The Narco News Bulletin
"The
Name of Our Country is América"
--
Simón Bolívar
Gunmen
Walk After Attack on Cancún Newspaper
It's only a crime
to shoot at journalists if they result killed or wounded, say
officials
Authorities say
they "forgot" about the bag of cocaine in possession
of the gunmen before releasing them onto the streets
from the daily Por Esto!
of Quintana Roo
September 1, 2000
The
Five Waiters are Free
-- Shooting firearms is
not classified as a crime in the state, the argument
-- In spite of the evidence
of the Harrison Test, they walked
-- It seems as if authorities
are waiting for victims before they prosecute
-- High official "forgot"
about the envelope presumably with cocaine
-- Arrest warrant for
Amado Orta, still active
By Lizandro Coronado y
Ramón Uresti
The five subjects who
accompanied the fugitive delinquent Amado Orta, who shot at Por
Esto! of Quintana Roo, were liberated because judicial authorities
"did not find elements of guilt" as the 48 hour constitutional
limit on detention to place charges passed.
In spite of counting with
convincing evidence and that two of the five waiters detained
tested positive in the Harrison Test for having shot a firearm,
illogically they were let go below the argument that "sufficient
elements" to place charges were not found. This aggression
put the lives of hundreds of workers who labor daily at this
newspaper at risk.
....Among the irregularities
of the investigation is underlined that the legal director of
Public Security, Alejandro Pérez Ortega, "forgot"
on his desk a plastic envelope (seized from the defendants) that
appeared to contain cocaine. It was not presented as evidence
to the prosecutor's office...
On Thursday the director
of Public Security, Pablo Lucio Quiroga Rios, had to call upon
him for an explanation of why he didn't deliver it (the cocaine
evidence) and he said it was because he was "distracted."
This infantile explanation,
given the gravity of the facts, caused that the waiters could
not be investigated for possession of narcotics, taking in account
that a person accused of selling drugs in their restaurant "Yuppie's"
last week was detained.
...One of the waiters
involved in the shooting attempt against Por Esto! of Quintana
Roo, Christián Galindo, said that he had no idea what
happened.
He said that Amado Orta
Vélez fired the shots and that he doesn't know why he
did it. "All I know is that they did not let him enter the
city jail because he smelled like alcohol when he went to visit
Marucio Sánchez" (ex-waiter of Yuppie's Sport Café,
detained recently for distributing drugs in the bar).
"I have no idea how
he was able to escape the place where they detained us, and I
don't know why he shot at Por Esto!" he said as he left
detention accompanied by his family members.
What is fact is that the
behavior of the authorities demonstrates for the umpteenth time
the lack of protection that the citizenry confronts.... It is
a fact that Amado Orta belongs to a well organized gang of drug
dealers that move in the Hotel Zone under protection by the authorities...
Meanwhile, refusing
to be intimidated, Por Esto! of Quintana Roo -- the most
read newspaper in that state -- published three more investigative
reports:
-- a related story about
how officials protect drug dealing in the Hotel Zone of Cancún
(where the shooters worked as waiters)
-- a new bombshell from
Holbox Island on a fugitive from justice involved now in a land
dispute that involves Banamex and has divided the island's population.
(Since Banamex bought 11 kilometers of beach on this fishing
and eco-tourism penininsula of Holbox, the place has become another
key entry point for Colombian cocaine boats.)
-- another expose of how
the federal Attorney General is abusing his power against citizens
in the "Cancún Case" looking for more solid
evidence against fugitive governor Mario Villanueva
These stories available
in Spanish on the Por Esto! of Quintana Roo web site:
A Chronology of
Unprotected Journalism:
Gunmen
Attack Por Esto!
Attack
by Group of Delinquents Connected with Drug Trafficking
For Immediate
Global Release: August 31, 2000
On Tuesday morning
gunmen attacked the new Cancún offices of Mexico's third-largest
daily newspaper, Por Esto!
