Borderland Beat posted by DD republishing some material from The New Yorker, Yahoo News, and Finance Yahoo and Animal PoliticoÂ
DD; Since the previous reporting on Borderland Beat of the stories about the murders of Ruben Espinoza and Nadia Vera and 3 other women in Mexico City in early August, new details about the crime and the investigation have come to light. There is still no definitive answer as to whether the murders were a professional hit or were personal, a robbery gone bad, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This story attempts to put the investigation into the context of environment existing prior to the murders and show new evidence that has come to light and more details on the killings and events leading up to them.
THE INVESTIGATION;
One day after the bodies of a photo journalist and 4 women were found in a Mexico City apartment, the Prosecutor (PGJDF) for the federal capitol issued a statement that robbery was the motive for the murders. Â
THE INVESTIGATION;
One day after the bodies of a photo journalist and 4 women were found in a Mexico City apartment, the Prosecutor (PGJDF) for the federal capitol issued a statement that robbery was the motive for the murders. Â
Neither the police nor PGR said anything about the threats and beatings, and the harrassment Espinoza and Vera had received from government agents in Veracruz that caused them to flee Veracruz and seek safe haven in Mexico City, long thought to be a safe refuge for journalists.Â
As reported in The New Yorker;:
"The Distrito Federalâs mayor, Miguel Ăngel Mancera, and his justice department, the P.G.J.D.F., are handling the investigation. For the first eight days following the murders, the P.G.J.D.F., under the direction of Prosecutor General Rodolfo RĂos, was single-mindedly treating the multiple homicide as a robbery.Â
The same Sunday as the rally at El Ăngel, RĂos met with editors and representatives of Proceso, the Cuartoscuro photo agency, Red de Periodistas de a Pie (The Barefoot Journalists Network, founded by Marcela Turati), ArtĂculo 19, and PEN International. According to the account of the meeting published this week in Proceso, and corroborated to me by a journalist associated with Periodistas de Pie, the journalists were stupefied to hear RĂos dismiss the possibility that the murderers could have been related to Espinosaâs work.Â
He hadnât been assassinated âwhile performing his profession,â (DD; Rios also said it couldn't be a crime against journalist, which would make it a federal crime because Espinosa was now unemployed and the only complaint he had ever filed was 3 years ago in 2012.  DD Duarte had offered him money to drop the complain but Ruben refused it) said the Prosecutor General. At a press conference following the meeting, RĂos said that Espinosa had moved to the city âin search of new opportunities as a professional photographer.â
"The next day, Monday, stories that likely originated with the city prosecutorsâ office began to
appear in the press, most prominently in the right-wing La RazĂłn and other similar tabloids. âThey knew their murderers,â screamed the front page of El Grafico. âThe murderers spent more than four hours with their four victims in the Narvarte apartment.â Reformaâs story led with the line âIt all began with a night of partying.â According to these newspapers, the murderers and victims partied together from Thursday night until the murders were committed sometime Friday.
Prosecutor General RĂos repeated those allegations in radio interviews throughout the day.
These early allegations would all prove false. The key witness was a woman named Esbeidy who had been living for two years in the rented Colonia Narvarte apartment that was the scene of the murder. She had rented rooms to the other women who lived there, first to Nadia Vera and to Yesenia Quiroz, the eighteen-year-old makeup artist, and, only fifteen days before the killings, to a Colombian woman whom the housemates knew as Nicole, though it would turn out that her real name was Mile Virginia MartĂn. Sheâd come to Mexico some years before in hopes of a modelling career, and, according to her family in Colombia, was planning soon to move back to her home country. The women shared the ten-thousand-peso monthly rent, the equivalent of about six hundred and twenty dollars.
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| THE APARTMENT IS ON 4TH FLOOR OF BLDG IN CENTER |
"Esbeidy had left for her job as a Federal office worker that Friday morning, just as Alejandra
Negrete, the forty-year-old cleaning woman, was arriving. Some of those first Monday news
reports had claimed that Esbeidy had seen several men in the apartment partying with her
roommates that morning; later in the week, however, it would be reported that in fact sheâd seen
nothing unusual, certainly no strangers, on either Thursday night or Friday morning. When Esbeidy returned that Friday evening, at P.M., she discovered the bodies scattered throughout the apartment, each with a gunshot to the head, at least some of them bound by the hands.Â
Reports gave conflicting information regarding the physical marks of abuse, including of torture and rape,found on the bodies. Newspapers reported that neighbors said there had been a loud party in the apartment, but those reports would also turn out to be false. As was widely reported later, the neighbors told the authorities that they hadnât heard any noise coming from the apartment at all, no screams or gunshots."
