Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

“The Bullet of Impunity”

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: El País


By: Javier Garza Ramos, Torreón, Coahuila.
June 18, 2018

The bullet that killed Fernando Purón Johnston , PRI candidate for federal deputy in Piedras Negras, Coahuila on Friday, June 8, was the same one used six days earlier, on June 2, that killed Pamela Terán Pineda, candidate for councilor El Juchitán , Oaxaca, and Juana Maldonado Infante, candidate for local deputy in Jopala, Puebla .

The same bullet was used the next day, on Saturday June 9, which wounded Rosely Magaña, candidate for councilor in Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, who died 72 hours later. And it was the same bullet that killed Alejandro Chávez, candidate for mayor of Taretan, Michoacán on Thursday, June 14th.

This same bullet  has killed 44 pre-candidates and candidates for election and other 70 officials and political figures in this election process. No ballistic proof is needed to sustain the claim, just follow the path of the bullet of impunity.

           Fernando Purón Johnston, PRI Candidate and former Mayor of Piedras Negras, Coahuila

The person who ordered Purón's murder probably knew that nothing was going to happen to him, because nothing happened to Terán's murderer , and he knew that Salado's murderer had nothing happen to him and so goes back in time the long thread of impunity. 

I get the impression that we already saw this movie. The sequence of candidates killed in the current electoral process in Mexico is very similar to the list of dozens of journalists killed in Mexico in the last decade. A succession of crimes that alarm at first, but have become normalized.

Candidates and journalists are two high-risk groups in Mexico. Of course, they are not the only ones, they are only two subgroups of rampant unabated  violence that last year averaged 20 victims a day  and of which there is no end in sight. 

While the motive of each murder is particular, in the case of journalists and candidates, a common thread unites them in that the victims may have touched powerful interests that prefer to use violence to end threats because they live in a country with a broken rule of law. Violence is a cheap, fast and easy remedy to perceived threats to institutions.

Throughout this succession of crimes there are those who warn about the gestation of an epidemic but their voices are drowned because nothing ever happens, until a high-profile case arrives that causes greater impact, which raises the volume of the complaints, although the increasing demand for sentencing does not end up solving anything.

The "strong condemnation" that we hear from the authorities is just a placebo that shows its inefficiency. Worse yet, when those high-profile cases are registered in the highest spheres of authority, after having ignored dozens of other cases, things are only  likely to get worse.

Fernando Purón was the highest-profile candidate killed in the current electoral process, as he was the first candidate to hold a federal election position, while the previous candidates had been candidates for local positions in small municipalities. 

                                              Secretary of Labor Roberto Campa

His death was the first that merited the presence of a member of the cabinet of President Enrique Peña Nieto at the funeral. The Secretary of Labor, Roberto Campa, traveled to Piedras Negras as the presidential representative, but also with the same common promises to deliver justice.

Something similar happened with the case of Javier Valdez, the highest profile journalist killed in Mexico in recent years.

       Javier Valdez, award winning and internationally known Journalist and Author of several books

 A year ago, when Javier Valdez was gunned down in Culiacán, Peña Nieto spoke for the first time about the murder of a journalist, after having ignored 35 previous crimes committed during his six-year term . The president brought together the security cabinet and the governors, issued instructions to strengthen the protection of journalists and promised that the killing would not go unpunished.

A year later, two of the three men who attacked Valdez on May 15, 2017 have been detained, but accused only of the material authorship of the crime, because until now the intellectual authors enjoy the same impunity enjoyed by those responsible for dozens of previous murders.

It is easy to conclude that if the murder of a nationally and internationally recognized journalist provoked the reaction of the same President of the Republic but the crime still goes unpunished, anyone who is thinking of killing a lesser-known journalist than Javier Valdez can reasonably think he or she will get away with it.

In fact, there were already some who thought about it: in 2017 six more journalists were killed after Javier Valdez and at least four so far in 2018.

Mexican Citizens take to the streets to demand Justice and Freedom of the Press after their beloved                                          brave truth telling journalists continue to be murdered.

That is why Roberto Campa's presence at Purón's funeral involves a challenge in itself: if the murder of a candidate that merited this level of attention is unpunished the fate of others is already cast.

The impunity in the homicide of Purón also carries another risk because it threatens to throw overboard the pacification that the State of Coahuila has had in the last years and in particular the northern zone of the state,  in Piedras Negras, ie, where Purón  was mayor from 2014 to 2017, a period in which state and federal operatives managed to dismantle the power of Los Zetas, who waged a reign of terror in the area during the previous decade .

The infamous prison near Piedras Negras, Coahuila that Los Zetas turned into a Base of Operations and many call a death camp. The death toll will probably never be known.

Unlike previous municipal administrations that of Purón did not succumb to the control of Los Zetas. That had been one of the focal points of his speech and it is now one of the lines of investigation into his murder.

It was during the years that Purón was mayor when Piedras Negras managed to overcome the trauma of the massacres and disappearances that have been documented with horrifying detail by El Colegio de México, the government of Coahuila and the Executive Commission for Victim Assistance.

 Piedras Negras  has made such a remarkable recovery that in the latest surveys of urban security by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics, Piedras Negras appeared among the cities with a better perception of security, data that resulted from the mayoral work of the now dead candidate .

Just a week ago, Pablo Ferri published in this newspaper the chronicle of a trip through Coahuila that ended precisely in Piedras Negras. Noting the horror of recent years, the story also showed a semblance of quiet normalcy within political campaigns. 

Two days after the text was published, the story completely changed to one that we already know all too well.

