twice trying to charge Pineda in the normalistas case. The court rejected the case due to insufficient evidence.She was never charged in
In a peculiar move, on the third attempt she was indicted on a charge not related to the normalistas case, it was for money laundering and charges of organized crime involvement. She is accused of the laundering of at least 13 million pesos for the Beltrán Leyva brothers and the Guerreros Unidos cartels.
Mexico’s narco turned protected witness, BLO’s Sergio Villarreal Barragán, known as “El Grande”, (code name Jennifer”) did give information on the Pineda brothers and of Pineda herself. He establishes she was involved not only with the money laundering and investments of same, but eluded to the fact she may have had a fling with Arturo Beltran himself. Pinedad, says Villarreal, attended BLO parties in Cuernavaca with her brothers, and that Abarca was never with her.
But the peculiarity in this case came in, when she was denied her right to present a defense.
On its face, the action was so imprudent that it almost seems that it must have been intentional.
Reforma reported on last Friday, on the 24th,a federal court in the state of Mexico disposed of the arrest order; on grounds the she was denied her right to present defense in the case against her, rendering the process unlawful and faulty.
Next there will be a judicial review, which could uphold the ruling and allow her to be set free.
The Mexican attorney general has also insisted that Pineda has links with organized crime in the state of Guerrero, specifically with the Guerreros Unidos cartel, which is suspected of kidnapping the 43 students.
Finding evidence of Pineda’s links to organized crime should not be a difficult task. Her family ties to organized crime began in Morelos, when the brothers worked for BLO. Two of her brothers were executed for their betrayal to Arturo Beltrán Leyva, confirmed by Pineda’s mother in an interrogation by her kidnappers, which was videotaped.
Her family continued with organized business and Pineda’s brothers became leaders of Guerreros Unidos, the cartel instrumental in the killing and kidnappings on September 26, 2014 of the normalistas.
Her entire family, including her parents has been arrested multiple times for organized crime activities. Pineda’s defense team contends “she has not seen her family in years”.
Meaning the fact that the cartel of her family being involved in the normalista killings, in Iguala, where her husband is mayor, is just an amazing, incredible coincidence.
The fact that her husband killed a social activist in 2012, aided by Guerreros Unidos, with surviving witnesses, is another incredible fact of coincidence.
Abarca was witnessed as picking up the AK47 aiming it at the already kidnapped, tortured and beaten Arturo Hernandez, and saying just before firing the weapon “ you fucked with me and now I will have the pleasure of killing you.”
Abarca was not charged with the murder, until after the normalistas killings occurred. Pineda was thought to be the “woman in the car” watching the Hernandez killing and who accompanied Abarca to the scene, but witnesses could not clearly see the woman enough to make a positive identification. However she and her husband both warned Hernandez, that he would be harmed, this was said in a public forum.
Both Pindea and Abarca have been charged with attempted bribery, stemming from the charge they attempted to bribe police officers who arrested them.
That case is under appeal and in dispute.
Although it is unlikely that Abarca will go completely free, there have been problems with the normalistas case against him from the beginning. Chivis and I both listened to a recorded conversation with Abarca and the Guerrero Attorney general, and we concluded that there was a good possibility that in the case of the normalistas murders, that Abarca may have not known what was happening. On the recording he seems confused and did not know many details. It could be he gave the “ok”, but did not give the order.
One of the witnesses contends “everyone was told they were Los Rojos infiltrated in the group of normalistas.” Maybe Abarca was told the same, but a strong possibility is that the order really did come from elsewhere.
Alternatively, he could be the patsy for someone else calling the shots, someone who was clever enough not to leave a trail that would lead back to her, thereby circumventing any possibility of the crime being proven against her. There is much that will never be known in this case.
“But when we interrogated them we could see they were all were normalistas. They said, each of them, I am a normalistas of Ayotzinapa.” Said one of the arrested sicarios.
For his part, the attorney general seems to have given up on the case against Pineda, but says,
“this doesn’t mean she is free she has another charge of crimes against health... “which is serious”, he vies.
