Protected By Autodefensas, Students Return To School in San Miguel Totolapan

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Guerrero— Protected by autodefensas, students from San Miguel Totolapan returned to school on Monday, March 20, after schools at different educational levels (preschool, primary, secondary, and upper secondary) closed for three months because of the presence of the criminal group “Los Tequileros”.

According to information from the newspaper El Sur, autodefensa members known as “Movimiento de La Paz” are responsible for protecting students.

Federal and state authorities have been ignorant of the problem of violence and insecurity experienced by the inhabitants of the municipality, so that neither members of the different state police units nor the Mexican Army have been present to provide protection in the area.

In the municipal seat, there are three kindergartens, three primary schools, two secondary and upper secondary schools, some of which have closed their doors since January for fear of Los Tequileros.

And this criminal group is the main perpetrator of the kidnappings, extortions, and homicides that have been registered during the last three years in the Tierra Caliente region in Guerrero.

Therefore, autodefensa members have been responsible for providing protection not only to the students, but also to the teachers and workers of these institutions.

Cristian Was Kidnapped In Chilapa, Guerrero; He Was Found With a Bullet in the Head Next To another Minor

Cuartoscuro Archive

Last Saturday, Cristian left his house after midday to do homework with some of his classmates.  He told his parents that from there, he would go to see his girlfriend and that he would be back late, but he didn’t return.  Cristian was kidnapped by armed men and someone told his parents that they saw him when they took him in a taxi with tinted windows, after that, they didn’t know about his whereabouts until the following Monday when he was found in the neighborhood Panorámica, located east of Chilpancingo.  Next to him was the body of Luis, a 16-year-old boy from Xocomulco, located in the municipality of Chilapa.  Luis also had a bullet to his head.

By: Zacarias Cervantes | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

March 11, 2017— During the funeral of Cristian Peralta Rendón, there wasn’t just crying, there was also anger, despair, rage and calls for justice to the government on the part of their relatives and friends.

They boy was 14 years old and was studying his second year of secondary school in Chilapa, where gunmen kidnapped him on Saturday, March 4 and on Monday, March 6, he was found seriously wounded in a neighborhood east of Chilpancingo next to the corpse of another boy.

Cristian only had on a pair of boxers and had a bullet in the head.  He was transferred alive to the hospital Raymundo Abarca Alarcón where he died Wednesday morning.

After midday on Thursday, Cristian’s body was transferred from his home on Calle 8 Sur de Chilapa to the cemetery where his relatives, friends, and neighbors buried him.

Michoacán Journalist Assassinated; Had Previously Denounced Death Threats Against Him

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

On Thursday, journalist Cecilio Pineda Brito was assassinated in Ciudad Altamirano, located in the Tierra Caliente region.  The incident happened around 19:30 hours.

It has been reported that the Cecilio was in a car wash when they opened fire on him.  It should be noted that  Cecilio Poneda worked in the newspaper Despertar del Sur, in the weekly La Voz de Tierra Caliente, as well as collaborating in La Jornada Guerrero and El Universal; he lived in Riva Palacio, Michoacán.

He wrote for the police section.  According to a report, gunmen aboard a motorcycle arrived and fired towards Cecilio who was lying in a hammock in the car wash.

Pineda was seriously injured, however, he died while he was being treated by paramedics who arrived aboard an ambulance.  Previously, through his Facebook account, the journalist had reported that he received death threats from organized crime.

This is not the first time that the reporter for La Voz de Tierra Caliente had suffered from an armed attack.

In September 2015, according to information from the newspaper El Sur de Guerrero, Pineda survived a gunshot attack.

In November of last year, Animal Político released a report from the organization Artículo 19 that indicates that 2016 had been the year with the most murders of journalists in the six years of the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.

'Los Tequileros', the Terror of the Mayors of Tierra Caliente

By: Paris Alejandro Salazar | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

(July 26, 2016)—Los Tequileros are an organization that operate in the Tierra Caliente region in the state of Guerrero.  It has a hallmark of threating and extorting mayors in the region, and they do it through an armed cell called Fuerzas Especiales Tequileras.

 

Raybel Jacobo de Almonte “El Tequilero”

Guerrero’s District Attorney’s Office has identified Raybel Jacobo de Almonte “El Tequilero”, as the leader of the criminal group that bears his nickname.  There are 15 arrest warrants against him for crimes such as: extortion, kidnapping, and homicide.