37 comments:

  1. Dicen que la confianza mato al gato. Yo digo que mientras tanto los pacifistas se sigan creyendo de sus buenas palabrotas los lobos seguirán atacando. - Sol Prendido

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nadie tiene derecho a ser un pinche priista y andarse paseando por las calles de Mexico como si nada, y aunque lo tuviera, con todas sus putas chingaderas que deben y sin escoltas, stupid.
      Even saintly party candidates that have never hurt or injured anybody have to thread very lighly and never be alone without protection and then their security details themselves murder them or facilitate the job for others like Luis Donaldo Colosio's or Carlos Salinas de gortari's of PRI murdering PRD candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas' more than 500 campaign volunteers and stealing their computers to steal the presidency in 1986, fact not very widely known, then Salinas did the worst robbing of Mexican assets and money...hate for PRIISTAS did not just appear suddenly or sprout from thin air.
      --EPN has more than 20 thousand murders a year, probably more than 30 thousand, and no politicians talk to him about that shit but we are supposed to care about one pinchi priista politician or a hundred others?
      --I'd like to ask one Ayotzinapo what he thinks...

      Delete
    2. Y tu confianza para escrivir lo que escrives?? Mmmm...

      Delete
    3. 8:04 trust me, chole is NOT trying to offend anybody, just saying the most elementary truth, if you care for your ass, don't go around without security details...
      You don't go around alone after keeping Piedras Negras so safe for 3 years of being the mayor, using Federal and State Police and betraying the people that had the city in their pocket like Rubén "El pelón" moreira that betrayed everything his brother stood for, Los Zetas and the money from the people of the state of cuahuila.

      Delete
    4. 1:48
      Te la jalas mucho.

      Delete
  2. Scumbags finally killing other scumbags finally a gander of some justice on this rock

    ReplyDelete
  3. U idiots r u r own worst enemy






    X

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have a great uncle who lives near that prison he believes zetas who are incarcerated leave the prison during the night in police and military uniforms.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Es verda en nvo laredo asi se pasean los del cdn.

      Delete
    2. So your uncle is the same one, that used the bullet 44 times.

      Delete
    3. He says his uncle sees people leaving the prison at night whom he thinks are zetas.

      Delete
  5. You really mean "the same bullet" killed over 100 people?
    Did they dig it out of the victim each time, then recast it, then reload it into another cartridge, or how did they accomplish this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't blame it on Yanki, I know he writes better than that, he only the translater, please do not kill the messenger.

      Delete
    2. It’s a metaphor but I believe the author is being sarcastic.

      Delete
  6. It the article keeps saying it the same bullet killed 44 persons, that does not make sense, it should say..the same caliber killed 44

    ReplyDelete
  7. Turning the tide of corruption practices in Mexico will not be easy. Irony is; one was given a place to sit at the table, only to take its dwelling.

    E42

    ReplyDelete
  8. Strange country Mexico. If they kill a tourist or gringo, the case is solved!!!! quickly. Kill some high profile political aspirant, and it is put down to the dangers of the trade, providing it happens in the hunting season, ie election year.
    Just goes to show that the puppet makers, are a law until themselves, and if the people can not get rid of them nothing will change in Mexico, whoever they are???

    ReplyDelete
  9. off topic but interested in the BB reporters' opinions on Canada legalizing marijuana

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/19/17438154/canada-marijuana-legalization-cannabis-act-bill-c-45

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cartel de Las Cruces is in Canada.

      Delete
    2. So which one is it, the same bullet killed 44 or 100?

      Delete
    3. Good for Canada! It's only a matter of time before the United States follows suit. Trump already said he's likely to support the bill to end the federal prohibition.

      Prohibition just keeps money on the black market and turn normal law abiding citizens into criminals.

      Phelpso

      Delete
    4. If you read the article it de says same bullet killed 44 not 100.

      Delete
  10. cuando el SR Chapo estaba al mando no pasaban estas cosas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Si oiga, cuando el Señor Chapo reinaba no pasaban estas cosas oiga, la gente no se portaba tan corriente. Salió todo el desmadre, con ganas de sacarlo del bote, pero quien sabe cómo andará ya, dicen los gringos que el Señor ya hasta alucina, quien sabe cómo lo han de estar maltratando oiga. Dios nos lo cuide.

      Delete
  11. When you have a known drug felon wanted by the united states as captain of the Mexico soccer team in the world cup, you know crime and lawlessness will always exist on an unprecedented scale...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5:14 money laundering is different than money investing,
      and drug trafficking is a whole 'nother thing,
      I am no lover of soccer or El Rafa Marquez, but I invite you to prove the drug trafficking

      Delete
    2. Whats the difference, The US has something on him. I am pretty sure its legit..

      Delete
    3. 4:36 yeah, a kangaroo court and a railroad trial.
      El rafita will be grateful.

      Delete
  12. Oh , PULEEEEZE, people , The Bullet is something called a METAPHOR.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lots of pregnant turtles 🐢 come here Yaqui. They keep their thinking low and slow. But they actually serve a great purpose in life. Just ask Bernie Madoff. Lol. - Sol Prendido

      Delete
  13. Great article Yaqui and rings quite true the METAPHOR!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What's that, Meth in Camphor?
    I am sorry, but I ask because I am not a drug addict.

    ReplyDelete
  15. How can a bullet kill 44 persons. What's wrong with Yanki,

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated, refer to policy for more information.
Envía fotos, vídeos, notas, enlaces o información
Todo 100% Anónimo;

borderlandbeat@gmail.com