Borderland Beat posted by DD republished from Yahoo News
On March 20, BB reported on a ambush of federal police in the town of Ocotlan, Jalisco. Eleven people (originally reported 10) died in that shootout, including 5 police officers, 3 cartel members and that story said 2 innocent bystanders were killed. It turns out there were 3 bystanders killed, but the story didn't have any detail about their deaths. This article tells their story.
By Leticia Pineda
Bloodstains outside a house in Ocotlan, Jalisco state (AFP Photo/Hector Guerrero)
Ocotlan (Mexico) (AFP) - The mechanic was working under a car when he turned his head and saw a dozen pick-up trucks creeping down the street in Mexico's western state of Jalisco.
"The devil is on the loose," Jorge Gerardo Herrera said ominously to his colleagues as he turned back to the car he was fixing in the town of Ocotlan.
Suddenly, a gunfight erupted and a stray bullet landed in the mechanic's heart, turning him into the latest innocent and forgotten victim of Mexico's cruel drug violence.
His death was recounted by the garage's owner, Felipe de Jesus Ramirez, who was there when members of the powerful Jalisco New Generation drug cartel ambushed a federal gendarmerie convoy on March 19.
Eleven people died in the shootout, including five police officers, three suspected gunmen and three bystanders. The victims included a teenager who was returning home after doing his homework at a friend's place.
"We could hear the bullets whizzing by," Ramirez said. He ran into his garage with a woman and five girls who had been walking nearby.
Jorge Gerardo died as he stepped onto the sidewalk, caught by a bullet that felled him instantly. He was 25 and about to get married.
- No compensation -
More than 80,000 people have died in Mexico's drug war since late 2006, when then president Felipe Calderon deployed troops to crackdown on drug cartels.
The controversial deployment, which has continued since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in 2012, has led to numerous clashes between gangs and security forces.
There are deaths on both sides, and occasionally innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire. But there are no official figures on the number of bystanders killed in the drug war, according to experts.
The country lacks legislation on who should compensate the families of victims, and how those families should be treated, said Gerardo Rodriguez Sanchez Lara, a national security expert.
"The issue is complex and very new in Mexico," he said, noting that in a country at war, those who lose or the state will usually be made to pay damages.
But in a country not at war, where there are "extrajudicial actors who kill civilians, the issue of compensation is more complicated," the expert said.
Rodriguez said the state should provide compensation to families of civilians killed in clashes, just as it takes care of relatives of dead police officers.
One major case of innocent civilians caught in the drug war took place last year in southern Guerrero state, where crooked police officers opened fire on busloads of college students.
Three students and three bystanders were killed. Another 43 students were abducted by officers and delivered to a drug gang, which killed them and incinerated their bodies, according to prosecutors.
In the northern state of Tamaulipas, shootouts have regularly erupted in the cities of Matamoros, Reynosa and Tampico this year.
Residents have used social media to indicate where shootouts take place so that people can take cover.
- Hiding in bathroom -
But the people of Ocotlan, a town of 90,000, did not have much time to react to the March 19 ambush.
An altar with flowers and candles was placed on the spot where the teenage student was killed, just 400 meters (yards) from where the mechanic was hit.
The walls of homes still bear the scars of bullet holes.
One woman said she and her son hid in the bathroom when the bullets began flying.
Bullet holes in the window of a house neighbouring the one where gunmen attacked the police in Ocotlan, Jalisco state (AFP Photo/Hector Guerrero)
"Thank God, they were only 9mm bullets" and not more lethal ammunition fired by AR-15 or AK-47 assault rifles -- weapons used in other attacks and that are powerful enough to penetrate walls, said the woman, who asked for security reasons to remain anonymous.
The extension was requested by his attorney, Frank Ragen, who stated the mountain of evidence in the case against his client had not been fully processed. He was granted additional time to review the data and be prepared for the status hearing.
Aréchiga last speared before Judge Dana M. Sabraw in November 21, 2014, when the defense asserted that the evidence was an extraordinary amount to assess and his office would need ample time to peruse the reports. He was granted 5 months at that time, on Friday that was extended to May.