 The criminal organization, Los Tequileros, emerged as one of the armed wings of the Guerreros Unidos Cartel in northern Guerrero.  It seeks to dispute the control of the Tierra Caliente region with La Familia that borders the State of Mexico; La Familia is supported by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

 

Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga “El Pescado”

La Familia, led by Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga “El Pescado”, and Los Tequileros, led by Raybel Jacobo de Almonte “El Tequilero”, are disputing for the control of the drug corridor that connects the sierra and the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero with Michoacán and the State of Mexico.

San Antonio de la Gavia, in the municipality of San Miguel Totolapan, is considered to be the center of operations of Los Tequileros.

Unstoppable Violence in Guerrero: 8 Decapitated, 10 Executed During the Weekend

By: Ezequiel Flores Contreras | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

The bodies of eight men were found decapitated and tortured in the municipality of Tixtla, Guerrero, located in the center region of the state.

Meanwhile in the port of Acapulco, 10 people were found executed in different events, among them two members of the Mexican Navy (SEMAR).

Official reports indicate that the bodies of the eight men were found at around 11:00 pm yesterday, along a freeway that connects the town of Tixtla with the municipality of Chilapa.

The victims were decapitated, had visible signs of torture, and the sicarios left an extensive message which the authorities decided to hide the content.

On the case of the two members of the Mexican Navy executed in the port of Acapulco, the authorities reported that yesterday afternoon, the honest soldiers were shot up in the adjacent area next to the main tourist destination of the state.

The events occurred in the strip considered to be the most violent in the resort.  The navy personnel were identified as José Luis and Casimiro, both 27 years old and assigned to the 8^th Naval Region, located in the neighborhood Icacos on the port of Acapulco.

Extremely  Graphic photos next page..

Teloloapan: 3 Missing Blacksmiths Found Dismembered

By: Ezequiel Flores Contreras | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Three blacksmiths, who had been missing since the beginning of this month in the municipality of Teloloapan, were found dismembered and with messages written from La Familia directed to the government of Héctor Astudillo Flores and the criminal group, Guerreros Unidos.

The finding occurred at the municipal seat of this municipality on the north, a week after the autodefensas of the northern area called La Tecampanera, pacted with the Secretary of Government in the area, Florencio Salazar Adame, a cessation to the violence in return for the investigation of the narco PRI mayor, Adolfo Torales Catalán, to detain the leaders of La Familia (the brothers Johnny “El Mojarro” and José “La Fresa” Hurtado Olascoaga), as well as Ramiro Bahena Urieta “El Güero Pelayo”, and to release the three blacksmiths kidnapped on Friday, November 4, in the town of Totoltepec.

In what is considered as the answer to the agreement between the autodefensas of Teloloapan and the government of Astudillo, the three dismembered bodies of the three men who are presumed to be the blacksmiths were found this morning, according to official reports.

The sicarios left two narco-messages on the victims that read:

Community Police Remains Found In Tixtla; Armed Group Kidnapped Him the Day Before

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Celso Nava, a member of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC) in Tixtla, Guerrero, was found dead a few hours after having been kidnapped.  Police reports indicate that on Saturday, an armed group took him.

The body was found on the bypass that connects Tixtla with the state capital, Chilpancingo; however, some members of CRAC “Mi Patria es Primero” (My Fatherland Comes First), which is one of three divisions of the Community Police, that is based in the neighborhood of El Fortín, denied that Nava was part of that organization.

This isn’t the first fall suffered by CRAC, as it is worth noting that last November 27, a few days before the extraordinary elections that would dictate who was mayor of Tixtla, Los Ardillos, a criminal group that operates in the area, assassinated four community police members.

The attack occurred a few blocks from the headquarters of the organization.

Acapulco: Human Remains Left As An Order of Tacos

By: Uriel Sánchez | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Acapulco, Guerrero, September 12, 2016— The mutilated hands of a person were found on a disposable plate on 4^th Street and Mexico Avenue in the neighborhood of Bellavista.

A phone call to the emergency number 066 warned of the finding as police rushed to the scene to verify the information.

Upon arriving at the location, a disposable plate was found with a lid, and under the lid was a pair of hands with radishes, onions, and cilantro, as if it were an order of tacos.

The police cordoned off the area while staff from the Attorney General’s Office of Guerrero conducted the relevant proceedings, to then order the transfer of the human remains to the medical forensic service.

Source: Quadratin 

Pictures on next page

(GRAPHIC)

Violence Continues In Guerrero: 13 Executed in 2 Days

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

In various parts of the state, 13 bodies were found with bullet holes, some were tortured, tied up, and stabbed.

13 violent murders have occurred in the state of Guerrero between Sunday and Monday in the municipalities of Eduardo Neri, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, Chilapa and Taxco.