Five of the
perpetrators have been apprehended: all are waiters at the same
tourist bar in Cancún. A sixth perp, the head waiter and
presumed chief of a narco-trafficking operation, Amado Orta then
led his companions to, of all places, the parking lot of the
city jail, where another co-worker of the waiters is held on
drug charges, and Orta escaped. Orta remains a fugitive from
justice.
The facts of
the case are under constant investigation both by authorities
and by the valiant journalists of Por Esto!, who are friends
of The Narco News Bulletin and have published various
works of ours in Spanish throughout the Mexican Southeast.
The facts point
already to other interests behind the attack. But as the facts
are still unfolding, we will simply publish here the full translations
of the stories in Por Esto! on Wednesday, August 30 and
Thursday, August 31, before offering our own more detailed analysis
in the days to come. We welcome further inquiries from other
news and free expression organizations.
We also draw
the reader's attention to two previous stories on Narco News.
The first, was
our May 2000 award of Drug War Hero of the Month Mario Menéndez
Rodríguez -- editor and publisher of the same daily Por
Esto! -- with a history of this courageous journalist:
The second contains
the history and facts, with links to more facts, about Por
Esto's investigations into one of the most powerful white-collar
drug traffickers in the world and his protection by presidents
(and presidents-elect) of Mexico and the United States:
Menéndez
and Por Esto! have, for four years, taken on the most
powerful and corrupt levels of the narco trade while at the same
time making clear their position: Only by legalizing drugs will
the violence and corruption cease.
We call upon
colleagues worldwide and international press freedom organizations
to rise to the defense of freedom of expression by this uniquely
serious and popular news organization -- Por Esto! --
to protect them and their important ongoing journalistic work.
Whether one
agrees with Por Esto's position against high level official
drug traffickers and against drug prohibition itself,
we remind that an attack on free expression by one newspaper
is an attack upon everyone's free speech.
Here are the
first two days of full translations of the facts reported by
Por Esto! of Quintana Roo in the wake of the attack by
gunmen against this journalistic institution:
--
Al Giordano
publisher
The
Narco News Bulletin
Send
statements of solidarity to:
Day
One
From Por Esto! of Quintana Roo
August 30, 2000
Gunshots
Against Por Esto!
Attack
by group of delinquents connected with drug trafficking
-- A sterile and absurd
attempt to scare the journalistic work of investigation and accusation
-- A cowardly aggression
as the day's work had just begun
-- Demonstrates the mentally
unstable hatred that organized crime has against this editorial
publication
By Ramón Uresti and Lizandro Coronado
A group of delinquents connected with
the sale of drugs in the Hotel Zone of Cancún shot at
the offices of Por Esto! of Quintana Roo yesterday morning in
a sterile and absurd attempt to scare the journalistic work of
investigation and accusation practiced by this editorial publication.
Since 1995, when the Por Esto! daily newspapers
removed the cloak over drug trafficking in Quintana Roo, federal
authorities and narco-trafficking organizations have systematically
tried to silence the investigative work about the "grand
businesses" of the dominant plutocracy.
Those same attacks increased in 1997 when
the newspaper filed legal complains against the president of
the banking consortium Banamex-Accival, Roberto Hernández
Ramírez for connections with drug trafficking.
The facts of what happened yesterday morning
confirm: This was not about a "drunken joke" or a "mere
coincidence" that a group of delinquents in vehicles with
México City license plates shot at the editorial building
of this daily as the reporter corps and administration had just
begun their daily labors.
Three waiters of the video-bar "Yuppie's
Sport Café" in the Hotel Zone shot, from a vehicle,
at the installations of Por Esto! of Quintana Roo around 9:40
a.m. on Tuesday. Two of them have been arrested: the driver and
owner of the automobile, identified as Amado Orta, the head waiter
of the restaurant who fired the shots, "strangely"
remains at large.
The cowardly action against this media
institution happened when the three individuals were on their
way to the municipal jail to visit Mauricio Cruz, the waiter
who was detained by elements of the federal Attorney General's
office (PGR) last August 18th inside the aforementioned video-bar,
for selling psychotropic pills and the drug known as ecstasy
or "tachas."