As for Serafin Zambada,(above) the son of Ismael El Mayo Zambada, he plead guilty last September and is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Procesoarticle
[Article Subject: Cartel del Golfo, Commandante 22, Reynosa Recommendation: Some prior knowledge of CDG useful]
Proceso Redaction and Reynosfera
Elements of the Marines and Federal Police detained today a presumed criminal leader in Reynosa, Tamaulipas nicknamed El Commandante 22 together with two other presumed criminals.
The capture of El Commandante set off various narco blockades and confrontations between armed civilians and elements of the Marina and Federal Police.
The Authorities report also that three gunmen of a criminal group were killed.
After the detention of the Boss of Plaza, members of his group tried to rescue him which led to a confrontation between State Forces and Federals against armed civilians in which three people died.
In a communication from the Group for Coordination of Tamaulipas indicated that the detention occurred at approximately 17:00 outside a party located in Libramiento Oriente, at the top of Colonia Del Rio.
At this place, there were detained three armed men, amongst them El Commandante 22, alleged Boss of Plaza for this criminal group.
Members of the same group tried to rescue the three detained men, carried out various narco blockades at the Boulevards Colosio and Oriente, the confrontations were against elements of the Base of Mixed Operations.
In addition to the detained and killed, the Authorities seized six vehicles, four rifles and a side arm, 149 rounds of ammunition, and 20 plastic bags containing Marijuana.
The detained, meanwhile, were put at the disposition of Federal Authorities.
Joint production by Proceso and Aristegui News Service
Reporter: Laura Castellanos
Methodology: To facilitate comprehension of the video by non-Spanish viewers, I kept track of the elapsed time and tried to note the points where significant segments begin. I also translated those portions of the report that appear as print on the screen and the voices that closely track the printed messages. To identify the speakers, I used “R” for “Reporter” and “W” for “witness”. If there is no attribution noted, the speaker is the Reporter. The only speakers who are identified in the video are Dr. Carlos Torres Vega, Director of the Ramon Ponce General Hospital, and, of course, Alfredo Castillo, former Federal Security Commissioner in Michoacán who was recently appointed Director of the Conade (the national sports commission).—un vato
00:15 Screen: Apatzingán Massacre: “It was the Federal Police.
00:19 Voice and screen: “With shouts of, ‘Kill those dogs!’, they began to shoot. To kill us.”
00:27 Voice and screen: “They’re still shooting over here, over here! One of the comrades can’t get out. The Federales are shooting!”
00:34 W: “It’s like an execution, that is, at very close range and this causes powder marks on the skin…”
00:44 R: At dawn on January 6, federal police fired on members of the Rural Police in Michoacán and their supporters who, unarmed, were conducting a sit-in demonstration at the Apatzingán municipal palace.
00:56 In the ensuing moments, members of self-defense forces and day laborers were murdered by gunfire and their bodies were left strewn on that city’s streets.
01:05 The preliminary toll is 16 persons dead and tens wounded.
01:10 Everything indicates that what happened in Apatzingán was a crime against humanity.
01:15 R’s voice and screen: The official version states that in the two attacks, there were:
8 dead, 1 person run over by a vehicle, and 44 arrested on charges of; criminal association, possession of illegal firearms
01:15 R: …and that Federal Police arrested 44 persons on charges of criminal association and possession of illegal firearms, and that the persons killed in the second attack were hit by “friendly fire” between civilians.
01:40 Screen: Alfredo Castillo, Commissioner of Security in Michoacán.
01:40:Castillo: Practically all the persons killed could have been killed by their own comrades, that is, a matter of cross fire.
01:50 But there are statements that demolish this version of the facts. Victims and witnesses say that it was the Federal Police that executed unarmed civilians.
02:00 That none of the demonstrators had long weapons (rifles).
02:03 Also, the medical staff at the Ramon Ponce General Hospital asserted that the persons they treated had been shot at close range, with (powder) marks that point to an execution.
02:20 Screen: The facts presented in this investigation were reconstructed from the testimony of 12 of the 44 persons arrested and subsequently released after the first gunfire attack (among them a businessman).
02:20 R: The facts presented in this investigation are reconstructed from recorded statements from 39 persons:
02:24 12 of the 44 persons detained and later released as a result of the first attack;
02:40 2 mothers of the victims and Personnel at the Ramon Ponce General Hospital and employees of the Office of the Medical Examiner (Semefo).