At least nine surveillance cameras, some belonging to the cityâs police force and others to private businesses, had views of the apartment buildingâs entrance, but it turned out that the camera directly over that entrance was broken. On Tuesday, August 4th, the newspaper La RazĂłn was the first to report on and publish images from the cityâs police-surveillance cameras, which had been provided to them exclusively. The footage shows three men leaving the apartment building together at 3:02 Friday afternoon. One is wheeling a suitcase. Another man gets into a red Mustang, which reportedly belonged to Mile Virginia MartĂn (who at this point was still known to her roommates and the press as âNicoleâ) and which was recovered later that day, abandoned in the CoyoacĂĄn neighborhood.Â
At least nine surveillance cameras, some belonging to the cityâs police force and others to private businesses, had views of the apartment buildingâs entrance, but it turned out that the camera directly over that entrance was broken. On Tuesday, August 4th, the newspaper La RazĂłn was the first to report on and publish images from the cityâs police-surveillance cameras, which had been provided to them exclusively. The footage shows three men leaving the apartment building together at 3:02 Friday afternoon. One is wheeling a suitcase. Another man gets into a red Mustang, which reportedly belonged to Mile Virginia MartĂn (who at this point was still known to her roommates and the press as âNicoleâ) and which was recovered later that day, abandoned in the CoyoacĂĄn neighborhood.Â
Prosecutor RĂos said at a press conference that he had information that âNicoleâ had money in her possession, which made it possible that the motive had been robbery.  (DD; more on the investigation shifting more to Nicole below)
Publicly, he didnât close off the possibility that the murders had something to do with Espinosa and Veraâs past problems in Veracruz; but, as evidenced by his previous private comments to
journalists, he was primarily interested in pursuing a robbery investigation.
Â
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August 4th, there was a breakthrough in the case: fingerprints found in the apartment led to the
arrest of Daniel Pacheco Gutiérrez, a forty-one-year old ex-convict, who had been convicted of
rape and assault in 2000 and had served a five-year sentence. According to press accounts, he admitted that he had been in the apartment but said that he hadnât participated in the murders, and that the motive was robbery. In a photograph taken of Pacheco in custody that was released to the press, the left side of his face is dark and swollen.
Animal Politico reported that the Federal District Human Rights Commission examined Pacheco for evidence of torture on August 8, then again on August 14, and because of contradictions in the first 2 examinations, again on August 29. They reported no evidence of torture. Â
On Tuesday, August 11th, the newspaper Reforma reported that Daniel Pacheco, the man
imprisoned for the crime, has identified his two accomplices only as Abraham and Omar. The
former is supposedly a former Mexico City policeman, about twenty-five years old, who now works as a âviene-viene,â someone who guards parked cars in the streets in exchange for small tips; the latter, Pancheco said, is a juggler who performs, also for tips, at traffic intersections. It seems that Pacheco had not known the two men very well, or hardly at all, or for very long.
According to reporter Sandra RodrĂguez Nieto, who has had access to the statement Pacheco gave to prosecutors, Abraham phoned Pacheco on Friday to invite him to visit a Colombian woman by the name of Nicole he knew in Colonia Narvarte who Pacheco had seen a few months before. Abraham said she ran a group of girls who provided sexual services out of their apartment.   Â
At the General Anaya metro station, he met up with a man he knew only by the name of Omar at 1:30 PM, and together they travelled by metro to the San Antonio Abad stop, thirty long blocks from the apartment in Colonia Narvarte. There they waited for Abraham, who came to the site in his car, a Renault Megane. and then took a taxi.
Pacheco said that once inside the apartment they all talked for about thirty minutes. He then negotiated a deal for 800 pesos with one of the girls (who he did not name for âsexual relationsâ and that Abraham did the same with âNicoleâ (Mile Virginia MartĂn), until two-thirty P.M. He said that before that transpired, Nicole and 2 others used cocaine.  Â
Â
Publicly, he didnât close off the possibility that the murders had something to do with Espinosa and Veraâs past problems in Veracruz; but, as evidenced by his previous private comments to
journalists, he was primarily interested in pursuing a robbery investigation.
Â
August 4th, there was a breakthrough in the case: fingerprints found in the apartment led to the arrest of Daniel Pacheco Gutiérrez, a forty-one-year old ex-convict, who had been convicted of
rape and assault in 2000 and had served a five-year sentence. According to press accounts, he admitted that he had been in the apartment but said that he hadnât participated in the murders, and that the motive was robbery. In a photograph taken of Pacheco in custody that was released to the press, the left side of his face is dark and swollen.
On Tuesday, August 11th, the newspaper Reforma reported that Daniel Pacheco, the man
imprisoned for the crime, has identified his two accomplices only as Abraham and Omar. The
former is supposedly a former Mexico City policeman, about twenty-five years old, who now works as a âviene-viene,â someone who guards parked cars in the streets in exchange for small tips; the latter, Pancheco said, is a juggler who performs, also for tips, at traffic intersections. It seems that Pacheco had not known the two men very well, or hardly at all, or for very long.
According to reporter Sandra RodrĂguez Nieto, who has had access to the statement Pacheco gave to prosecutors, Abraham phoned Pacheco on Friday to invite him to visit a Colombian woman by the name of Nicole he knew in Colonia Narvarte who Pacheco had seen a few months before. Abraham said she ran a group of girls who provided sexual services out of their apartment.   Â
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| Nicole and her now famous car |
At the General Anaya metro station, he met up with a man he knew only by the name of Omar at 1:30 PM, and together they travelled by metro to the San Antonio Abad stop, thirty long blocks from the apartment in Colonia Narvarte. There they waited for Abraham, who came to the site in his car, a Renault Megane. and then took a taxi.
