Mexican journalist found slain with signs of torture

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Mexican journalist found slain with signs of torture
August 2, 2015, 4:04 PM

MEXICO CITY - A photojournalist who was found slain in Mexico City after he fled harassment in his home state appears to have been tortured before he was shot to death, the head of a free press advocacy group said Sunday.

Ruben Espinosa sustained severe injuries to his face before he was killed, said Dario Ramirez, director of the Article 19 group.

Espinosa was found dead late Friday in an apartment in Mexico City. Three women who lived in the apartment and their housekeeper also were killed. They, too, appeared to have been tortured and sexually assaulted before being shot, Ramirez said.

Espinosa worked for the investigative magazine, Proceso, and other media. He had fled to the capital in June after being harassed in his home state of Veracruz.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexican-journalist-ruben-espinosa-found-slain-signs-of-torture/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Mexican photojournalist among 5 killed

Mexican photojournalist among 5 killed

Ruben Espinosa's employer, Proceso, reports photographer had been shot twice

UPDATED 12:41 PM HST Aug 02, 2015

By Mariano Castillo CNN

(CNN) —A Mexican photojournalist who left the state he worked in because of threats was among five people found shot to death in a Mexico City apartment this weekend, officials and press freedom advocacy groups said.
Ruben Espinosa was a photographer for a number of outlets, including the leading newsweekly Proceso and Agencia Cuartoscuro.

. . .

In the last interview he recorded, with the outlet RompeViento, he said simply, "I had to leave because of acts of intimidation."

"I had to leave because it was not a direct threat, but I got the message. It was just recently when students were attacked and brutally beaten with machetes. In these situations, we can't do less with any type of aggression or intimidation because we don't know what might happen. Veracruz is a lawless state," Espinosa told the outlet.

According to Proceso, Espinosa had faced close calls in the past. In 2013, uniformed state police beat him during a clash between protesting teachers and authorities in Veracruz.

http://www.kitv.com/national/mexican-photojournalist-among-5-killed/34496118

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("Not one more.&quot



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[cer7711]

2. There's this guy, and then there's . . .

Last edited Mon Aug 3, 2015, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)

. . . the Hillary-vs.-Bernie--or is that the Bernie-vs.-Hillary?--keyboard commandos who post on this site believing they've done something earth-shakingly important by bearing up under the withering scorn of the opposition in defense of their preferred candidate.

Now before people get all hyperactive with their itchy ALERT! fingers let me make a couple of things perfectly clear here:

(1) I prefer Bernie over Hillary.
(2) I would vote for Hillary over ANY republican the right-wingers settle on.
(3) This board serves as a great debating place to argue one's (large- & small-D) democratic POVs.
(4) But once in a while a little perspective would be welcome.

This particular gentleman was brutally TORTURED and KILLED--along with three women staying with him (who were also raped, in the bargain)--for what he wrote. He spoke truth to power in the lawless narco-state of modern-day Mexico and paid the price. How many of us would post here if we faced that kind of penalty for our written words?

It's sobering to think of the price this man paid for daring to practice the profession of journalism.

I am not suggesting opinion-piece postings by the general public on political bulletin boards in the US is the equivalent of attempting to practice journalism in Mexico.

What I am asking us to do is pause and reflect for a moment on the bravery of this man and the weight his words carried, before we return to the fray-of-the-moment.

Oh, and one more thing--revolution is coming . . .

[Judi Lynn]

3. Advocates fear more impunity in Mexico photographer killing

Aug 3, 12:13 AM EDT

Advocates fear more impunity in Mexico photographer killing

By KATHERINE CORCORAN and ALBERTO ARCE
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- With an investigation barely underway, Mexican journalist protection groups are already expressing fears that authorities won't consider the brutal killing of a photojournalist as being related to his work - even though he fled the state he covered fearing for his safety.

Mexico City officials said Sunday they are pursuing all lines of investigation in the death of Ruben Espinosa, whose tortured body was found along with four slain women in an apartment in Mexico's capital. Prosecutor Rodolfo Rios Garza said authorities were following protocols for crimes against journalists and crimes against women, as well as looking at robbery as a possible motive in the case.

But when dealing with journalists' killings, authorities in Mexico historically have been quick to discard their work as a motive, even though the country is the most dangerous in Latin America for reporters. Some 90 percent of journalist murders in Mexico since 1992 have gone unpunished, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"What's particularly pernicious is that violence against the press is violence against society," said Dario Ramirez, director of the Article 19 free press advocacy group. "There are many places in the country where silence paves the road so that organized crime, corruption, everything that destroys a society can continue in a manner without ... setbacks or obstacles."

