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Mexican authorities discover 113 bodies in Jalisco mass grave
By Daniel Uria
At least 113 bodies were found in a mass grave in Mexico's Jalisco state following a nearly two-month long excavation.
Photo by Francisco Guasco/EPA-EFE
Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Mexican authorities discovered at least 113 bodies in a mass grave in Jalisco state, state attorney Gerardo Octavio Solis said.
During a news conference Sunday, Solis said 30 of the bodies had been identified, including 28 men and two women.
The grave was located in the El Salto municipality, southeast of the state capital Guadalajara.
Authorities also said an additional 25 bodies have been found at another mass grave at Ixlahuacan de los Membrillo, nearly 19 miles south of El Salto.
A spokesman for the state's attorney's office told CNN they began excavating the grave on Oct. 1.
Jalisco is the base of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration deemed one of Mexico's "most powerful and fastest growing" drug cartels.
Jalisco authorities have exhumed 897 bodies from mass graves from 2006 to Sept. 30, 2020.
Mexico arrests cartel mastermind of Mormon massacre
which killed nine
A total of 17 suspects have been arrested in connection with the slaughter in Nov. 2019
The Associated Press
Posted: Nov 25, 2020 6:31 PM ET
the alleged mastermind was arrested on Wednesday. (Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images)
Mexico's army and federal prosecutors said Wednesday they have arrested the purported mastermind of the killings a year ago of three women and six children from a well-known Mexican-American family, the LeBarons, on a rural road in the northern state of Sonora.
The suspect was identified only by his first name, "Roberto," in line with Mexican law against incrimination.
Another source IDs the massacre suspect as Roberto González, the plaza boss of La Línea in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua
The agencies said the suspect was arrested Monday along with two other men near the town of Nuevo Casas Grandes in the northern border state of Chihuahua. They had two rifles, three pistols and marijuana in their vehicle, officials said.
The three men were described as members of a drug cartel, but the agencies did not say which one. However, in the past, officials have attributed the killings to the Juarez cartel or its offshoot La Linea gang.
A total of 17 suspects have now been arrested in connection with the November 2019 ambush killings.
Members of local Mormon communities and relatives of the extended Le Baron family attended the funeral in Le Baron, Mexico last year. (Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau wrote in his Twitter account that the arrests represented "excellent cooperation between the authorities of both countries," though he did not say what role the United States played.
"There will be justice!" Landau wrote.
The mostly bilingual American-Mexicans have lived in northern Mexico for decades and consider themselves Mormons, though they are not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
More corruption accusations fly as ex-minister tries to make a deal
Rosario Robles accuses ex-finance minister of masterminding huge fraud scheme
Published on Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Mexico News Daily
The previous federal government left office almost two years ago but some of the many corruption scandals that plagued it have life in them yet and could result in the imprisonment of former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s right-hand man.
Media attention this week has focused on the so-called “Master Fraud” embezzlement scheme in which government departments allegedly diverted billions of pesos to shell companies via public universities.
The highest-profile former official who has been arrested in connection with the scheme is Rosario Robles, who served as both minister of social development and minister of agrarian development in Peña Nieto’s 2012-2018 government.
Videgaray and Robles in better days
A lawyer for Robles, who remains in custody in a Mexico City prison, claimed this week that former finance and foreign affairs minister Luis Videgaray was in charge of the fraud scheme and used it to divert public funds to political campaigns of the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Sergio Arturo Ramírez said his client will cooperate with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and provide details about Videgaray’s involvement.
His claims were met with a firm denial from the former finance minister, who also faces accusations of wrongdoing related to a corruption scheme involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
Robles, who was jailed over a year ago, took to Twitter on Tuesday (going online is apparently not a problem in the Santa Martha prison) to announce that she had agreed to become a “collaborating witness” in the “Master Fraud” case.
“For now it’s the only thing I can say. … I’ve instructed my lawyers to abide by the legal process. What I must say is that I will speak the truth,” she wrote.
Is she suicidal? Will she live long enough to tell the truth?
Robles added that she had asked her lawyers to seek an agreement with the authorities, apparently indicating that she is prepared to talk in exchange for acquittal or a reduction in any jail sentence she might receive.
“There will surely be those who deny the facts but the proof will speak [for itself],” she wrote.
Robles’ decision to cooperate with authorities came after it was revealed that she would face organized crime and money laundering charges in addition to being accused of improper exercise of public office.