Pacheco said that once inside the apartment they all talked for about thirty minutes. He then negotiated a deal for 800 pesos with one of the girls (who he did not name for âsexual relationsâ and that Abraham did the same with âNicoleâ (Mile Virginia MartĂn), until two-thirty P.M. He said that before that transpired, Nicole and 2 others used cocaine.  Â
Â
Pacheco didnât mention Espinosa and Vera in his account other than to mention having seen a man with a beard and the woman he was with.
Pachecoâs story is baffling in various respects, and may either be a lie or simply a partial and
confused account. Pacheco said that he left the apartment with Abraham, who was carrying a
suitcase. He told investigators that he didnât hear any gunshots and had known nothing about a
robbery. Pacheco said in his statement that the suitcase held some of Abrahamâs belongings,
and that Abraham explained heâd been carrying on a relationship with the woman known as
âNicole.â Abraham briefly went upstairs to get the keys to let them out of the building, and Omar
came down fifteen minutes later. The three men left the building through the front door. Omar and Pacheco then departed in the automobile in which Abraham had supposedly arrived, with Omar driving, and Abraham left in Mile Virginia MartĂnâs Mustang, which he said was not unusual because Abraham and Nicole had been having an affair for several months and she often lent him her car.
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DD; On August 30, authorities arrested "Abraham", Abraham Torres Tranquilino, 24, a former police officer, who had been convicted of torture in 2011 and sentenced to 5 years in prison. He only served one year before being released. Lopez Doriga said on his TV show that the former policeman arrested for his alleged involvement in the multihomicidio in Narvarte, said in his initial statement that the crime was planned by the cartel Los Zetas. Â
Universal reported that Torres admitted to the judge that he was an addict though he had not used drugs before when was a cop but when he he went to prison he got addicted to marijuana. Â
Pachecoâs story is baffling in various respects, and may either be a lie or simply a partial and
confused account. Pacheco said that he left the apartment with Abraham, who was carrying a
suitcase. He told investigators that he didnât hear any gunshots and had known nothing about a
robbery. Pacheco said in his statement that the suitcase held some of Abrahamâs belongings,
and that Abraham explained heâd been carrying on a relationship with the woman known as
âNicole.â Abraham briefly went upstairs to get the keys to let them out of the building, and Omar
came down fifteen minutes later. The three men left the building through the front door. Omar and Pacheco then departed in the automobile in which Abraham had supposedly arrived, with Omar driving, and Abraham left in Mile Virginia MartĂnâs Mustang, which he said was not unusual because Abraham and Nicole had been having an affair for several months and she often lent him her car.
Â
Universal reported that Torres admitted to the judge that he was an addict though he had not used drugs before when was a cop but when he he went to prison he got addicted to marijuana. Â
The report also said that Torres said he and his accomplices went to "Nicole's" apartment the evening of the murders purportedly to work on her computer (DD; it is a pretty established fact that the crimes were committed before 3 in the afternoon). He didn't know anyone else would be there. Their real reason for going there was to steal drugs.under pressure from the Zeta cartel.
He explained that Pacheco had told him that Omar was a member of the Zetas and that "Nicole" had picked up a shipment of cocaine at the Mexico City International Airport.
'He said it was parakeet brick,' said Torres Tranquilino before the judge 25, without specifying whether the cargo collected by the Colombian were to be delivered to the Zetas or another group. Torres full statement (in Spanish) can be read here
 Universal reported that the autopsy revealed that Nicole had her underwear stuffed in her mouth, was strangled, and had cigarette burns all over her body. She was finished off by a shot in the back of the head. Â
Another lesser known fact is that Pacheco mentioned the presence of a fifth man in the apartment. (DD; who the hell is that?)Â
To muddy the waters a little more, it is now known one of other deceaseds, Yesenia Quiroz Alfaro, was a neice of the exgovernor of MichoacĂĄn JesĂșs Reyna, now a prisoner for his supposed ties with the Knights Templarios. Her mother is the sister of the wife of Reyna. But the family says they moved from Michoacan many years ago and had not maintained contact with Jesus Reyna.
Regarding his participation in the events, the former policeman said he stood on the stairs and identified Daniel Pacheco Gutierrez and the other involved, identified as Omar.
DD. Quite a difference between Pacheco's account and Torres account. Can't wait for them to catch Omar and hear his story.
Pacheco claims he didnât learn about the murders until two days later, on Sunday, and that, when he phoned Omar and Abraham, they told him they didnât know what he was talking about and warned him not to get them mixed up in any problems.Â
The Tuesday after the crime, Pacheco recognized himself in the surveillance-camera images published alongside the first news accounts; he was arrested in his domicile that night. Omar is still a fugitive. The city justice department, the P.G.J.D.F., is far from concluding its investigation into the multiple homicide, or from formally declaring what it believes the murderersâ motive to have been. But, if it turns out in the end that the P.G.J.D.F. seriously intends to pursue a case of a multiple homicide motivated by robbery, the authorities are going to need a much stronger story than the ones so far supplied by Pacheco Torres.