Five people were found executed in the early hours of Monday in a bar located in the town of Zumpango del Río, in the municipality of Eduardo Neri, this according to the Guerrero Coordination Group.  At the scene, 123 7.62 and .223 caliber shell casings were found.

In the neighborhoods of Generación 2000 and La Fábrica, located in Acapulco, two male bodies were found; one of them was between the ages of 40-45, tied up with gunshot wounds, while the other one was dismembered and placed in a sack in a storm gutter.

During Monday morning, the body of a transit police officer was found inside his patrol car in the municipality of Zihuatanejo, where two people were also killed last Sunday.

Also, two tied up men with gunshot wounds were found dead in the municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez during the early hours of Monday.

Moreover, the body of a youth around 30 years old was also found, stabbed to death with signs of torture, on Sunday on a federal highway in the municipality of Taxco.

(With information from Bajo Palabra, El Sur de Acapulco and Digital Guerrero)

Source: Aristegui Noticias

Guerrero: Faced With Violence, 100 Business Owners Seek Permission to Bear Arms

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

The Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (COPARMEX) (Employers Confederation of the Mexican Republic), Chilpancingo delegation, said that at least 100 business owners have requested permission to bear arms at the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), due to the serious problem of violence facing the state of Guerrero and denounced that in the state, there are five criminal groups that threaten the safety of the people.

The president of COPARMEX in Chilpancingo, Adrián Alarcón Ríos, said that of the hundred requests, at least “half” have already been authorized and the business owners will have permission to bear arms for the protection of their physical integrity and of the establishments where they work.

Alarcón Ríos said that there are at least twice as many people “who are seeking to acquire a weapon illegally on the black market.”

In late January, during a meeting with the Secretary General of Government of the State of Guerrero, Florencio Salazar Adame, the president of COPARMEX explained that 35 workers from seven businesses in Chilpancingo had already had permits to bear arms within the framework of the law, faced with the problem of insecurity that the three levels of government have failed to resolve.

Faced with the problem of insecurity that persists in Chilpancingo, where just last Saturday, four executions occurred in different parts of the city, Alarcón Ríos referred to the local press that the request of union members to carry weapons “has increased gradually”, based on individual responsibility and legal requirements of the Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives of the SEDENA.

When asked about the increase in applications, he said that there are about 100 business owners who maintain a requirement process before the SEDENA, although he added that there are people “that they do the process on their own account, as there are those who dare to bring the gun into their own vehicles or near their belongings with the danger that this represents.”

He reiterated that of the 100 applications, at least “half” already have a permit and have been “generously” supported by the president of the private security company Jobamex, Joaquín Badillo Escamilla,  faced with training in case of any type of incident.

The leader explained that pressure continues from some members to form a security and justice committee with the National Security Council and the organization system S.O.S. Mexico, which combats crime and impunity, as they call for detonating the local economy.

He argued that faced with the violent events in Chilpancingo, where based on a count by the newspaper El Sur, there have been 102 executions by organized crime so far this year, business owners live in anxiety “because of organized crime, common crime, and a third front that could be the police by being accomplices of criminals or be in collusion with them.”

He stressed that there is no “will” of the three levels of government to counter violence, and therefore there are “twice as many people” that with their own ways, “seek ways to acquire a weapon.”

The Chilpancingo COPARMEX noted that crime has managed to get little results from the small amount of police presence that exists in Chilpancingo.

The employers’ leader said that the problem is being paid to forces that “are neither trained or have the slightest intention of safeguarding public safety,” he said.

Guerrero: Autodefensas Begin Forming To Tackle Organized Crime & Federal Police

By: Ángel Galeana | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

The mayors of San Miguel Totolapan and Copalillo warned that the residents of their municipalities have begun to organize themselves in order to create autodefensa and community police groups with the intent to tackle organized crime, and the federal police.

Interviewed separately on the premises of Casa Guerrero, they reported that the residents of their municipalities are creating civilian police forces, as has happened in other municipalities in the state, although for different purposes.

The PRD mayor of San Miguel Totolapan, Juan Mendoza Acosta, said that residents of the municipal capital have begun meetings to create autodefensa groups “against the federal police” because the people are outraged by their actions, and he said that he will participate, bearing a weapon.

—“Is there a possibility of creating an autodefensa group in your municipality?”-He was asked.

—“Of course there is, look, the people are outraged, they’re outraged with the federal police, which is in charge of the Department of Public Safety in the municipality, the truth is, they’re not doing their role as they should, the people are outraged with them, and they are the first ones who are going to arm themselves against them,” he said.

