Posts Tagged ‘Veracruz’
Written by admin on 24 September 2011
Veracruz (Mexico), Sep 24 (IANS/EFE) Authorities in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz said they were investigating the case of a 17-year-old journalist who went missing last weekend.
Manuel Fonseca Hernandez, who worked for El Mananero, a daily based in the southeastern city of Acayucan, left his home Saturday to cover a crime story and has not been seen or heard from since, his family members said.
His father, Juan Fonseca Aguirre, reported the disappearance to the authorities after the missing teenager’s family and friends had conducted a fruitless search.
According to the father’s report, the young reporter ‘had a habit of leaving home for two or three days, but he always came back’, the state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
The office’s top prosecutor for the southern region of Veracruz, Clemente Nagasaky Condado Escamilla, issued an order enlisting the state investigation agency’s cooperation in the search for the fledgling journalist.
The youngster went missing in an area of Veracruz traversed by thousands of illegal immigrants, many of whom are extorted or abducted by criminal gangs while en route to the US-Mexico border.
Mexico, where more than 80 journalists have been slain since 2000, according to Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for members of the media.
Tags: Mexico, Veracruz
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Written by admin on 01 August 2011
Veracruz (Mexico), Aug 1 (IANS/EFE) Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, plans to invest $11 billion in oil exploration, production and refining projects in Mexico between now and 2015, an official said.
Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte learned about the Brazilian state-controlled oil giant’s plans during his ongoing tour of Brazil, state government spokeswoman Gina Dominguez said.
Most of the investment will go into petrochemical plants and refineries in Mexico’s Gulf states, Dominguez said.
Petrobras plans to invest in Mexico’s Etileno XXI project in Coatzacoalcos, a port in southern Veracruz.
The project is strategically well situated and employs high-skilled workers, Dominguez said.
The Brazilian company will build an ethanol processing plant for the Etileno XXI project that will have the capacity to produce 1 million tons of ethylene and its derivatives.
The plant will meet a large part of the demand currently covered by imports of petrochemicals from the US.
Output from the new plant will help reduce Mexico’s deficit in ethylene products, Dominguez said.
The Brazilian oil giant is focusing on the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, the Black Sea, southern Portugal and Colombia in its 2011-15 investment plan.
Tags: Mexico, Veracruz
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Written by admin on 27 July 2011
Veracruz (Mexico), July 27 (IANS/EFE) A journalist who had been kidnapped over the weekend was found dead Tuesday in Boca del Rio, a city outside the Mexican Gulf port of Veracruz, officials said.
Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz was beheaded and appeared to have been tortured, a Veracruz state government spokesman told EFE.
Ordaz de la Cruz worked for the daily Notiver, which specialises in covering drug and security issues in Veracruz and Boca del Rio, located about 300 km east of Mexico City.
The reporter’s body was dumped around 4 a.m. in the street behind the offices of the Imagen de Veracruz newspaper in Boca del Rio’s Jardines del Virginia section.
Ordaz de la Cruz, who had written about the war on drugs and the police beat, was kidnapped last Saturday by gunmen, Notiver reported.
‘Everything points to the (murder) being carried out by members of an organised crime group and this line of investigation will be pursued to the end,’ Veracruz Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez said.
Investigators are looking at the possibility that Ordaz de la Cruz may have had links to a drug cartel and was killed for this reason, Escobar Perez said.
A message was left with the reporter’s body that referred to a possible betrayal by Ordaz de la Cruz of a cartel, the state AG said.
Investigators are looking for Juan Carlos Carranza Saavedra, a suspected member of the Los Zetas drug cartel, whose name was mentioned in the message, state officials said.
Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel have been fighting for control of drug trafficking, merchandise smuggling and people trafficking in the region.
Journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, who also covered the crime beat for Notiver, was gunned down June 20 along with his wife and son in Veracruz.
The 55-year-old Lopez Velasco, known as Milo Vela, was killed at his residence in the port city.
Since 2000, 71 journalists have been murdered and 13 others have gone missing in Mexico, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, Mexico’s equivalent of an ombudsman’s office, said in a report released in May to mark World Press Freedom Day.
Tags: Mexico, Veracruz
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Written by admin on 21 June 2011
Veracruz (Mexico), June 21 (IANS/EFE) Journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, who covered security issues, was gunned down along with his wife and son in Veracruz, a port city on Mexico’s Gulf coast, officials said.
The 55-year-old Lopez Velasco, known as Milo Vela, was killed Monday at his residence in the city, located about 300 km east of Mexico City, Veracruz state officials said.
Gunmen broke into the journalist’s house in the Playa Linda section of Veracruz around 6 a.m. and killed him, his wife, Agustina Solano, and their son, Misael Lopez Solana, 21.
Lopez Velasco worked for the daily Notiver, which has the largest circulation in this part of Mexico, covering security matters and drug trafficking.