But Wednesday, August 12, would provide the so-called Narvarte case with its most revealing moment so far, perhaps its definitive moment. At a press conference that day, Rodolfio RĂos revised what had been his hypothetical time line of the crime. After reviewing the surveillance footage, he and his investigators had surmised that the murders had taken place sometime between nine A.M. and three P.M. on Friday, but now, said RĂos, that window had been reduced to three hours, from noon on. The reporters in the room could hardly believe what they were hearing. On the previous Monday, SinEmbargo had published a story revealing that a Whatsapp conversation between Espinosa and a friend, who had shared his phone records with a journalist from the news site, showed an exchange of texts over forty-five minutes. The conversation ended when Espinosa, at two-thirteen, signed off with the message âIâm headed out to the street.â So Espinosa had definitely been alive less than an hour before the suspects were filmed exiting the building.
After SinEmbargo had broken the news of the communications between Espinosa and his unnamed friend, other press subsequently picked up on it. At the press conference on Wednesday, Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, the reporter who had written about Espinosaâs final text messages in SinEmbargo, went to the microphone and asked the General Prosecutor for a reaction to the story. RĂos responded, âI donât know where you got that information.â He said that he knew a friend had written to RubĂ©n Espinosa that Friday afternoon, but insisted that Espinosa hadnât answered. Later that night, one of the General Prosecutorâs homicide investigators phoned Rodriguez asking for more information, and she said she had nothing more to reveal than what sheâd published.
How could General Prosecutor RĂos and his investigators not have known yet about Espinosaâs final text messages? It was either a sign of extreme collective incompetence, or perhaps a lack of desire to figure out what had really happened.
Sandra RodrĂguez Nieto had been the first reporter to make contact with the friend of RubĂ©n
Espinosa whoâd had the Whatsapp conversation with him. On Saturday, August 1st, one day after the murders, sheâd learned when Espinosa had sent his final, but she didnât learn the contents of the rest of the conversation until Thursday, when she met with Espinosaâs friend. During their forty-three-minute exchange, the two friends had bantered in the ubiquitous slang of Mexico City youth.Â
âQuĂ© pedo [Whatâs up], whatâd you do yesterday,â the friend asked, at one-forty-five.
âQuĂ© transa, [Whatâs up with you],â answered Espinosa. âI went out with a compa and an amiga. I stayed at her house, and Iâm going home now.âÂ
âJajaja, what a drunk,â wrote the friend.Â
âLeve [the drinking was light] but we did stay up late,â Espinosa answered.Â
He and Nadia Vera and a friend had been drinking in a bar in the city center, and got back to the apartment in Colonia Narvarte at two in the morning. They stayed up talking for several hours more, until that friend left. Espinosa slept over; he said he had to go to work later in the day for AVC, another Veracruz news outlet.Â
He texted his friend that on Sunday he was going with his girlfriend to visit her parents in Puebla.Â
âOh good, youâre going with the chava. Chido, cool,â wrote the friend.Â
âSĂmon, itâs going to be chido,â answered Espinosa,Â
and then, at two-thirteen, he wrote, âLoco, Iâll write when I get home, Iâm headed out to the street.âÂ
His friend answered, âO.K., be careful.âÂ
Espinosaâs final text, still time-stamped two-thirteen, was âDonât drink anymore, jaja.âÂ
His friend answered, âO.K., be careful.âÂ
Espinosaâs final text, still time-stamped two-thirteen, was âDonât drink anymore, jaja.âÂ
His friend responded, âYou too carnal [bro].â
Sandra RodrĂguez Nieto is a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard who for several years reported from Ciudad JuĂĄrez. Now she lives in Mexico City, where she reports for SinEmbargo. âIn any murder case,â she told me, âin Ciudad JuĂĄrez or anywhere, the first thing you do is investigate the victimâs circle, his circumstances.â Not only had Prosecutor General RĂos and his prosecutors not done that with RubĂ©n Espinosa, it took them five days, she said, even to admit that Espinosa should be considered a journalist. The context of the crime, she said, should have indicated that the governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, his government, and the police, needed to be investigated immediately. (DD. emphasis added)
CONTEXT OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE CRIMES
DD;Â A thorough investigation would have to include the context of the enviornment that surrounded the tragic deaths.Â
The Gulf coast state of Veracruz is known for producing coffee and oil, being a route for migrants heading for the U.S. and having a strong-armed government whose officials have been accused of colluding with the cartels that move drugs and other contraband through the port of Veracruz city.
Â
Sandra RodrĂguez Nieto is a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard who for several years reported from Ciudad JuĂĄrez. Now she lives in Mexico City, where she reports for SinEmbargo. âIn any murder case,â she told me, âin Ciudad JuĂĄrez or anywhere, the first thing you do is investigate the victimâs circle, his circumstances.â Not only had Prosecutor General RĂos and his prosecutors not done that with RubĂ©n Espinosa, it took them five days, she said, even to admit that Espinosa should be considered a journalist. The context of the crime, she said, should have indicated that the governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, his government, and the police, needed to be investigated immediately. (DD. emphasis added)
CONTEXT OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE CRIMES
DD;Â A thorough investigation would have to include the context of the enviornment that surrounded the tragic deaths.Â
The Gulf coast state of Veracruz is known for producing coffee and oil, being a route for migrants heading for the U.S. and having a strong-armed government whose officials have been accused of colluding with the cartels that move drugs and other contraband through the port of Veracruz city.