Due to fear of retaliation, the sources requested that they not be identified by name.
02:54 R: At 2:00 a.m. on January 6, 2015, Rural Police radio transmissions reported that 20 pickup trucks from the Federal Police were headed towards the Apatzingan central plaza.
03:07 At the entrances to the municipal palace, there were approximately 100 people, including members of the Rural Police (self defense forces) and their supporters, were armed with sticks, who were dissatisfied with the dissolution of their group, the G-250, which had been created by Alfredo Castillo, then the federal Security Commissioner in Michoacán and currently the director of Conade (national sports commission). (The group) had been created to capture the leader of the Caballeros Templarios, Servando Gomez Martinez, “La Tuta”.
03:40 They had been sent into the mountains for eight months to hunt for La Tuta, and now they were being dismissed without having been paid anything and were facing new incursions by the Caballeros Templarios into their towns and cities.
03:53 The leader of the demonstration was Nicolas Sierra, aka “El Gordo Coruco”, one of the seven brothers known as “Los Viagra”, feared and hated due to accusations of being former Templarios and committing atrocities, but admired by those who claimed otherwise and who pointed to their intimate familiarity with the terrain.
04:08 They had been alerted to a possible attack by Templarios and a possible attempt to drive them out on the eve of Reyes (January 6).
04:15 For that reason, at midnight, El Gordo Coruco had ordered them not to react to any provocation with weapons or rocks so they would not be treated as criminals.
04:25 The Federal Police convoy arrived at 2:30 a.m. and parked on the streets behind the Apatzingan municipal palace.
04:35 The Federal Police went in shooting. The attack lasted 15 minutes.
04:38 The Federal Police were shooting at the demonstrators, who ran into the central garden to take cover behind the park benches. Security cameras recorded dozens of unarmed people fleeing from one side (of the plaza) to the other.
04:50 In the parking lot on one side of the municipal palace the Federal Police shot up the pickup trucks and beat up some of the occupants.
05:00 One of the Rural Police members watched when they murdered civilians in the plaza.
05:05 W: “They yelled at me, “Put your hands up, get on your knees!’ When I was going to put my hands up and get on my knees, I saw a person who was farther down, towards the “Tres Hermanos” store, a person who was on his knees, you can see how they shoot him in the face and he falls down, the comrade falls down…”
05:25 W: “They shoot the person, who was already on his knees, had surrendered, was unarmed.”
R: Do they execute him?
W:They execute him.
R: Who?
W: The Federal Police.
05:35 Screen: Alfredo Castillo.
R: The detainees were taken to the regional office of the Mexican Attorney General in Morelia, and from there, to a prison in Tepic.
05:45 R: At 7:00 a.m. on January 6, ten Federal Police pickups and tow trucks took the previous night’s detainees and impounded vehicles down Constitution Avenue towards the impound yard.
06:00 Survivors of the dawn attack swear that the Federal Police caravan was carrying wounded people and detainees who were crying for help.
06:10 The civilians, with sticks in their hands, caught up to them and tried to rescue them, but the Federal Police fired at them with explosive bullets and with their M-60 machine guns.
06:20 The civilians’ advance stopped amidst the volley of gunfire.
06:27 A red pickup carrying more young workers came upon the scene in the middle of the attack.
06:30 The person on the passenger side, a 17 year old girl, recorded with her cell phone for 37 seconds the flow of civilians with sticks who were running towards the patrol vehicles and had to retreat due to the gunfire.
06:45 When they were attacked, she and the other youths escaped by crawling out of their vehicle.
06:50 A white pickup with seven young people, all lemon pickers younger than 20 years of age, was left at the front. Among them was a teenage girl, 16 years old.
07:00 A few yards behind them, the black pickup belonging to Miguel Madrigal, one of the Los Viagras operators in Apatzingán, stopped. The detonations were bursting the glass, tires and body panels on the pickups stuck there.
07:15 Frightened, the neighbors were peeking out. One of them heard a Federal (Police) officer give orders to kill them.
07:20 (Screen: Neighbor from Apatzingán, Michoacán)
07:20 W: And from the Federal Police, I also heard that someone was yelling, “Kill them, kill them!”.