That information was made public by the
daily Crónica of Cancún newspaper through a slim
press release delivered by the local Attorney General's office.
The mentally-unstable hatred that organized
crime demonstrates against Por Esto! of Quintana Roo once again
reveals itselt, since the story (of the drug bust) was not published
here - because it came from a slim press release like those that
the local PGR office is accustomed to writing - and our refusal
to print it in turn caused anger among the PGR's followers.
The gun shots were witnessed by reporter
Ramón Uresti Hernández when he left the offices
and by a youth identified as Víctor Manuel Jiménez,
24, who found himself only 15 feet from where the vehicle stopped
and the driver Amado Orta fired the shots.
The young witness to the facts was cutting
hay when he heard the detonations and headed for the sides for
fear of being injured. The Por Esto! of Quintana Roo reporter,
alerted by the gun shots, saw the auto from where the shots were
fired. A transport bus of the Autocar company on Route 97-99
also stopped in front of the gravity of the events and fearful
that the delinquents would shoot against that vehicle.
The public security police were immediately
notified and four patrol cars appeared three mintues later at
the installations of Por Esto! of Quintana Roo. They rapidly
inspected the place of the facts and began an immediate search
operation to locate the auto described by reporter Ramón
Uresti.
Soon afterward and having located the
Autocar bus that had been present during the gun shots, the municipal
police passed by the city jail and there the reporter observed
the champagne colored Intrepid vehicle with license plates 166-GVN
of Mexico City with the individuals who had fired the shots.
Upon searching the vehicle only two individuals
- Christian Galindo Pérez and Alfredo Martínez
Contreras - were found, showing signs of intoxication and alcohol,
wearing t-shirts of the video-bar Yuppie's Sports Café.
Upon being questioned they declined to
respond and said they didn't know whose vehicle it was or who
had driven it, and stuttered that they had entered the area to
visit a friend detained in the jail and that other companions
of theirs had entered the jail to visit him.
Continuing with the revision of the Intrepid vehicle, a drivers
license in the name of Amado Orta was found. But in a "strange"
development he was not found in the area and later it was said
that he had fired the shots.
The agents revising the vehicle found
in the glove compartment a .22 Magnum firearm with a box of bullets,
a sharp knive, and nobody said to whom they belonged.
The public security agents immediately inspected the other vehicles
parked at the jail and found a green Chrysler Caprice, 1998 model,
with license plate USE-5876 of Quintana Roo, that also formed
part of the aggressor group.
The detainees from that car are named
Armando Pech Ortega, Jorge López González and Marco
Antonio Pastrana, who were intercepted when they left the city
jail to be interrogated about the facts.
As none of them spoke or revealed the
driver or owner of the auto, perhaps for fear to accuse him and
to avoid the consequences of that, opted to remain silent. Now
apprehended for their cowardly act, the five waiters of the video-bar
were detained at the city jail by the public security police.
At around 11:30 a.m, a group of state
judicial police appeared at the offices of Por Esto! of Quintana
Roo led by assistant director of investigations Miguel Angel
Kim Martínez and assistant director of investigating affairs
Daniel Dante Valezzi, who were put in charge of the investigation.
Accompanied by the newspaper's comptroller
Mario Menéndez Cámara and other personnel of Por
Esto! of Quintana Roo they conducted a wide and careful inspection
of the instillations to collect evidences of the attack.
Within an hour and with the testimony
of the daily's administrator José Manuel Rodríguez
Camelo, reporter Ramón Uresti and chief editor Lizandro
Coronado, they went to the state attorney general's office to
place charges against those responsible.
"I've
been deceived and I have to accept responsibility": Kurt
Hansen, director of the video bar
Interviewed in the video-bar, Kurt Hansen,
operating director of Yuppie's Sport Café, expressed his
feeling of deception and stated decidedly that those responsible
for shooting against Por Esto! of Quintana Roo must respond and
assume the consequences of what they did.
