Man these Mexican drug cartels don't play
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A Talented One
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Mexican militiaman and his family killed after speaking out
By Joshua Partlow
MEXICO CITY — We saw his kids first and broke out laughing. You couldn’t look at their angelic, chubby, giggling faces without smiling. They could barely see over the dashboard of the red truck they were driving.
And yet these two boys, José Santiago Perez, 16, and Bernabe Perez, 14, were the emissaries the ex-drug cartel henchman had sent to fetch us.
Dominic Bracco, a photographer, and I met the kids last month in a dirt lot outside a corral in the Mexican state of Michoacan. We were there to write about a citizen militia that formed to drive out a drug gang but was turning into something more sinister.
Their father, José Santiago Valencia Sandoval, had experienced both sides of this conflict. He had worked for the Knights Templar cartel, then defected to join the militia when it started in the little hillside town of Tepalcatepec more than a year ago. He agreed to meet.
After so many years and tens of thousands of deaths, the drug war still casts a long shadow over Mexico. Whole swaths of the country — the states of Michoacan and Tamaulipas, the cities along the U.S. border — live by the rules of cartels that now do far more than transport drugs. There is the anxiety of random violence, the frustration of forced cartel taxes, the fear of kidnapping or worse.
In his first year in office, the new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, wanted to change Mexico’s image from a country at war to a rising economic power. But it wasn’t long before he reverted to deploying soldiers to patrol streets where the main authority has been the mafia’s teenage spotters with their two-way radios. In these places, where the police can be more dangerous than the outlaws, and politics and crime go hand in hand, there is little hope that Mexico’s enduring curse is ending. In this world of shifting alliances, it is hard to know what to believe or whom to trust.
Like his kids, Valencia was not what I was expecting. He was training a prancing horse and listening to ranchero music when we pulled into his yard. In his living room, decorated with his hunting trophies, he cracked open beers and told amazing tales in his breezy way: how he faked his own death by pouring red paint down his neck to elude an assassin. How he recorded himself in a video tell-all he planned to have sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration in the event of his murder.
Last week, that day arrived.
Valencia and his wife, Blanca, the two boys and his 11-year-old daughter, Bianca — who had all fed us tacos and hosted us generously at their home — were stopped while they were driving in their red truck in the neighboring state of Jalisco. The YouTube videos taken later show the vehicle littered with bullet holes. The attorney general’s office reported that there were signs of torture on the corpses. Nobody survived.
When we met him, Valencia had not seemed fazed by the dangers he faced, but he was serious about the problems in his home town. He felt the militia movement that has spread across Michoacan — supported by the Mexican government — was being corrupted by the New Generation drug cartel out of Jalisco. The group he had joined, he said, was becoming a front for criminals and could end up as rotten and abusive as the cartel he had left.
“I do not tolerate injustice, and I am not going to represent something that I am fighting,” he told us. “I want to send that message through the media.”
He knew he was a target.
“We feel threatened by certain people within the movement,” he told us.
About three weeks after we published our story about him, Valencia called our office in Mexico City. By then, I had become Facebook friends with his sons. I noticed that their hobbies and photos reflected the environment that had raised them: José’s profile picture was a black SUV with tinted windows, his younger brother’s a high-powered rifle.
Both Dominic and I were traveling, and Valencia left messages that he had something “good” to show us. When pressed for details over the next few days, he mentioned he had a recording of the mayor of his home town, Tepalcatepec, that showed all the “trash and corruption of the government.” The next time we went to Michoacan, he told our office manager, we needed to visit him.
We called him back when we returned to Mexico City. He didn’t answer his phone. And then we noticed his name.
The killing of Valencia and his family merited barely a blip in the news of Mexico. But for us it felt tragic and disorienting. Had the article put him in greater danger? Had he been killed because of the recording he was trying to release? He had betrayed a drug cartel (one he told us he served against his will) and presumably had many enemies. Had his luck simply run out?
And why ? the children?
Dominic wrote in an e-mail to me after this that “the real tragedy is that it had seemed he was finally escaping this life through the self-defense groups, but it turned out that they were becoming their own mafia — or well on their way. Later he set out trying to let people know, as a way to fix this place.”