Â
Since Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte took office in 2010, the state has seen 13 of its journalists
killed, 11 inside the state, and three more are missing, according to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, a U.S.-based advocacy group.
Though no one has ever said the governor was directly involved in that violence, Duarte has been criticized for creating a negative atmosphere for the press. He has accused reporters of being involved in organized crime. His administration jailed two bloggers and threatened to jail a photographer (not Espinosa) for exposing groups of vigilantes in the state.
Duarte's administration also has been quick to blame any killing of a journalist on personal
motives. In three of the most high-profile killings of reporters who wrote about corruption, state
officials said one was killed in a robbery and blamed another on a personal vendetta. In the third case, they disputed the victim was even a journalist, calling him a taxi driver.
Around the time Espinosa fled the state, authorities reported that another dead journalist, Juan
Mendoza Delgado, had been hit by car even though he was missing for several days and his body was found with a bandage on his head.
On June 30th, a month before the Colonia Narvarte murders, Governor Duarte had publically issued a not very veiled threats against journalists in his state, accusing many âmedia workersâ of âhaving tiesâ to organized crime. âBehave yourselves,â he warned, âwe know which of you are on the wrong path . . . Weâre going to shake the tree, and many bad apples are going to fall.â
Espinosa had said in interviews that he was harassed over several years while covering events in Veracruz, including once when in 2012 he had just started to photograph the beatings being meted out by police to student protesters when he was roughly grabbed by the neck and warned, âBĂĄjale de gĂŒevos, [âlower your ballsââin other words, stop taking photographs] if you donât want to end up like Regina.â.Â
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Regina Martinez was another Veracruz-based journalist for the magazine Proceso, who was murdered in 2012.  Her role reporting on government corruption was never considered as a motive for her killing. Instead, officials in Veracruz said it was robbery.
A few days before fleeing, he had placed a plaque at a Xalapa plaza renaming it "Regina
Martinez Plaza" as a protest to the government's handling of her case. Duarte may have considered this a slap in the face.
During his eight years working in Veracruz, RubĂ©n Espinosa, a freelance photojournalist associated with the agency Cuartoscuro, had made a specialty of covering social movements and the acts of violent repression those movements often encountered. He also photographed the repressors, and he took some now iconic, memorably revealing candid portraits of Governor Duarte, who is also a member of the national ruling party, the PRI. One of those photographs, featured on the cover of the influential opposition news magazine Proceso alongside the headline âVeracruz: A Lawless State,â shows Duarte, a Veracruz State Police cap on his head, with his belly hanging over his belt. In an interview in June, Espinosa told SinEmbargo that the photo had especially irritated Duarte, and that, after its publication, the governor had tried to buy out its local print run in bulk, presumably so that people in Veracruz wouldnât see it.
It was in this environment where Espinosa worked for the investigative magazine Proceso and
photo agencies. He didn't cover drug traffickers or crime, the most dangerous beats for Mexican journalists. His focus was social movements, but he found photographing government crackdowns on protesters proved to be no less dangerous.
It was his coverage of a controversial event that likely led Espinosa to flee. He photographed a
June 5 attack on university students by masked men with machetes and baseball bats. A few days later he noticed strange men in front of his house. They took pictures, and once pushed him aggressively. Close friends urged him to leave.
In the following days, he noticed strangers keeping vigil outside his home, and realized that he was being followed. Convinced that his life was in danger, he decided heâd better flee to Mexico City, where heâd grown up and had family.
Before and after coming to Mexico City, Espinosa gave several interviews recounting what he and other journalists had experienced in Veracruz, providing a long chronicle of acts of abuse and intimidation, which he also publicized over social networks. ArtĂculo 19, a human-rights organization devoted to freedom-of-expression issues, began monitoring his case. Article 19 issued an "alert" to Mexico City and federal authorities that a threatened journalist was now residing in Mexico City.Â
Finance Yahoo.com reported that after fleeing to the capital, Espinosa felt he was still being followed. Once, in a restaurant, a stranger approached to ask if he was the photographer who fled Veracruz. It happened again with another stranger at a party. (DD. If he was being followed this would explain how professional hit men would have know where to find him even though the decision to go there had been made at 2AM the night before)
When he arrived in Mexico City.he and a photographer friend created the informal check-in system for his safety. Lacking trust in authorities after his time in Veracruz, he didn't go to a federal agency set up in Mexico City to help journalists under threat. (DD, but remember Article 19 had notified them in their "alert" (and if any Mexico City or federal officials were involved they could have gotten info on him there )
After only about a week in Mexico City, Espinosa already missed Xalapa and talked of going
back. He loved his life there, the coffee, walking the steep streets with Mexico's highest peak, the Pico de Orizaba, always in view. He missed his cocker spaniel, Cosmos.
But another friend and fellow photographer stopped in Mexico City for a visit and urged Espinosa not to return. He pointed to Mendoza being found dead (the journalist supposedly hit and killed by a car, but when his body was found his head was bandaged) and to a series of homicides that left 11 people dead in just one weekend.