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_JOURNALIST_SLAIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-02-19-51-23

[Judi Lynn]

4. Two Women Indentified in Mexico's Multiple Murder Case

Two Women Indentified in Mexico's Multiple Murder Case
Published 2 August 2015

Local press and social media users in Mexico have identified two of the women that were killed along with a photojournalist, in a case that has drawn world attention.


Two of the four women that were killed last Friday along with the photojournalist Ruben Espinosa, in Mexico City, have been identified by the local press as Yesenia Quiroz and Nadia Vera.

Quiroz was a young student with aspirations and great potential, says Carlos Torres in a tweet that has gone viral on social media. Local media and social media have also identified another victim as Nadia Vera, an activist from Xalapa, the capital of the gulf state of Veracruz. She was visiting Espinoza in Mexico City.

“Yesenia Quiroz alleged victim found along with photojournalist.”

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Two-Women-Indentified-in-Mexicos-Multiple-Murder-Case--20150802-0021.html

[Syzygy321]

5. I wonder what the world was like

before the large-scale drug trade was loosed upon it.

I've always thought that better than "just say no" or "don't give in to peer pressure" we should explain to our kids that buying drugs means taking part in the murder and enslavement of unseen millions. It's wrong, because it's wrong.

[Sunlei]

7. It was really nice in mexico before the USA war on drugs ramped up to the juggernaut it is today.

really nice at all the border crossing towns too, with plenty of Mexican citizen day shoppers spending money at all the American owned border businesses. like loading up shopping baskets at USA target

[Syzygy321]

10. How did the "war on drugs"

make Mexico's cartels more violent against each other and those (like the journalist) who want to expose them? How would Mexico be different today if there had been no US "War on Drugs"?

Not snarking, just trying to understand.

[Sunlei]

11. your question "How would Mexico be different today if there had been no US "War on Drugs"?

your question, "How would Mexico be different today if there had been no US "War on Drugs"? was perfect when placed in a search box, as the answer would take all day to explain so you could understand.

here we go, I placed your question in the search box "How would Mexico be different today if there had been no US "War on Drugs"? there is some great reading here for you.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=How+would+Mexico+be+different+today+if+there+had+been+no+US+%22War+on+Drugs%22%3F

I love the internet and the wealth of information at our fingertips

[MisterP]

8. if the Mexican tomato pickers complained they'd get gunned down by tomato gangsters

presumably cocaine was a lateral step

[tblue37]

12. The war on drugs invited gangster involvement, just as alcohol prohibition did.

Drug addiction should be treated like the medical problem it is. The US incarcerates more of its people than any other country, and a huge number of those inmates are low-level drug users, especially minorities--and often their drug is marijuana, which is much safer than alcohol or cigarettes.

[Syzygy321]

13. Well. Wait a minurlte now...

Drugs have always been illegal (unlike alcohol before prohibition)

Hence, anyone growing them, processong them, running them, or dealing them was by definition a gangster before any American "War on Drugs" was declared. The 'Ndrangheta and the Colombian cocaine runners must have existed before the WoD. Didn't they??

(Hey! I am old enough to remember Sonny Crockett!)

As far most ppl behind bars are there for pot - that would shock and amaze me. Not saying it isn't true; just that's it is not what I imagined and it WAY isn't what I see locally. We are mostly white opiate addicts here...

So: can you cite some sources, for my education?

[tblue37]

16. No, drugs have NOT always been illegal! Coca-Cola has its name because it was originally made with cocaine

in it.

In fact, in the South they referred to coke colloquially as "dope."

These sites provide info about how pot became illegal (and the racist underpinnings of the law):

http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/how-did-marijuana-become-illegal-first-place
http://www.idmu.co.uk/historical.htm

This next article is about how the drug war drives our prison population growth and about the fact that pot is the single drug that sends the largest percentage of users to prison (27.6%):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/war-on-drugs-prisons-infographic_n_4914884.html

America's prisons are dangerously overcrowded, and the war on drugs is mainly to blame.

Over 50 percent of inmates currently in federal prison are there for drug offenses, according to an infographic recently released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (see chart below) <emphasis added>. That percentage has risen fairly consistently over decades, all the way from 16 percent in 1970 <emphasis added>.