Most murder cases in Mexico are not solved. Relatives of the victims must live with their questions. On his couch at home, with his sons tumbling all over him, Valencia told us that he hoped speaking out would make people “correct their ways.” If they didn’t, he said, “I’m going to call you and give you first and last names, to send into the light of the world.”
Now his name is in the sunlight. And theirs live on in darkness.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexican-militiaman-and-his-family-killed-after-speaking-out/2014/06/27/16072be6-3dbb-4076-8da8-9ed0a3c8ccda_story.html
By Joshua Partlow
MEXICO CITY — We saw his kids first and broke out laughing. You couldn’t look at their angelic, chubby, giggling faces without smiling. They could barely see over the dashboard of the red truck they were driving.
And yet these two boys, José Santiago Perez, 16, and Bernabe Perez, 14, were the emissaries the ex-drug cartel henchman had sent to fetch us.
Dominic Bracco, a photographer, and I met the kids last month in a dirt lot outside a corral in the Mexican state of Michoacan. We were there to write about a citizen militia that formed to drive out a drug gang but was turning into something more sinister.
Their father, José Santiago Valencia Sandoval, had experienced both sides of this conflict. He had worked for the Knights Templar cartel, then defected to join the militia when it started in the little hillside town of Tepalcatepec more than a year ago. He agreed to meet.
After so many years and tens of thousands of deaths, the drug war still casts a long shadow over Mexico. Whole swaths of the country — the states of Michoacan and Tamaulipas, the cities along the U.S. border — live by the rules of cartels that now do far more than transport drugs. There is the anxiety of random violence, the frustration of forced cartel taxes, the fear of kidnapping or worse.
In his first year in office, the new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, wanted to change Mexico’s image from a country at war to a rising economic power. But it wasn’t long before he reverted to deploying soldiers to patrol streets where the main authority has been the mafia’s teenage spotters with their two-way radios. In these places, where the police can be more dangerous than the outlaws, and politics and crime go hand in hand, there is little hope that Mexico’s enduring curse is ending. In this world of shifting alliances, it is hard to know what to believe or whom to trust.
Like his kids, Valencia was not what I was expecting. He was training a prancing horse and listening to ranchero music when we pulled into his yard. In his living room, decorated with his hunting trophies, he cracked open beers and told amazing tales in his breezy way: how he faked his own death by pouring red paint down his neck to elude an assassin. How he recorded himself in a video tell-all he planned to have sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration in the event of his murder.
Last week, that day arrived.
Valencia and his wife, Blanca, the two boys and his 11-year-old daughter, Bianca — who had all fed us tacos and hosted us generously at their home — were stopped while they were driving in their red truck in the neighboring state of Jalisco. The YouTube videos taken later show the vehicle littered with bullet holes. The attorney general’s office reported that there were signs of torture on the corpses. Nobody survived.
When we met him, Valencia had not seemed fazed by the dangers he faced, but he was serious about the problems in his home town. He felt the militia movement that has spread across Michoacan — supported by the Mexican government — was being corrupted by the New Generation drug cartel out of Jalisco. The group he had joined, he said, was becoming a front for criminals and could end up as rotten and abusive as the cartel he had left.
“I do not tolerate injustice, and I am not going to represent something that I am fighting,” he told us. “I want to send that message through the media.”
He knew he was a target.
“We feel threatened by certain people within the movement,” he told us.
About three weeks after we published our story about him, Valencia called our office in Mexico City. By then, I had become Facebook friends with his sons. I noticed that their hobbies and photos reflected the environment that had raised them: José’s profile picture was a black SUV with tinted windows, his younger brother’s a high-powered rifle.
Both Dominic and I were traveling, and Valencia left messages that he had something “good” to show us. When pressed for details over the next few days, he mentioned he had a recording of the mayor of his home town, Tepalcatepec, that showed all the “trash and corruption of the government.” The next time we went to Michoacan, he told our office manager, we needed to visit him.
We called him back when we returned to Mexico City. He didn’t answer his phone. And then we noticed his name.
The killing of Valencia and his family merited barely a blip in the news of Mexico. But for us it felt tragic and disorienting. Had the article put him in greater danger? Had he been killed because of the recording he was trying to release? He had betrayed a drug cartel (one he told us he served against his will) and presumably had many enemies. Had his luck simply run out?