"We are collaborating with the authorities.
We cannot condone these acts and as businesspeople we totally
divorce ourselves from these unfortunate events."
For his part, the general director of
Yuppie's Sports Café, Alfredo Romero Pasos exhibited his
concern over the mentioned facts and said that the guilty parties
will have to pay the consequencss of their actions. "Already
they have lost their jobs, they will be fired. To tolerate these
actions would be akin to rewarding them.
Both said they knew the waiters and warned
them every day that if they got involved with any type of problem
they would have to take responsibility "and we cannot help
in the most minimum way, they would not be taken care of."
To that, Kurt Hansen added that if they
got involved in problems that affect "us, we ourselves will
collaborate directly with the authorities, because they are affecting
with their actions the image of the business."
"Systematic
aggressions against Por Esto! of Quintana Roo"
This latest act of aggression against
Por Esto! of Quintana Roo demonstrates once again that organized
crime intends to stop the investigative journalism and citizen
accusation that we engage in day after day in the collective
work of this editorial publication.
The constant aggressions by the federal
Attorney General's office (PGR) cannot be forgotten. In place
of supporting and investigating accusations of drug trafficking
that are made day after day by the Por Esto! dailies, they harass
us with the sole objective of silencing the commitment we have
acquired with society.
It fits to recall that this systematic
campaign of persecution by organized crime and the Attorney General
was evidence again when in the place where the cadaver of the
waiter at the Casa Maya Hotel, Rafael Hernández Cámera
(involved in Caso Cancún) were also found various informative
documents of the PGR. In those documents the PGR delegate for
this area Jorge Peña Sandoval told his superiors about
the infamous criminal accusation that the Salinista neo-banker
Roberto Hernández Ramírez made against the publisher
and a group of reporters of this daily for defamation of character.
They left the documents (by the cadaver)
in such a way as to threaten and try to silence the objective
truth that has been reported day to day in the Por Esto! dailies.
Together with those documents were also found boxes with official
PGR files of still active cases.
The threats continue but far from frightening
us, instead the oblige us to continue working day after day with
the objectivity that characterizes us and with our commitment
to society.
Day
Two
August 31, 2000
Unanimous
Condemnation
Demands
to investigate the roots of the gunfire against offices of Por
Esto!
Respect for freedom of expression in benefit of society, say
social and political leaders.
By Lizandro Coronado Alcocer
Cancun, Q.Roo, August 30: The unanimous
repudation by Quintanarroense society of the shooting against
Por Esto! of Quintana Roo is a clear demonstration of the concern
and backing of the informative labor that this media organization
conducts in this region.
Diverse demonstrations of support by representatives
of the political, business, and citizen sectors, and by competent
authorities, together were received in solidarity and respect
for the work accomplished by this collective of Por Esto! of
Quintana Roo.
The assistant attorney general of justice
on the state level ordered an arrest warrant for the waiters
captain of Yuppie's Sports Café, Amado Orta. At the same
time, the Harrison Test applied upon the five detainees who have
confessed, found two who tested positive, which opens the possibility
that there were two firearms and not one as they confessed upon
being captured.
As reported in yesterday's edition about
the gunshots that Por Esto! of Quintana Roo received from six
waiters of the Yuppies Sports Café restaurant, who, in
reprisal for the detention of one of their partners shot bullets
against the building of this editorial publication on Avenida
Andrés Quintana Roo in Region 97 of this city.
The detainees, Alfredo Martínez
Contreras, Amando Pech Ortega, Marco Antonio Pastrana Aldan,
Jorge López González and Christian Galindo Pérez,
as of last night, were still being detained by the state attorney
general¡s office although the case was turned over to federal
prosecutors to make the pertinent investigations.
At the same time, the public security
police informed that inside the Intrepid vehicle (from where
the shots were fired) a plastic bag that appears to contain cocaine
was found and "strangely" was not delivered to the
prosecutor when the police elements handed the detainees over
to them.
