The official who opened the investigation into the massacre of 72 Central and South Americans in northern Mexico has been found dead. Mexican marines found the investigator’s body dumped along a highway in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. A second body encountered at the scene is thought to be that of a municipal police official linked to the same case. The state’s attorney general reported the two as missing late Thursday.
The investigator’s disappearance and death illustrates why many high-level crimes in Mexico go unpunished. Cartel-related violence in Tamaulipas also frequently goes unreported for fear of retaliation. Early this morning, a car bomb exploded outside of the Ciudad Victoria office of the national broadcaster, Televisa, which has been covering the massacre.
Testimony by the massacre’s sole survivor indicates the murdered migrants had been kidnapped en route to the US by organized criminals. An average of more than 1600 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico each month according to data published by the country’s National Human Rights Commission.
Three people died and another 2 were injured over the weekend when gunmen in Oaxaca’s indigenous Triqui region opened fire on a truck carrying organizers of a caravan bound for Mexico City. The victims were all members of an indigenous autonomy movement that makes up 1 of 3 factions vying for control of the town of San Juan Copala.
The purpose of the caravan was two-fold; to draw attention to the town’s humanitarian crisis and to provide safe passage for women seeking to leave the conflict zone. Safety concerns sparked by the ambush forced the cancellation of the caravan.
Two other humanitarian caravans have tried unsuccessfully to reach San Juan Copala in the past 4 months. Paramilitaries supposedly linked to the state’s ruling party have been blocking vehicular access to the town since November.
The high court ruling to uphold Mexico City’s adoption law comes just 2 weeks after the justices upheld a law allowing same sex couples to marry…and to have those marriages recognized nationwide. One of the justices said that refusing adoption rights to same sex couples would be tantamount to constitutionalized discrimination.
The challenges against Mexico City’s marriage and adoption codes were brought by the federal government. The ruling party of President Felipe Calderon, the PAN, is often in ideological alignment with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church. Mexico City is a stronghold of the left-leaning PRD party and has passed a number of reforms that run contrary to conservative Catholic doctrine.
The Mexican capitol began to recognize marriage and adoption by same sex couples earlier this year. Mexico City has the country’s most lenient divorce laws and is one of the few places in Latin America where a woman can obtain a legal and on-demand first trimester abortion.
An estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the US. Many have arrived via a clandestine border crossing. The actual feat of crossing the border requires steady nerves and physical exertion. Many first-time crossers are not fully aware of what to expect. But would-be migrants and the curious can get a taste of what it’s like at an ecotourism park in Central Mexico.
Visitors begin to congregate in a parking lot in El Alberto after sundown, chatting amongst themselves in small groups. At about 9pm, Ernesto Oliva stands on the flat bed of a pick up truck and calls out the names of the people who have signed up for a 5 hour walk.
Four journalists in the Lagunera region of northern Mexico have disappeared just days after the revelation of a major corruption story. According to a press release by the National Human Rights Commission, the missing journalists include a reporter from Multimedios, two cameramen from the Gómez Palacio Televisa affiliate who were “picked up” (or “levantado”) in broad daylight around noon on Monday the 26th. The fourth missing reporter works for the El Vespertino newspaper in Gómez Palacio and disappeared around 11pm or the same day.
This comes in the wake of a corruption scandal in which prison guards in Gómez Palacios, Durango allegedly released and armed convicts to carry out mass murder in Torreón, Chihuahua. The two sister cities are one metropolitan area separated by a river which marks the state line.
Federal police investigators dropped this bombshell in a weekend press conference after looking into the July 18th massacre of 17 people at a birthday in a hotel. Eighteen people were wounded in the same attack. This was the third such massacre this year thought to have been committed by inmates released from the state penitentiary in Gómez Palacios. Crime scene shell casings were traced to assault rifles used by guards at the prison.
The four missing journalists aren’t the only victims in the scandal’s immediate fall out. A prison guard has been killed and 8 human heads have been found around the city of Durango, capital of the state of the same name.