07:25 A neighbor observed three of the wounded young men bleed out for almost an hour.
07:30 W: It was very sad because it seemed as though they were consoling each other. They were alive and they would hold each other’s shoulder.
07:40 A video on YouTube showed how at a certain point a young man wearing a striped T-shirt, surrounded by two murdered comrades in pools of blood, slowly moved his arm without getting any help.
07:53 In a 2 hour 49 minute recording of the radio transmissions of the group under attack, one of them is heard warning that the ones shooting at them are Federal Police:
08:05 Screen: Civilian Group’s Radio Transmissions: “Over here they are still firing, they are still firing. One of our comrades is unable to get out. The Federal Police are shooting at us!“
08:05 Second Voice: “We can’t get out. One of our comrades just died in my hands! He just died, and they just hit another one! What do we do?! Are we going to stay here? Are we going to stay here and die until help gets here?”
08:25 The Federal Police did not request ambulances even though the Ramon Ponce General Hospital is located on the same street.
08:30 The black pickup belonging to Mr. Madrigal had stopped in front of one of the corners of the intersection of Plutarco (street). The heavyset man had descended from his truck with his T-shirt pulled up to show he was unarmed, but they still shot him.
08:45 The attack against them forced the Madrigal family to lie down together on the pavement, the married couple covering the sides with their bodies.
08:58 W: “And the girls were shouting, because it was a young man, his wife, a sister and two others who were in the pickup, they were riding in the pickup. And they were shouting, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, were unarmed!’, and then they would cry, then they would shout and then cry.”
09:15 W: And I was peeking out from around there. They came down the sidewalk, all of them. And from the corner, just like that, they got them! And that’s how they were, alive, protecting themselves. And when the Federales saw that they were not shooting at them, they came over and massacred them. They tore them apart.
09:29 R: The family was left in each other’s arms, with multiple bullet holes, lying on top of sticks and pieces of torn flesh.
09:40 The toll from this second attack was more dead civilians, so many, that they did not fit into the local medical examiner’s facility.
09:50 On Reyes day (January 6) in the morning, after the second attack, a witness saw Federal police placing civilians under submission.
09:55 Screen: Cycllst: He witnessed the execution of civilians.
09:59 W: They began to get civilians to get down and began shooting them right there, to put them on their knees and then with their hands up, (the civilians) asking them not to shoot, that they did not have weapons, and even then, they were shooting them.
10:22 A small group of workers dared to go in with two pickup trucks to rescue people barricaded during the shooting. They carried out another young man who was shot in the chest, who was taking cover in a restaurant. The 15 second video showed the young man on the floor as he extended his arms so they could put him in a pickup truck. The rescuing workers left the young man on the sidewalk in front of the hospital just after 8:00 a.m. They returned and brought another person with a knee that was in pieces. The Ponce medical staff says that they did not provide any treatment. Their fate is unknown.
11:00 The shooting ended. The Federales altered the scene. The murdered young men on the white pickup can be seen on videos and photographs with different positions and distances (between them).
11:10 W: The weapons that can be seen there were placed there by the Federales themselves.
11:15 The Federales brought out the two young men who were hiding under the white pickup. Civil Assistance came and gave them aid. The Federales taped themselves helping getting them on stretchers and that’s what they broadcast.
11:30 Four persons were hospitalized at the Ponce (General Hospital). One of the injured persons had his pelvis, bladder and rectum torn up. They carried out emergency surgery. The wounds were gaping holes.
11:41 Another came in with his head and abdomen shot up. The surgical team concluded that he received a coup de grace (finishing shot) that affected his brain. They observed that the wounds presented tattooing, the mark left by gunpowder on the skin when the bullet is fired from a distance of 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches).
12:00 At 1:00 p.m., the director of the hospital, Carlos Torres Vega, attempted to transfer them to Morelia, but they prevented him.
12:07 Screen: Dr. Carlos Torres Vega, Director of the Ramon Ponce hospital:
W: The Federales did not allow the young men to be taken out even though they were not classified as detainees.