The newspaper expressed regret over the triple-murder and called on officials to clear up the case in an article posted on its web site.
‘Notiver demands a quick and clear investigation that follows the law to immediately find those responsible for this triple-murder and punish them with the full weight of the law, regardless of who goes down,’ the newspaper said.
Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte de Ochoa condemned the killings and ordered Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez to investigate the case thoroughly and clear up what happened as soon as possible.
The state government supports the work of journalists and there is no tolerance in Veracruz for crime and impunity, the governor said in a statement.
The Lopez Velasco case ‘will be investigated until the final consequences’, Duarte said.
The governor later visited the Notiver offices, where he expressed his condolences to the slain journalist’s colleagues and assured them this was an attack against Veracruz’s society and not just against a member of the press.
‘This is not an isolated incident, it is part of a series of actions and is linked to the presence of criminal organisations. This reflects what is happening across the country and Veracruz, obviously, is not escaping these actions,’ Duarte said.
Since 2000, 68 journalists have been murdered and 13 others have gone missing in Mexico, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, Mexico’s equivalent of an ombudsman’s office, said in a report released last month to mark World Press Freedom Day.
Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists in the past few years, and the most dangerous country for members of the media in Latin America, non-governmental organizations say.
Authorities have not solved any of the cases of the journalists listed as missing since 2005 in Mexico, the Inter American Press Association, or IAPA, said in a report released last November.
Tags: Mexico, Veracruz
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Written by admin on 25 February 2010
Veracruz (Mexico), Feb 25 (IANS/EFE) Mel Gibson visited a prison in the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz where shooting for one of his upcoming films will take place.
The actor, filmmaker and producer, accompanied by several members of the film crew, Tuesday meticulously toured the grounds of the Ignacio Allende prison in Veracruz, a port city some 400 km east of Mexico City.
Close to 1,000 inmates were relocated to another facility in January to clear the way for the production, sparking protests by relatives of the prisoners.
Filming is scheduled to begin March 22 with Adrian Grunberg directing and Gibson in the starring role; according to Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera, the project is tentatively titled ‘How I Spent My Summer Vacation’.
Written by Gibson, Grunberg and Stacy Perskie, it will tell the story of a career criminal, played by Gibson, who is finally tracked down by authorities and thrown into a brutal, drug-infested prison where he will need the help of a nine-year-old boy to survive.
Herrera told Mexican media that the shooting will last 12 weeks and that the project will create 11,000 jobs in Veracruz.
‘Mel Gibson is delighted when he comes to Veracuz. The people are thrilled. They’re going to hire 11,000 workers, which means income for the extras; and the Mexican actors who arrived with him are pleased with the quality of the Veracruz actors and actresses,’ the governor said.
The Australian-American movie star conducted an initial inspection of the prison on Sunday in the company of Herrera, officials said.
The process of choosing at least 5,000 extras to participate in the film began last week. They will be paid between 400-500 pesos (about $39) a day, Casting Director Julio Toledo said.
In 2006, Gibson filmed the Mayan epic ‘Apocalypto’ in various parts of Veracruz state – the jungle regions of San Andres Tuxtla, Catemaco and Nanciyaga, as well as in Paso de Ovejas and La Antigua.
–IANS/EFE
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Tags: Mexico, Veracruz
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Written by admin on 15 February 2010
Veracruz (Mexico), Feb 15 (IANS/EFE) A Catholic priest arrested last year for his alleged participation in a child-pornography ring operating via the Internet has been released due to lack of evidence in the case, a church spokesman said.
Rafael Muniz Lopez, who was assigned to St. Peter Apostle Church in Xalapa, the capital of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, was released without charges Friday and left the Mexico City jail where he was being held.
A criminal court judge in the federal district ordered Muniz’s immediate release ‘due to insufficient evidence’ that the priest was involved in organised crime, Archdiocese of Xalapa public affairs office director Jose Juan Sanchez Jacome said.
The investigation that led to the priest’s arrest began in March 2009, when Mexico City prosecutors discovered an e-mail containing images of sex acts involving minors.
The federal district prosecutor’s office arrested seven suspects April 17, 2009.
Muniz and his brother, Francisco Javier, were identified as suspected members of the Internet child-pornography ring.
On a web page link included in the e-mail investigators noted ‘scenes of explicit sex between adults and girls and boys from 0 to 10 years old’, the prosecutor’s office had said.
Police tracked the website to Luis Alejandro Vergara, at whose Mexico City home they found a large amount of child pornography.
Vergara, who confessed to rape and sexual abuse, was an employee of Mexico’s foreign relations secretariat.
Information on Vergara’s computer led police to six other individuals in five different Mexican states, including Muniz and his brother.
Francisco Javier Muniz Lopez was released a few days after his arrest.
Five of the other suspects in the case are still being held by authorities.
–IANS/EFE
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Tags: Mexico, Veracruz
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