Perhaps complicating her attempt to get out of jail are claims made by Emilio Zebadúa Gonzále, who was a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Ministry of Social Development (Sedesol) when it was led by Robles.
According to the newspaper El Universal, Zebadúa – who is also accused of involvement in the “Master Fraud” – told the FGR that Robles met with colleagues every week to plot the diversion of public funds via the embezzlement scheme.
Emilio Zebadúa claims that weekly meetings were held to plot the diversion of public funds.
Zebadúa also told the FGR that Robles and former Sedesol chief Ramón Sosamontes personally received cash that shell companies had received from public universities that were awarded government contracts.
The former official said that Sedesol and the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning, which Robles headed up in the second half of the previous government’s term, diverted more than 1.2 billion pesos.
Zebadúa said Robles told him that Videgaray had explained to her that Sedesol needed to divert resources to pay for debts incurred and arrangements made during Peña Nieto’s 2012 presidential campaign. Videgaray was the ex-president’s campaign manager.
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya, who also worked on Peña Nieto’s campaign, has accused the former finance minister of striking corrupt agreements with Odebrecht in order to obtain millions of dollars in funding for the 2012 presidential bid.
Videgaray rejected Lozoya’s accusations against him in August, and took to Twitter again on Tuesday to respond to the claims made by Robles’ lawyer.
“I deeply regret that Rosario Robles is baselessly choosing to accuse me to try to get out of her legal situation,” he said in a statement posted to his Twitter account.
Videgaray said that he understands the “extraordinarily difficult” situation Robles is in but asserted that “desperation cannot be justification for lying and incriminating innocent people. That mustn’t be the path to obtain her freedom,” he wrote.
“Rosario Robles can say many things but what she won’t be able to do is prove lies. I didn’t have any participation, direct or indirect, in the so-called Master Fraud,” Videgaray said.
“As a public servant I always acted within the legal framework and the only evidence that has emerged against me with respect to the alleged diversion of public resources are statements of people [Robles and Lozoya] who want to evade responsibility,” he wrote.
“I was never the boss of Rosario Robles. As cabinet colleagues we were equals – there was never a relationship of subordination between us. Neither her nor her co-workers received instructions from me.”
Despite his denials, government officials who spoke with the newspaper Milenio say the FGR already has sufficient evidence against Videgaray for him to go to jail. Information to be provided by Robles is only expected to strengthen the Attorney General’s Office’s case.
President López Obrador said earlier this month that the FGR had sought an arrest warrant for Videgaray in connection with the Odebrecht case but was blocked by a judge. It is currently preparing a new warrant request for the former cabinet minister, who – according to the statement he issued Tuesday – remains in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In a document that accompanied its first request for an arrest warrant for Videgaray, the FGR accused Peña Nieto of leading and personally benefiting from a criminal scheme within his government that paid bribes to lawmakers and committed treason.
However, it is not currently seeking to arrest the former president. There is a possibility that the FGR could seek to do so if a majority of citizens vote in favor of putting past presidents on trial for alleged wrongdoings at a referendum planned for next year.
Narco-submarine abandoned off Oaxaca coast
Published on Monday, November 23, 2020
Mexico News Daily
An anonymous tip led navy personnel to an abandoned makeshift submarine on the Oaxaca coast that is believed to have belonged to drug traffickers operating between South America and Mexico.
It is not known which criminal organization it belonged to and neither people nor drugs were found on the vessel, which had appeared near the town of Barra de la Cruz, located about 30 kilometers east of Huatulco.
Drug traffickers frequently use various marine routes to transport a myriad of drugs from Central and South America to destinations all over Mexico within five to 15 days. Authorities believe that in this case, traffickers were intending to transport cocaine or amphetamines on the submersible vessel.
Intending? Looks to me like they did.
It first became evident that cartels were building DIY submarines to transport drugs by sea in 2005. Authorities believe the submarines are built in Columbia, Ecuador or Guyana.
In December 2019, a submarine carrying over a tonne of cocaine bound for Mexico was caught off the coast of Peru with a Columbian, Ecuadorian, and a Mexican aboard. At the time, authorities said the vessel had been loaded in Ecuador near the border with Peru and that it was the first such drug-trafficking submarine ever caught in Peru.
According to the country’s anti-drug agency, the majority of Peru’s cocaine is exported via maritime routes.
Barra de la Cruz, MX
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