And why ? the children?
Dominic wrote in an e-mail to me after this that “the real tragedy is that it had seemed he was finally escaping this life through the self-defense groups, but it turned out that they were becoming their own mafia — or well on their way. Later he set out trying to let people know, as a way to fix this place.”
Most murder cases in Mexico are not solved. Relatives of the victims must live with their questions. On his couch at home, with his sons tumbling all over him, Valencia told us that he hoped speaking out would make people “correct their ways.” If they didn’t, he said, “I’m going to call you and give you first and last names, to send into the light of the world.”
Now his name is in the sunlight. And theirs live on in darkness.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexican-militiaman-and-his-family-killed-after-speaking-out/2014/06/27/16072be6-3dbb-4076-8da8-9ed0a3c8ccda_story.html
Comments
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No after picture ?
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They killing women and children they dont give a ? .
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I came for the pics
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"Valencia's boyfriend Volvo had me makin moves..."When we met him, Valencia had not seemed fazed by the dangers he faced
-JayZ -
I feel like we live in what seems as a different world than others sometimes
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? he thought was gon happen tho? Who in their right mind thinks they can make a righteous difference when they're up against generations upon generations of savages?
The cartels are damn near the equivalent of the Arab oil sheikhs. Money on top of money and control of one of the most in demand resources.
Only reason Latino countries haven't become a global force is the ban on their #1 export; ? .
Then you got this ? jeopardizing himself and his family bcuz he thinks he's poncho villa or che Guerra.
This is just another case of misdirected good intentions. If he really wanted to do the right thing he would have brought his family and himself to America and started a landscaping company or opened a taco stand. -
"Valencia's boyfriend Volvo had me makin moves..."When we met him, Valencia had not seemed fazed by the dangers he faced
-JayZ
You need help lol
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GAHDZILLAH wrote: »? he thought was gon happen tho? Who in their right mind thinks they can make a righteous difference when they're up against generations upon generations of savages?
The cartels are damn near the equivalent of the Arab oil sheikhs. Money on top of money and control of one of the most in demand resources.
Only reason Latino countries haven't become a global force is the ban on their #1 export; ? .
Then you got this ? jeopardizing himself and his family bcuz he thinks he's poncho villa or che Guerra.
This is just another case of misdirected good intentions. If he really wanted to do the right thing he would have brought his family and himself to America and started a landscaping company or opened a taco stand.
The Cartel got hittas in the states too. -
I could solve this whole drug cartel business in a few years if i had the power.
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Foh. He was a nobody that probably didn't do ? but work transport and do pick-ups.
If he kept his mouth closed and his cape in dresser, he probably could have immigrated to America with no issues.
Yeah the cartels are here but they don't give a ? about non factors. He made himself and his family targets. -
Valencia and his wife, Blanca, the two boys and his 11-year-old daughter, Bianca — who had all fed us tacos
.GAHDZILLAH wrote: »? he thought was gon happen tho? Who in their right mind thinks they can make a righteous difference when they're up against generations upon generations of savages?
The cartels are damn near the equivalent of the Arab oil sheikhs. Money on top of money and control of one of the most in demand resources.
Only reason Latino countries haven't become a global force is the ban on their #1 export; ? .
Then you got this ? jeopardizing himself and his family bcuz he thinks he's poncho villa or che Guerra.
This is just another case of misdirected good intentions. If he really wanted to do the right thing he would have brought his family and himself to America and started a landscaping company or opened a taco stand.
shut ya scary mushed mouth up, ? .
He knew what he was doing and so did his wife. And they made their choice.
Change start somewhere, & this is the price you may have to pay , and they were cool with it.
? think change is waiting on a muthafucka to have an epihanny . Naw negroe u got to make change. -
? please. You sound stupid and naive.
That ? you talking doesn't fly in the new world. This ain't Hollywood. The villain wins. You want justice and peace? Go sacrifice yourself and see what type of change it's gonna bring. Billions populate this earth. You're a grain of sand like the rest of us. You want change? Go to the bank ? . That's the only change that matters in the new world. -
GAHDZILLAH wrote: »? please. You sound stupid and naive.