<SNIP>

And what was the drug of choice for those convicted of drug offenses? Marijuana, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission (see chart below) <emphasis added>.

Tincture of opium was used as a common pain reliever in 19th century England. That is how Samuel Taylor Coleridge became an addict. He wrote his famous poem "Kubla Khan" after waking from an opium dream.

This page provides info about how and when opiates were made illegal. (At first they were just heavily taxed, but once they were strongly linked to black users by sensationalist articles, they were eventually criminalized):

http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/opiates_outlawed.htm

<SNIP>

These drugs became illegal nationally with the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 which, on its face appears to be only a law to place a tax on these drugs. The intent, however, was to make the taxes and terms prohibitive to all non-medical use. That is, anyone who wasn't getting them through a doctor had to pay a tax and get a license. Then the US Government just made the terms of the taxes and licenses impossible to meet. Therefore, when they arrested someone for possession of opiates or cocaine, they didn't arrest them for possession of drugs. They arrested them for possession of drugs without having paid the tax and/or acquired the license. That is, they were arrested for a "tax" violation.

The prohibition of drugs by the Federal Government was not of appeal to some political interests but were persuaded by lurid reporting such as the following:

~Great Dangers of Heroin - NY Times, January 22,1914
~Boys Wrecked by Heroin, New York Times July 24, 1913
~Negro Cocaine Fiends - New Southern Menace - NYT February 8, 1914

Most members of Congress probably did not realize that they were passing what would be later regarded as a general prohibition law. The prohibition became progressively tighter through the present day with a long series of acts and bureaucratic acts by the Federal Bureau that have increased the criminal penalties steadily since 1914.

At the bottom of the last article I linked to (about opiates) there is a list of other links for further reading.

Furthermore, the superstrict treatment of drug users in other countries was often initiated in response to pressure from the US. So, no, drugs have absolutely not always been illegal, and countries that have stopped imprisoning users but instead spent that money to provide treatment for those who wanted it have seen positive outcomes indeed. (Examples = Portugal and the Netherlands.)

But unfortunately, a lot of people and institutions make a whole lot of money because of the drug war, and with so many powerful, well-connected stakeholders, little things like logic, reason, and evidence have almost no impact on drug policy.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Outstanding response. The best! Thank you for taking the time to write this.

Many of us have seen films run on tv which were originally created in the 30's and forward to attempt to discourage young U.S. Americans from using pot. They are hilarious in their severe dramatics.

[Syzygy321]

18. You are right - yes I was aware that a

Hundred years ago cocaine was legal. Coca cola is said to have had a little coca extract and another drink - maybe 7-up under a previous name - had a touch of lithium.

Obviously those were very different times.

The rising percentage of drug convictions (compared to all other convictions that put people in prison) could indicate overprosecution for silly things ... But obviously it most likely simply indicates the vastly increased prevalence of hard drugs ands once the Age of Aquarius

Have you seen whole communities devastated by drugs - towns where grannies are raising half the kids and parents are found dead of overdoses or get hospitalized with heart valve infections? How about women beaten while the BF was high, or teen girls pregnant because its hard to have good judgment while using, or babies born addicted, to parents who can't hold a job. I see these things. I work in health care in a region with high addiction rates.

Your one-sided views are a red flag. There may be pros to legalizing drugs, but if you fail to address the minuses your argument sounds ill-informed - or, worse, like propaganda.

As an aside: I have children with potential. I dont want them becoming addicted to any substance (incuding legal alcohol or cigarettes) that will hurt their health, cloud their minds, and take their money. And I am glad I never became an addict myself. It doesn't look like a pleasant or easy life.

[tblue37]

19. But there are not enough beds in rehab facilities, and people who need rehab usually can't

afford it anyway. Besides, addiction is not what most people in America think it is. It is usually a response to hopeless circumstances.

Check out Dr. Carl Hart's book on the matter:

High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society
http://www.amazon.com/High-Price-Neuroscientists-Self-Discovery-Challenges/dp/0062015893

This page has a video interview with him (I am also excerpting the first paragraph of the intro to the video on that page):
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/6/drugs_arent_the_problem_neuroscientist_carl

"Drugs Aren’t the Problem": Neuroscientist Carl Hart on Brain Science & Myths About Addiction

As we continue our conversation on the nationwide shift toward liberalizing drug laws, we are joined by the groundbreaking neuropsychopharmacologist Dr. Carl Hart. He is the first tenured African-American professor in the sciences at Columbia University, where he is an associate professor in the psychology and psychiatry departments. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and a research scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. However, long before he entered the hallowed halls of the Ivy League, Hart gained firsthand knowledge about drug usage while growing up in one of Miami’s toughest neighborhoods. He recently wrote a memoir titled "High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society." In the book, he recalls his journey of self-discovery, how he escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies.