Espinosa mainly stayed with his family, who live on the outskirts of Mexico City. Occasionally, he would stay with friends when he wanted to be closer to the city's center.
One was Nadia Vera, who came to the capital a year earlier from Xalapa to work as a cultural
promoter. She had been an outspoken critic of the Duarte government and was a well-known
organizer of protest marches for various causes. She had worked with Espinosa organizing rallies protesting attacks on journalists.
Vera was originally from Chiapas, and, like her mother, she wrote poetry.Last week, a
heartbreaking and seemingly foreboding poem written by her mother, Mirtha Luz PĂ©rez, appeared in the press; it includes the lines âNo te vayas de mĂ niña de azĂșcar / A deshacerte entre la piel del llanto / No te vayas de mĂ pajara libre / Hacia el pĂĄramo frĂo de la ausencia.ââThat is, âDonât leave me sugar girl / to dissolve inside weeping skin / Donât leave me free bird / for the cold moorlands of absence.âÂ
killed, 11 inside the state, and three more are missing, according to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, a U.S.-based advocacy group.
Though no one has ever said the governor was directly involved in that violence, Duarte has been criticized for creating a negative atmosphere for the press. He has accused reporters of being involved in organized crime. His administration jailed two bloggers and threatened to jail a photographer (not Espinosa) for exposing groups of vigilantes in the state.
Duarte's administration also has been quick to blame any killing of a journalist on personal
motives. In three of the most high-profile killings of reporters who wrote about corruption, state
officials said one was killed in a robbery and blamed another on a personal vendetta. In the third case, they disputed the victim was even a journalist, calling him a taxi driver.
Around the time Espinosa fled the state, authorities reported that another dead journalist, Juan
Mendoza Delgado, had been hit by car even though he was missing for several days and his body was found with a bandage on his head.
On June 30th, a month before the Colonia Narvarte murders, Governor Duarte had publically issued a not very veiled threats against journalists in his state, accusing many âmedia workersâ of âhaving tiesâ to organized crime. âBehave yourselves,â he warned, âwe know which of you are on the wrong path . . . Weâre going to shake the tree, and many bad apples are going to fall.â
Espinosa had said in interviews that he was harassed over several years while covering events in Veracruz, including once when in 2012 he had just started to photograph the beatings being meted out by police to student protesters when he was roughly grabbed by the neck and warned, âBĂĄjale de gĂŒevos, [âlower your ballsââin other words, stop taking photographs] if you donât want to end up like Regina.â.Â
A few days before fleeing, he had placed a plaque at a Xalapa plaza renaming it "Regina
Martinez Plaza" as a protest to the government's handling of her case. Duarte may have considered this a slap in the face.
During his eight years working in Veracruz, RubĂ©n Espinosa, a freelance photojournalist associated with the agency Cuartoscuro, had made a specialty of covering social movements and the acts of violent repression those movements often encountered. He also photographed the repressors, and he took some now iconic, memorably revealing candid portraits of Governor Duarte, who is also a member of the national ruling party, the PRI. One of those photographs, featured on the cover of the influential opposition news magazine Proceso alongside the headline âVeracruz: A Lawless State,â shows Duarte, a Veracruz State Police cap on his head, with his belly hanging over his belt. In an interview in June, Espinosa told SinEmbargo that the photo had especially irritated Duarte, and that, after its publication, the governor had tried to buy out its local print run in bulk, presumably so that people in Veracruz wouldnât see it.
It was in this environment where Espinosa worked for the investigative magazine Proceso and
photo agencies. He didn't cover drug traffickers or crime, the most dangerous beats for Mexican journalists. His focus was social movements, but he found photographing government crackdowns on protesters proved to be no less dangerous.
It was his coverage of a controversial event that likely led Espinosa to flee. He photographed a
June 5 attack on university students by masked men with machetes and baseball bats. A few days later he noticed strange men in front of his house. They took pictures, and once pushed him aggressively. Close friends urged him to leave.
In the following days, he noticed strangers keeping vigil outside his home, and realized that he was being followed. Convinced that his life was in danger, he decided heâd better flee to Mexico City, where heâd grown up and had family.
Before and after coming to Mexico City, Espinosa gave several interviews recounting what he and other journalists had experienced in Veracruz, providing a long chronicle of acts of abuse and intimidation, which he also publicized over social networks. ArtĂculo 19, a human-rights organization devoted to freedom-of-expression issues, began monitoring his case. Article 19 issued an "alert" to Mexico City and federal authorities that a threatened journalist was now residing in Mexico City.Â
Finance Yahoo.com reported that after fleeing to the capital, Espinosa felt he was still being followed. Once, in a restaurant, a stranger approached to ask if he was the photographer who fled Veracruz. It happened again with another stranger at a party. (DD. If he was being followed this would explain how professional hit men would have know where to find him even though the decision to go there had been made at 2AM the night before)
When he arrived in Mexico City.he and a photographer friend created the informal check-in system for his safety. Lacking trust in authorities after his time in Veracruz, he didn't go to a federal agency set up in Mexico City to help journalists under threat. (DD, but remember Article 19 had notified them in their "alert" (and if any Mexico City or federal officials were involved they could have gotten info on him there )
After only about a week in Mexico City, Espinosa already missed Xalapa and talked of going
back. He loved his life there, the coffee, walking the steep streets with Mexico's highest peak, the Pico de Orizaba, always in view. He missed his cocker spaniel, Cosmos.