He also added that federal police detain people with arrest warrants, but then they free them “and the people are against that, and they have a reason to, I am supporting the citizens, the truth is, I agree that this needs to be eliminated.”

—Are you going to arm yourself?

Guerrero Journalist Assassinated

By: Ezequiel Flores Contreras | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Journalist Francisco Pacheco Beltrán was assassinated Monday morning in the city of Taxco, in the northern part of the state of Guerrero.

The violent incident occurred around 06:30 hours on Monday, when Pacheco Beltrán left his home, located on Tlalchichilpa Street in the neighborhood 20 de Noviembre, and was attacked by gunmen, according to an official report.

The 55 year old journalist and brother of Eric Pacheco, a correspondent for Proceso in Querétaro, died by the severity of his injuries while being treated by emergency workers in the place where the attack occurred.

Francisco Pacheco was a longtime journalist and had a legacy in the state, he was currently the editor for the newspaper El foro de Taxco and worked as a correspondent for a newspaper that is published in Acapulco as well as a radio station in the capital.

During the early hours of Monday, he was very active in social networks documenting and disseminating the violent events that occurred this weekend in the port of Acapulco, as part of his journalistic work.

The crime of the Taxco journalist registers in a context of extreme violence in the state that has been minimized by the authorities, among them PRI governor Héctor Astudillo Flores, who recently asked reporters to take a pact of silence and not spread news about the reality that Guerrero is suffering through.

Panic in Acapulco: Two Hours of Shootouts

Mexican soldiers secure a tourist area after gunmen attacked a hotel where federal police stay in Acapulco on April 24, 2016

(Pedro Pardo / AFP/Getty Images)

By: Ezequiel Flores Contreras | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

At least two armed attacks were reported on Sunday night in a similar manner against a hotel where federal agents stay and towards the offices of the federal police (PF).  They unleashed a wave of shootouts in different parts of the port of Acapulco that caused panic and terror amongst citizens.

The shootouts lasted for more than two hours along the main tourist route, along Avenida Costera Miguel Alemán (Coastal Avenue Miguel Alemán), where dozens of people were trapped in shopping centers, stores, and restaurants.

However, the federal police, through its official Twitter account, downplayed the events when they informed at 23:10 hours: “In #Acapulco an incident left an alleged suspect dead.  Situation under control and without danger to citizens”.

Nevertheless, official reports indicate that around 21:53 hours, an armed attack occurred against Hotel Alba Suites, located in the division Las Playas in the traditional area of the port where the federal police is staying.

Then, the uniformed repelled the attack, taking down an alleged suspect and beginning a chase that lasted throughout several streets.

In a similar manner, another armed group attacked the offices of the federal police base located in a building marked with the numbers 125 along the coastal avenue in the golden area of Acapulco.

In both attacks, only one agent was reported with minor injuries and one alleged suspect dead, official reports indicate.

 The shootouts generated by the persecution against the gunmen were reported along the coast which closed traffic at various points, in neighborhoods such as Bocamar, La Laja and Progreso, all located in the heart of the urban area of Acapulco.

The attacks against the federal police and the shootouts registered last night, occur after the arrest of the alleged leader of a faction of the Cártel Independiente de Acapulco (CIDA) (Independent Cartel of Acapulco), Fredy Del Valle Berdel, aka “El Burro”, who was captured Saturday in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.

Governor of Guerrero Calls for a “Silent Agreement” To Attract Tourists

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Hector Astudillo Flores, governor of Guerrero, called for “strengthening the response in regards to insecurity” that exists in the state, but the help of “each and every one” is needed, he said, it should “enter a stage where we talk less everyday” to encourage tourism and employment.

Astudillo Flores said that it is necessary to make a “silent agreement”, to speak well of Acapulco, as is what had happened in Zihuatanejo.

“We want them to help us, for people to talk less about the unfortunate circumstances that the state of Guerrero lives through.  I was struck by what someone said the other day in Zihuatanejo: that they were well aware of what they live through, but that they were interested in having tourism and places of employment, and therefore every day in Zihuatanejo, everyone made an agreement of silence to the effect that tourism filled to 100%.  I think that the media play an important role, especially the local ones,” he said.

In the end, he sarcastically commented: “Thanks to all who are dedicated in bringing bad promotion to Acapulco.  Thanks.”

Armed Group Enters Chilapa;Demands Return of Arms

By: Gustavo Alberto Nava | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Around 200 armed civilians entered Chilapa at dawn for about two hours demanding the return of their weapons from the ministerial police.