Dante Daniel Valezzi, assistant director
of investigative services of that agency, explained that Christian
Galindo Pérez, 30, and Armando Pech Ortega, 27, both from
Mexico City, tested positive on the Harrison Test which proved
that they had shot firearms within hours before they capture.
On their part, family members of the detainees
who appeared at the state prosecutor's office said that these
defendants were used by Amado Orta to attack the Por Esto! of
Quintana Roo newspaper, but did not explain how or why.
All of the defendants blame the head waiter,
now fugitive from justice, saying it was he who shot against
Por Esto! of Quintana Roo and that moments after the attack he
escaped.
With new evidences the investigations
reaffirm what Por Esto! of Quintana Roo reported yesterday about
the possibility that the attack was not only meant to intimidate
the journalistic labor of investigation and accusation of this
collective editorial publication, but rather had other motives
that the authorities will have to explain.
The family members of two waiters said
in an interview conced to Por Esto! of Quintana Roo that their
relatives were used by Amado Orta (now fugitive), who days earlier
was angry about report that had been made (see related story.)
It's a fact that the "ant's work"
trafficking of drugs in the nightclub section of the hotel zone
has incremented considerably without the competent authorities
doing anything to impede it. Information given by a "burrero"
(small scale drug seller) mention that there are more than ten
establishments that openly engage in this illicit activity and
they have there center of activity in the zone near Party Center
in Punta Cancún.
The discomfort that the informative work
of Por Esto! of Quintana Roo causes to organized crime and drug
trafficking gangs has caused grave damages to the structure of
these delinquent groups that are protected below the banner that
the beach zone is a territory where police presence affects the
image of the tourist destination. Below the protection of some
authorities and with impunity this has become a grand center
of drug distribution.
The lamentable thing of this case is that
the cancer of drug trafficking not only injures tourism but also
thousands of youths from Cancún who weekly go to the nightclubs
located there where they are at the mercy of the delinquents.
The
PGR will begin investigations
This Wednesday afternoon the assistant
director of investigations, Miguel Angel Kim Martínez,
turned the case over to the federal prosecutor.
…it was determined that the firearm
(22 caliber Magnum) that the aggressors carried is classified
as a violation of federal law, the reason for which the PGR has
taken on the case.
The assistant director of investigation
services, Daniel Dante Valezzi, explained that the disappearance
of the bag containing cocaine that had been seized at the moment
of detention is a key piece of evidence to trace the lines of
the investigation about the motive of the attack, because with
this proof it can be determined if the drug was for personal
use or to sell at the place of work.
It's worth specifying that according to
the report of the public security police, the Intrepid vehicle
(licence plate 166 GVN of Mexico City) used for the attack contained
a black bag that had inside five gold rings, a necklace, two
gold chains as well as two cellular phones and a wallet with
personal documents among other things.
Also seized from the auto were containers
of pharmaceuticals Redoxon and Centrum.
According to the investigations by state prosecutors it was determined
that the revolver pistol had a five cartridge capacity with a
brown hardwood handle, 22 caliber Maghum, and was used to attack
the offices of Por Esto! of Quintana Roo. It's range and potency
are lethal for the objective with a type of bullet that penetrates
the body of a person and the damage multiplies because the bullet
doesn't stay only in the place where it impacted.
Amado Orta had other reasons to shoot:
According to the lines of investigation
that police have developed they have rejected the idea that the
gunshots made by the waiters of Yuppie Sports Café were
mere coincidence or a drunken joke, because the declarations
made by those involved in the case reflect that Amado Orta acted
in a premeditated manner. He also fooled his companions as he
never visited the city jail as he had told them when they left
the video bar where they had worked until last Tuesday morning
when the events occurred. In exchange, he disappeared the moment
that his companions were detained at the gates of the city jail.
Another determinative point in the investigations
is that the two vehicles used by the aggressors (the Intrepid
and the Caprice) are both property of Amado Orta. It still is
not known why he had brought his companions to the other place.
That the two waiters who tested positive
on the Harrison test live in exclusive apartments n the Hotel
Zone of this vacation center also draws attention.