But another friend and fellow photographer stopped in Mexico City for a visit and urged Espinosa not to return. He pointed to Mendoza being found dead (the journalist supposedly hit and killed by a car, but when his body was found his head was bandaged) and to a series of homicides that left 11 people dead in just one weekend.
Espinosa mainly stayed with his family, who live on the outskirts of Mexico City. Occasionally, he would stay with friends when he wanted to be closer to the city's center.
One was Nadia Vera, who came to the capital a year earlier from Xalapa to work as a cultural
promoter. She had been an outspoken critic of the Duarte government and was a well-known
organizer of protest marches for various causes. She had worked with Espinosa organizing rallies protesting attacks on journalists.
Vera was originally from Chiapas, and, like her mother, she wrote poetry.Last week, a
heartbreaking and seemingly foreboding poem written by her mother, Mirtha Luz PĂ©rez, appeared in the press; it includes the lines âNo te vayas de mĂ niña de azĂșcar / A deshacerte entre la piel del llanto / No te vayas de mĂ pajara libre / Hacia el pĂĄramo frĂo de la ausencia.ââThat is, âDonât leave me sugar girl / to dissolve inside weeping skin / Donât leave me free bird / for the cold moorlands of absence.âÂ
As a student in Xalapa, Vera had participated in myriad cultural activities, conferences, and dance workshops. With other members of #YoSoy132, she joined many protests, occupations, and marches, and was particularly involved in, and led, protests against Duarteâs government.
In Xalapa, Vera had lived the full life of a politically active student of a kind found in many parts of Mexico nowadays. But in Duarteâs Veracruz, students and activists, including Vera, were beaten and jailed; in one recent incident, a masked commando group broke into a house where eight University of Veracruz students activists were assembled and attacked them with machetes and bats, leaving some disfigured. The students accused the state government, which denied the charges.
One day, Vera found that her home had been entered and ransacked while she was out.
Frightened, she prepared to move to Mexico City. However, before she did so, she gave an
astonishing interview, in November, 2014, for a documentary titled âVeracruz: la fosa
olvidada,âââthe forgotten mass grave.â
Later, the filmmakers would recount how frightened Vera had seemed, glancing repeatedly at the doors between takes. What the viewer sees in the documentary footage, aired on Rompeviento TV, is her beguiling composure, that mix of sweetness and bravery that many who were close to her have been describing now for the media.
In Xalapa, Vera had lived the full life of a politically active student of a kind found in many parts of Mexico nowadays. But in Duarteâs Veracruz, students and activists, including Vera, were beaten and jailed; in one recent incident, a masked commando group broke into a house where eight University of Veracruz students activists were assembled and attacked them with machetes and bats, leaving some disfigured. The students accused the state government, which denied the charges.
One day, Vera found that her home had been entered and ransacked while she was out.
Frightened, she prepared to move to Mexico City. However, before she did so, she gave an
astonishing interview, in November, 2014, for a documentary titled âVeracruz: la fosa
olvidada,âââthe forgotten mass grave.â
Later, the filmmakers would recount how frightened Vera had seemed, glancing repeatedly at the doors between takes. What the viewer sees in the documentary footage, aired on Rompeviento TV, is her beguiling composure, that mix of sweetness and bravery that many who were close to her have been describing now for the media.
Narrating in the present tense, Vera speaks of the overwhelming number of disappearances in
Veracruz and says, âThe number of disappearances begins to rise when Javier Duarte becomes governor.â This, she says, causes young people to realize that they themselves have âbecome the product that they need. That productâletâs say they grab you as a woman for the sex trade, or they grab you as a student to be a sicario [a cartel assassin] . . . Here the problem is us, we bother the government as much as we do the narcos. So weâre caught between two fronts, or letâs say between legal repression and illegal. Because itâs the narcos who govern this state . . . itâs the Zetas who literally manipulate the state.â Looking directly into the camera, Vera warned that if anything happened to her or her colleagues, then it was Governor Duarte and his state that would be to blame. âWe want to make very clear that our security is totally the stateâs responsibility, because they are the ones who send people to repress us.â
NEW EVIDENCE AND RE-LOOKING AT OLD EVIDENCE
The New Yorker reported that the Vera family lawyers told reporter Sandra RodrĂguez Nieto that, in fact, the actual Narvarte case file contains no factual information that points to a robbery: the three intruders didnât steal personal computers or even phones. The most valuable item taken, the Mustang, was abandoned, and then, rather than flee, Pacheco, an ex-convict, simply went home to await his capture, four days later.Â
The nine-millimetre weapon used in the murders was outfitted with a silencer, but it was âclean,â that is, there is no record of it having been used in any crime before. How, the lawyer asked, did three men who essentially lived off the streetâa man who watched parked cars, a juggler, and Pacheco, a car washerâcome to be in possession of such a weapon?