Around 0:30 hours, they arrived aboard trucks armed with shotguns and rifles, stationing themselves in the vicinity of the plaza.  A few meters from where they were, a hotel where a group of the federal police is staying is located as well as the headquarters of the municipal police.

Taxi drivers who work during the night shift and are based on one side of the plaza immediately withdrew upon seeing the arrival of the armed group.

In the morning, it was confirmed that the group of armed civilians came from communities south of the municipality from the same ones that came on May 9-14 2015, when around 300 armed civilians broke into the municipal capital of Chilapa where they took control of the public security, in search of, according to them, members of a criminal cell who they blame for dozens of disappearances and other crimes.

Neighbors of the municipal capital blame them for being linked to rival criminal group and denounced them for the disappearances of 16 people during their stay in the city.

Authorities and residents of the communities of the south that border the municipalities of Mochitlán and Quechultenango constituted themselves into the Civil Association of Community Members for Peace and Justice.

Taxco, Guerrero: “I Don’t Feel Normal Living With Paranoia”

Photo by: Cuartoscuro

By: KYHB, Animal Político Reader | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

This article is part of a digital project by Animal Político called “Aprender a Vivir con el Narco” (Learning to live with El Narco) released in late 2015.

The first violent incident that I can remember was in December 2007.  They had killed a man in a hospital in Taxco and the news echoed in my city.  Taxco is a city with more than 50,000 inhabitants, but it’s a “village”, so the event was told to me by word of mouth until it got to me.

The next thing was something that I at first didn’t understand.  I took a bus on a daily basis to the high school, it hadn’t even dawned yet, but there was an open truck with its lights flashing on the road, the floor was wet, I remember because I thought it hadn’t even rained that morning and it was strange, I would later learn that that moisture was actually blood.

My boyfriend, who at that time worked at a small newspaper in the municipality, told me, as he had been called in the middle of the morning to accompany a boy to take pictures of the bodies that had been there.  He wasn’t even 17 years old.

Nestora Salgado: “Gordillo Was the Owner of Tepepan Prison”

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Elba Esther Gordillo “threatened me, saying that she would do everything to keep me in here,” the former commander of the Community Police of Olinalá, Guerrero, Nestora Salgado said during an interview with Aristegui CNN from the Tepepan Prison.

“We lived together, we shared the same hall, there was a conflict.  But obviously she’s a woman with a lot of power.  The fact that the state gave her too much power, the government gives her too much power, the lady has done and undone this place.  She was the owner of this place, I’m telling you this, she was the owner of this place (until she left to a private hospital).  Perhaps I shouldn’t talk much about the lady because then I would get into a worse conflict.  The only thing I can say is that they have given her too many powers, the government, which puts in and removes who it wants, I don’t think it should be like this.”

“She threatened me, (saying) that she would do everything to keep me from ever leaving this place, because I made a sexual harassment complain of a commander of this place who was the protégé of her and she got very mad, because she relied heavily on that person, he was a commander who allowed her to do anything and obviously very protected by her.  In fact he’s leaving from this place, but no punished, he’s going to another place as a chief.  They remove him from this place because (of the denouncement) of sexual harassment and they put him in another center as chief, so to me it’s that instead of punishing him, it was a prize.  His name is Jaime Sánchez Martínez.”

The Search for 17 Kidnapped In Apaxtla, Guerrero

Archive photo

The mayor of Apaxtla, retired Army General, Salvador Martínez Villalobos, informed via telephone that the land and air operations in search of the 17 people who were kidnapped by members of a criminal group continued yesterday, but they had not had positive results.

Martínez Villalobos, who was elected mayor by the New Alliance (PANAL) party said, however, that he believes that the criminal group continues in the area.

He also assures that the criminals have not asked for money in exchange for the people, so they do not know the causes for why they were kidnapped, since they were common people.

Since, Tuesday, December, 8, a group of around 15-20 men with rifles, military-style fatigues, and huaraches intercepted a public service Nissan Urvan along the road Apaxtla-El Caracol and deprived five people of their liberty who were from the communities of Tetela del Río and Amacahuite, municipality of Heliodoro Castillo (Tlacotepec).

It subsequently emerged that some 17 people are being held by the armed group.

“Until now, the operation has not been successful, there have been two flights, yesterday (Saturday) and today (Sunday) but nothing has been located,” said the mayor, who explained that yesterday’s aerial reconnaissance was in the municipal capital of Apaxtla and in the communities of Xochitepec, Tierra Blanca, San Felipe del Ocote and Liberaltepec.

Martínez Villalobos added that he assumes that the criminals are still in the area.

-Why do you believe that they are still in the area?