Finally, the police authorities mentioned
that the two autos were not robbed. And they are investigating
now the location of the head waiter Amado Orta.
August 31, 2000
Related story:
Families:
"They Were Used"
The detainees
didn't know why the fugitive suspect shot at the office of Por
Esto!
-- Amado Orta, head waiter
of Yuppie's Sport Café," named as the person who
fired the shots
-- The two autos, his
property
-- He was bothered by
a press report that appeared in a newspaper
-- Two detainees test
positive in the Harrison test
CANCUN, Q. Roo, August 30: The state's
assistant attorney general Ricardo Adrán Samos Medina
stated that the lines of investigation have widened to clarify
the real motive of the shooting attempt at Por Esto! of Quintana
Roo, as well as to capture Amado Orta, accused of the aggression
by his own companions.
Families of the detainees who appeared
at the state attorney general's office said that the suspects
were used in the shooting attempt against the newspaper Por Esto!
of Quintana Roo for reasons that Amado Orta never explained to
them (the detainees).
All the detainees blame the head waiter,
now fugitive from justice, Amado Orta, saying it was he who fired
the shots against Por Esto! of Quintana Roo and that he fled
moments after.
The family members of the detainees said that the two cars that
are currently seized by the prosecutor are the property of Amado
Orta.
At the same time, they commented that
the head waiter of Yuppie's bar and restaurant, days before,
was very upset about a press report that appeared in a newspaper.
His rage had already passed but, nonetheless, they did not explain
why the fugitive fired the shots in front of the editorial publication.
Interviewed again by different communications
media of the state, attorney Ricardo Adrián Samos Medina,
assistant justice prosecutor in the northern zone, said that
there are not yet sufficient evidences to close the case.
He said that necessarily there would have
to be a series of investigations and tracings with relation to
the vehicles to find if they are or are not of dubious origin.
He clarified that this part of the investigation
of the crimes for which five subjects were apprehended has not
ended.
For the moment, the detainees have not
been turned over to the federal attorney general. They are analyzing
the situation although the intention is to hand them over because
the primary crime is a firearms offense.
The time that they can be detained locally
is 49 hours until the prosecutor resolves the legal situation.
An arrest warrant has still not been issued
for the apprehension of the intellectual author of the crime
because we are still point in the legal process.
Interviewed in the prosecution offices
when he left a meeting with the assistant prosecutor, Gorge López
Karam said that because they don't have the documentation to
see if the good seized are legal a report has been solicited
from Mexico City authorities.
We necessarily have to see if these vehicles
have been reported in any robbery or, to the contrary, that they
give us a description of the vehicle that corresponds to the
licence plates of the seized autos and whether they seem to belong
to the fugitive from justice.
"WE know that they shot against the
offices of a newspaper. We have to investigate if all the facts
are related or not. These are the lines of the investigation
that the state judicial police are pursuing," said the assistant
prosecutor.
(Ramón Uresti Hernández)
Cancún:
from "trampoline" to consumer
Political
parties: Not just tourists look for drugs; also local youths
By David Sosa Flores
Cancún and some other cities of
the state have been allowed to be used as simple transit routes
of drugs, and now not only tourists consume them, but also local
people, principally youths.
For leaders of the PAN, the PRI and the
PRD, as well as citizen organizations, the crime committed by
a group of youths to attack the Por Esto! of Quintana Roo collective
is synonymous with the social decomposition caused by the lack
of an urgent program of social development.
They also said that labors to prevent
the trafficking and consumption of trucks should also increase
the penalties to offenders, and a true investigation must be
made to eradicate the narco-trafficking network that has been
seated in Quintana Roo.
It's not just
a police problem
Miguel Paz Paredes: "In the issue of the trafficking and consumption
of drugs in Mexico, the parameters have changed in recent years.
We've gone from being a producer country to a consumer country."
"Before, it was said that Mexico
served as a trampoline for the transport of drugs toward the
United States and other countries, but now many of these drugs
stay in the country.