Yahoo News also reported on the attorney's statements: . Karla Micheel, a member of the National Democratic Attorneys Association who represents Vera's family and has seen the investigators files, also told the family that not only were they shot with a silenced weapon, they were all shot in the back of the head - a coup de grace - after being tortured. The gun was loaded with "untraceable bullets".
Attorney Micheel also said that the fact that investigators found only one fingerprint in one room, but none on the duct tape used to bind the victims or anywhere else in the apartment was significant. (DD. The absence of that evidence may be evidence that the crime was not committed by street criminals, but was a professional hit.)
She also said that "Forensic reports show that Vera was strangled and stabbed six times, while Espinosa had 12 stab wounds. They were both found in the same room.
"The cuts were not due to resistance or a struggle. The wounds were literally aimed at causing pain," Micheel said. (DD. again not typical of street criminals committing a robbery) .Mile was sexually assaulted while Quiroz was strangled. They were also shot and found in another room.
Animal Politico reported Regarding the theft motive that the Prosecutor wanted follow, a lawyer for one the victims families said that there was a "piggy bank" in the apartment with 6000 pesos, most of the cell phones, other devices and personal computers were not stolen. There was no evidence in the apartment that a large amount of drugs had been stored there.
 The declaration of this subject (Torres Tranquilino) should be taken with caution and care, the inconsistencies of the Attorney (capital) remain (...) There are things on the record that really concern us,' said the lawyer.
The head of the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District (CDHDF) Perla GĂłmez Gallardo, called 'very cautious' about the statements of former policeman, and stressed that it must be exhausted all lines of inquiry.
Yahoo News also reported on the attorney's statements: . Karla Micheel, a member of the National Democratic Attorneys Association who represents Vera's family and has seen the investigators files, also told the family that not only were they shot with a silenced weapon, they were all shot in the back of the head - a coup de grace - after being tortured. The gun was loaded with "untraceable bullets".
Attorney Micheel also said that the fact that investigators found only one fingerprint in one room, but none on the duct tape used to bind the victims or anywhere else in the apartment was significant. (DD. The absence of that evidence may be evidence that the crime was not committed by street criminals, but was a professional hit.)
She also said that "Forensic reports show that Vera was strangled and stabbed six times, while Espinosa had 12 stab wounds. They were both found in the same room.
"The cuts were not due to resistance or a struggle. The wounds were literally aimed at causing pain," Micheel said. (DD. again not typical of street criminals committing a robbery) .Mile was sexually assaulted while Quiroz was strangled. They were also shot and found in another room.
Animal Politico reported Regarding the theft motive that the Prosecutor wanted follow, a lawyer for one the victims families said that there was a "piggy bank" in the apartment with 6000 pesos, most of the cell phones, other devices and personal computers were not stolen. There was no evidence in the apartment that a large amount of drugs had been stored there.
 The declaration of this subject (Torres Tranquilino) should be taken with caution and care, the inconsistencies of the Attorney (capital) remain (...) There are things on the record that really concern us,' said the lawyer.
The head of the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District (CDHDF) Perla GĂłmez Gallardo, called 'very cautious' about the statements of former policeman, and stressed that it must be exhausted all lines of inquiry.
All of this boils down to the conclusion that a professional hit man was involved in the murders. The facts don't justify a investigation of a robbery. That leaves the question of who was the target of the hitman. Â
Was Mile Virginia Martin (Nicole) the target?   .If Nicole was a prostitute that is really immaterial. That would not make her a target.  If she was involved in drug trafficking that is a different matter and would fit with a professional hit man doing the killing. But remember the only evidence released so far indicating that is the statements of the 2 suspects detained. . But keep in mind that both of those are ex-convicts who know how the system works and that it is healthier to confess to a script that the police and prosecutors want to hear.
Was Ruben Espinoza the target? The fact that he was stabbed 12 times in a manner to cause the maximum pain (the forensic report said it could have been with a potato peeler) is one clue. The context of his environment that he had been living with - being threatened, followed (even after he went to Mexico City), roughed up are possibly a clue that he might have been the target. The fact that the prosecutor dismissed the possibility that it could have been a crime against a journalist when there was no evidence to show that the murders were the result of a botched robbery as the prosecutor was alleging is also interesting. (Neither EPN nor Duarte needed another murdered journalist on their plate). There have been many leaks to the press by either the police or prosecutors concerning Nicole (not referring to her by name, but only "the Columbian" conjuring up a subliminal message of drugs and prostitutes). but none or very few about the threats, beatings, and intimidation from government agents that Ruben and Vera lived through (until their deaths).  It is pretty obvious where the prosecutor wants to take this investigation.
Governor Duarteâs public statement Tuesday, following his brief interrogation by D.F. prosecutors whoâd travelled to Veracruz, was defiant. He declared, âThis is far from having value, far from the truth and covers up the real culprits.â He disavowed any connections to the case and took the victimâs role for himself, comparing the questioning and the suspicions now focussed on him to âa lynching.â
The last interview RubĂ©n Espinosa gave before he died was to SinEmbargo. There he said, âItâs sad to think about Veracruz, there arenât words to express how bad things are in that state . .Death chose Veracruz, death decided to go and live there.â
To conclude his public statement, Governor Duarte said, âThe truth will set us free.â