That ? you talking doesn't fly in the new world. This ain't Hollywood. The villain wins. You want justice and peace? Go sacrifice yourself and see what type of change it's gonna bring. Billions populate this earth. You're a grain of sand like the rest of us. You want change? Go to the bank ? . That's the only change that matters in the new world.
Projection is a ? , u the one who think life is a movie.
Its all about starting some where, change happens everday .all it needs is a spark.
I give the guy props for wanting to see change.Some ppl rather die , than live like cowards.
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He died a fool along side his family. There's no honor in ? choices.
He was thinking with his foolish pride and didn't give a ? about the safety of his children.
The cartels are known for killing politicians, children, women, anybody that gets in their way. He's giving interviews and training show horses like the cartels are just gonna turn a blind eye.
Where is the honor in his stupidity?
I hope you're trolling, bro. You can't be this stupid to not know he would never bring change and putting his family on the chopping block is the only thing he accomplished.
It's gonna take more than his "sacrifice" to change things. Grow up my ? . You're blind to reality. -
Valencia and his wife, Blanca, the two boys and his 11-year-old daughter, Bianca — who had all fed us tacos
.GAHDZILLAH wrote: »? he thought was gon happen tho? Who in their right mind thinks they can make a righteous difference when they're up against generations upon generations of savages?
The cartels are damn near the equivalent of the Arab oil sheikhs. Money on top of money and control of one of the most in demand resources.
Only reason Latino countries haven't become a global force is the ban on their #1 export; ? .
Then you got this ? jeopardizing himself and his family bcuz he thinks he's poncho villa or che Guerra.
This is just another case of misdirected good intentions. If he really wanted to do the right thing he would have brought his family and himself to America and started a landscaping company or opened a taco stand.
shut ya scary mushed mouth up, ? .
He knew what he was doing and so did his wife. And they made their choice.
Change start somewhere, & this is the price you may have to pay , and they were cool with it.
? think change is waiting on a muthafucka to have an epihanny . Naw negroe u got to make change.
Stop it. There is nothing noble about getting your wife and children killed. You can make that choice for yourself. You don't make it for your kids. -
I still wanna know how the ? i can join
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Wtf does that mean
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exactly
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Some of them ? speak English, them ? in the states too, dont get confused
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Wtf does that mean
Damn plap you that slow,I know you saw those two words in the same sentence. -
A Talented One wrote: »Mexican militiaman and his family killed after speaking out...
Their father, José Santiago Valencia Sandoval, had experienced both sides of this conflict. He had worked for the Knights Templar cartel, then defected to join the militia when it started in the little hillside town of Tepalcatepec more than a year ago. He agreed to meet.
After so many years and tens of thousands of deaths, the drug war still casts a long shadow over Mexico. Whole swaths of the country — the states of Michoacan and Tamaulipas, the cities along the U.S. border — live by the rules of cartels that now do far more than transport drugs. There is the anxiety of random violence, the frustration of forced cartel taxes, the fear of kidnapping or worse...
Like his kids, Valencia was not what I was expecting. He was training a prancing horse and listening to ranchero music when we pulled into his yard. In his living room, decorated with his hunting trophies, he cracked open beers and told amazing tales in his breezy way: how he faked his own death by pouring red paint down his neck to elude an assassin. How he recorded himself in a video tell-all he planned to have sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration in the event of his murder.
Last week, that day arrived...
About three weeks after we published our story about him, Valencia called our office in Mexico City...
Both Dominic and I were traveling, and Valencia left messages that he had something “good” to show us. When pressed for details over the next few days, he mentioned he had a recording of the mayor of his home town, Tepalcatepec, that showed all the “trash and corruption of the government.” The next time we went to Michoacan, he told our office manager, we needed to visit him etc.
After reading the article, he's comes off as a snitch. It seems like he was a criminal trying to tell on other criminals because he (all of sudden) had a "change of heart."
Also, if he was really trying to make a difference, he would have kept it on the humble.
Real power move quiet, through the understanding and the science -
he was a crooked snitch who played both sides. he need to learn that cartels on another level. u pull a ti and aint no jew music executives or FBI protecting your snitch ass.
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Dea works with cartel they woulda used him anyways