12:15 Seven hours later, they finally authorized it. They first transferred the patient with an injured pelvis, but it was too late:
12:20 W: (Dr. Torres): He bled profusely; we administered 4 or 5 units of blood, and when he was getting to Morelia, at the last toll booth, right past the last toll booth, he died.
12:35 At the Ponce, the staff found it strange that, as part of the (police) operation, they transferred wounded persons to the civilian hospital in Morelia and Uruapan, which is approximately 2.5 hours away.
12:48 The medical team testified that mothers came into the clinic looking for their daughters, wounded in the dawn attack. They were two or three little girls, one of them 2 years old.
12:55 Screen: Medical Personnel from the Ponce Hospital: Women looking for their daughters.
W: Some persons came in, some women weeping, yelling, asking whether their wounded daughters were there because they couldn’t locate them.
13:15 No bodies were transferred to the Apatzingán Semefo (medical examiner) from the two attacks. A worker stated that they got orders not to take the bodies to those facilities because there were too many (bodies) and they only had the capacity to handle 10:
13:19 Screen: Semefo personnel: No space:
W: They would go by looking for doctors, supposedly because there were a lot (of bodies) and they could not get all of them in here.
- What’s the number of bodies they have the capacity to handle here?
- About 10, more or less.
- So then there must have been more than 10?
- Yes.
13:43 Screen: Three death certificates prove that cadavers were transferred an average travel distance of three hours away.
“Luis Alberto Lara Belmonte, 20 years old, with lacerations in both lungs and thoracic trauma,” was taken to the Lazaro Cardenas Semefo.
13:59 Luis Gerardo Rodriguez Barajas, 18 years old, who died “due to the penetration of multiple projectiles from a firearm” in the abdomen, was transported to Zamora.
14:09 And Guillermo Gallegos Madrigal, 20 years old, who died due to “penetration by a projectile from a firearm through the cranium” was routed to the Morelia Semefo.
14:19 The Commissioner at the time, Alfredo Castillo, explained that in the early hours on January 6, armed men who had taken over the Apatzingan municipal palace were evicted. He said they detained 44 of them for carrying illegal firearms and criminal association, in possession of 13 long (barreled) weapons (rifles) and a grenade. The journals stated that of the 44 detainees, 25 belonged to the G-250 and 19 were civilians.
14:50 On January 14, a judge in Uruapan ordered the immediate release of 43 of them for lack of evidence.
14:56 Only one member of the Rural Police who had been on guard duty far from the site where the events took place and who responded in support of his group carrying his rifle is still in prison and in the process of gaining his freedom.
15:10 With respect to the second attack, Castillo added that at 7:45 a.m., armed men ambushed a Federal caravan to seize impounded vehicles. According to him, there were 8 killed by friendly fire, fired from a red pickup truck. He denied there were any extra-judicial executions.
15:28 The preliminary result from both attacks is 16 extrajudicial executions. The real toll is not known, one of the legal representatives said, because nobody wants to talk because they are afraid. Sixteen days after the massacre, on January 22, Castillo left his office and General Felipe Gurrola took his place.
15:50 Commander Arenas of the Apatzingán Federal Police was transferred to Guerrero.
15:59 The official version remains unchanged to this day.
16:00 A few hours before this report was disseminated, the federal government announced that the PGR (Mexican Attorney General) will conduct an investigation into abuse of authority and excessive use of force by the Federal Police in the events that took place in Apatzingán.
16:14 The authorities were made aware of this matter through a video delivered anonymously. The Federal Police communications office informed Univision that they could neither affirm nor deny that the events under investigation are linked to the Apatzingán massacre on January 6.
[Chivis note: On Monday, the interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, announced that the Attorney General's Office and the Internal Affairs Unit of the Federal Police are conducting an investigation.
I think it is important to note that the people were protesting at the plaza represented different issues. It was a mixed group...some were former Rurales present with "The hated" Nicolas Sierra, others were protesting for rurales pay they claim was never paid to them, and a self-defense group protesting Castillo’s fight against them. Protesters take advantage of festivals to put forth a grievance in a public forum. In this case January 6th is a Catholic “holy day of obligation’, “Three Kings Day”, (Epiphany). This explains why so many families were in the plaza at that time. I strongly believe that in a democracy, extrajudicial or social cleaning killings cannot be tolerated. Or the system fails. Only 6 people had guns, they were legal weapons registered to 6 Rurales, witnesses report when the federal police ordered the 6 to throw down their weapons they immediately followed orders. In my personal opinion, it was a mass killing ordered by Castillo to terrorize people into obedience, by these types of mass killings, or imprisonment.