I also have two kids, now in their mid-thirties. My kids are tremendously successful professionals and happy with their lives and relationships, but I didn't have to lie to them about drugs to prevent them from being tempted into addiction. I just gave them an enriched, happy childhood so they didn't need drugs to dull pain and hopelessness of the sort that drives so many people into various forms of drug abuse and addiction.

[Syzygy321]

20. It sounds really nice and I would love to

believe it.

And I will keep an open mind and check out those references.

But your claim that addiction only strikes the hopeless doesn't sit well with me.

First off: I know plenty of addicts who simply "tried it and liked it" and later wished to hell they hadn't. Cigarettes most commonly. Are all nicotine addicts self-medicating their empty lives?

Secondly: we all have troubles and anxieties that drugs, at least initially, help with. You don't have to live on the tough side of Miami to want an escape - whether from high-pressure studies or loneliness or strict parents. Deep-down angstiness and anxiety can't be quelled; they are feelings that are part of life and they are stronger in some people than in others (genetics, brain chemistry, circumstances). And drugs make them feel better.

I am glad your kids are doing well. I hope they stay that way. But you imply that addicts' parents could have saved their kids, and I don't think that's a fair conclusion.

[duhneece]

21. Glad you mentioned THE most addictive substance..nicotine

...delivered in tobacco. We were once a nation of smokers, from 55% to 78% depending if you count those who smoke everyday or those who smoke 'only socially' or only when out at a bar/officers' club, etc. to 20% or LESS...all without making it illegal. We regulated cigs, we provided research, education, options like patches, gum, lozenges, Chantix, support groups, trained cessation specialists.

Self medicating from PTSD or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE's) are major causes.

If imprisoning folks worked after 40 years of doing it, we'd know by now; it hasn't. We have changed other nations to conform to our erroneous beliefs through trade agreements and that has created the criminality similar to alcohol prohibition. Check out LEAP Law Enforcement Against Prohibition for more insight.

[Judi Lynn]

14. There's no question you are right. Here's an article I saw instantly looking for more info. on it:

Watch How Quickly The War On Drugs Changed America's Prison Population

Pamela Engel
Apr. 23, 2014, 1:19 PM

America's prisons are extremely overcrowded, and tough-on-crime laws implemented in the 1980s and 1990s contributed heavily to growing the U.S. prison population. The U.S. accounts for only 5% of the world population, but holds 25% of the world's prisoners.

Redditor Sen_Mendoza posted a GIF that shows how dramatically the U.S. prison population changed after President Richard Nixon declared a War on Drugs in the 1970s.

Check it out:[center]

[/center]
The prison population across the U.S. starts off relatively low in the late 1970s, with most states having about 130 to 260 prisoners per 100,000 people. By the late 1990s, incarceration rates have risen to more than 600 prisoners per 100,000 people in some states, including Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. By the 2000s, every state in America had seen its imprisonment rate rise significantly. The prisoners included in the statistics are under state or federal jurisdiction and have a sentence of more than one year.

The War on Drugs, which led to long prison sentences for drug offenders, is largely considered a massive failure that led to prison overcrowding without significantly changing U.S. drug abuse rates.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-war-on-drugs-changed-americas-prison-population-2014-4#ixzz3ikkBoGiX

[Judi Lynn]

15. Interesting time-line in Mexico. Note history after G.W.Bush added US participation in June 2008

through the "Merida Initiative":

[center] ~ ~ ~

June 30 – The Mérida Initiative, a US$1.6 billion security cooperation agreement between the USA and Mexico, announced on October 22, 2007, was signed into law.

~ ~ ~ [center]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Mexican_Drug_War

[Sunlei]

6. not safe to be a journalist in Mexico.or post on social media any 'complaints' against others

Used to love to visit Monterey, Mexico stay at the Holiday Inn hotel on the hill.

Then one time, late at night some gang of men were unlocking, all the rooms looking for someone. They found them before they made it to my room and dragged them off and drove away.

I'll never go back to that hotel again.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. awful