"The consumption of drugs is rising
in the urban centers and in the case of Cancún the problem
has worsened with the accelerating population growth and the
heterogeneity of the inhabitants, not just the tourists.
"This issue was left as only a police
problem, but it is also of crime prevention and cultural development.
"Still, the authorities have a vision
very far from that the citizenry demands. For example, we see
first that the city has a theater, but not a cultural project.
"Evidently, the street level dealing
of drugs has increased and responds to a well organized network
that has expanded its radius of action.
"This is not only a problem for the
PGR, but also the Secretary of Education and other agencies."
Integral Development:
José Antonio Abascal: "As a citizenry that reads the newspapers
and watches the television, we have learned of the alarming growth
of drug trafficking and consumption, particularly in the tourist
centers of the state.
"If this is not attacked at the root,
in short time the consequences will be suffered.
"Crimes should not be committed,
but they seem to advance more than the development of the region.
"On the other hand, we see that social
inequality and zero development are provoking problems like suicides,
that are growing in number.
"For example, we see cases of workers
in the tourist industry that are sanctioned in their places of
work if they don't water the gardens with potable water, but
when they get home, there is no potable water to consume, nor
basic services, provoking social imbalance and grave conflicts
when citizens suffer from a lack of services."
Abascal called for the creation and putting
into march an urgent plan of integrated development.
"They shouldn't give permits like
crazy at City Hall when they are delivered by means of bribes."
"There are gangs of 12 and 13 year
old adolescents that have not been given a place to achieve their
whole development as human beings. There are not enough schools,
nor recreation places for the culture, nor for sports, and for
this the youths are tempted to commit crimes and-or drug themselves."
The number of suicides that have happened
in recent years in this state, principally in Cancún,
is alarming.
This is not only a problem in that tourism
already doesn't come to Quintana Roo, but also the social barbarity
that is being provoked, to permit and not to attack the trafficking
and consumption of drugs, nor work on an integrated development
plan.
Foment culture,
education, sports and recreation:
Alejandro Ramós:
"To avoid the consumption of drugs,
that generally promotes other crimes, it is necessary that the
authorities of the three levels of government foment cultural,
sports and recreational activities.
"In addition to urgent and effective
prevention actions, penalties for the consumers and distributors
of drugs should be increased.
"In the same manner, there must be
true investigations into drug trafficking and in the case of
the attempted shooting suffered by Por Esto! of Quintana Roo,
the newspaper of dignity, identity and sovereignty, to get to
the root of the case, that is the existence of a drug trafficking
network.
"This is the cause célebre
of ex governor Mario Villanueva, who during the last siz years
permitted the operation of drug trafficking in the state.
"It's certain that he protected not
only the local mafias, but also the international ones, and it
is said that there are not proofs to incriminate Villanueva Madrid,
but they said the same in Colombia about Pablo Escobar, who was
capo de los capos in the South American nation who enjoyed the
protection of federal authorities. Something similar is happening
here with the fugitive governor.
Better Vigilance
Enrique Alcocer: "It's necessary to have more vigilance in
the nightclubs, discos, bars and restaurants in tourist zones,
but also in the city's most conflicted neighborhoods.
If more drug consumption is being registered,
the authorities must increase their preventive labors, constant
vigilance and frontal attack, of an integral manner.
The attack on Por Esto! of Quintana Roo
is one proof more of the damage that is made to the social fabric
by the presence of the narco. The law must be applied and the
image of Cancún and Quintana Roo must be cleansed.
Courageous Journalism:
Julian Ricalde: "We know that the cowardly aggression against
Por Esto! of Quintana Roo in its offices will not intimidate
you nor your team of collaborators, because these demonstrations
materialized in criminal acts are the language of those who feel
"affected" in their illegal business and those who,
undoubtedly, are exposed by courageous journalists.
"We call for the authorities to find
the guilty parties and sanction them accordingly so that these
cowardly acts seen only in barbaric societies do not continue
with impunity."
Solidaridad