In this case the feds were sent to eliminate the protesting group, and were not concerned with bystanders, if they were in the way, they too were beaten, abused or worse.
Illegal action against those who dare to challenge the system, or social cleanings, as in other killings we have seen this year, in Iguala and Talatlaya. These killings have always existed in Mexico, but we are becoming more aware of what transpires because of documentations via cell phone.]
Policia Comunitaria Radio Transmissions
A few days ago, the journal Revolucion 3.0 Michoacan published an article with a YouTube video that contained recorded radio transmissions purportedly between members of the criminal organization Los Viagra recorded on January 6, the night of the Apatzingan massacre carried out by the Federal Police (FP). The Apatzingan Policia Comunitaria (PC) blames Los Viagraa for the massacre, but the transcript of the radio transmissions shows that the Sierra Santana brothers were urging people to go out into the streets of Apatzingan to demonstrate, but to carry no firearms. In the recording, Los Viagras keep telling their people that they should not react to any provocation by the FP because the federal forces want them to be perceived as criminals, presumably to justify use of deadly force.
The narrator is wrong on one important point: she states at the start of the recording that the communications were transmitted a few minutes before the confrontation. However, the speaker who appears to be the angriest group leader ("Voto" or "Goto") and who keeps threatening to fire back at the FP has already been shot at and has already had one of his men killed.
But the other group leaders keep telling him not to retaliate, to remain calm, even send another member of the group to bring him in. They insist repeatedly that the FP wants them to retaliate to justify murdering the civilians. They insist they are on the side of the law because they are not carrying weapons. In retrospect, they were right about that, but they still got shot. Below are some key transmissions.
00:25 Easy, Voto(?), we're going to have a lot of time to fight them. We'll hit the military ... just like they killed your boy, we're going to kill them with rocks.
00:58 They're coming out on all the streets, they're getting disorganized, they're running down the streets.
01:09 ... They're killing us like chickens!
01:25 Everybody in Apatzingan! Come out, they're killing us and (we're) without our weapons!
01:37 Voto, where are you located? A lot of people are coming out, everybody come out! We are all going to support this. If they're going to kill us, let them kill us, let them kill us without our weapons!
01:57 Those lieutenants, those colonels who gave the orders are going to be locked up for life, for life, because of what they're doing...
02:04 They're going to be living locked up and we'll be dead with a fistful of dirt in our mouths.
02:10 ... Well, we have to things right...
02:43 I have man dead! I have a man dead and they are going to pay for that, those sons of their whoring mothers. I can promise you, those dogs are going to pay for this.
02:59 Coruco, go get Voto, go for Voto. Voto, calm down. Television reporters are coming. All of you, don't be stupid, They fired on us, everything is in our favor. Calm down, don't get excited, fuck it, get yourself under control.
03:10 Fuck it, maybe I'll be dead, but they're going to pay for this, those sons of a whore... They're going to pay for my dead guy that they killed, and pay well, those dogs... Fuck the federales and the citizen police... We tried it their way, but they don't understand words... they starte it and they will pay...
03:42 A lot of people are coming down on foot, cars coming down, on foot from Colonia Nueva...
04:05 Easy now, easy. We're going that way... Fuck them and fuck Castillo, too, that son of a whore.
04:58 We have to be on the side of the law, but not on the side of these sons of bitches,OK? We don't have to be criminals, if they want to make us look like criminals, they're going to get fucked. We don't have to play their game. We're going to screw them because they are the criminals because they murdered us...
05:22 That's right. And if we can't handle the... we're going to ask for help from the U.S. government...
05:25 Like the last time, they offered to help us, the U.S. government offered to help us, and out of respect, out of honesty, because we're Mexicans, we didn't accept help from the U.S. This time we're going t ask for it if the (Mexican) government wants to fuck us over, we'll ask the U.S. government for help!
