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| Reporter Ezequiel Flores Contreras Photo: José Luis de la Cruza Cruz |
While a group of reporters protested outside the headquarters of the Guerrero Congress to condemn the murder of the Veracruz journalist Anabel Flores, former state congressional deputy and member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Roger Arellano Sotelo, allegedly linked to organized crime, threatened to kill Proceso's correspondent in Guerrero, Ezequiel Flores Contreras [the journalist had written stories on this possible connection].
The incident took place around 11:00 am, when Arellano Sotelo, who was driving a blue Jetta with tinted windows, approached the demonstration, rolled down the passenger-side window and spoke to Flores Contreras.
"Hey. Be careful, bastard, because you're going to be fucked. Don't you remember me? I'm telling you, asshole, go fuck yourself."The former mayor of the municipality of General Canuto A. Neri has been noted in official reports and publicly for his ties to La Familia criminal group operating in the north of the state, directed by Johny "El Mojarro" Hurtado Olascoaga.
The reporter called on Arellano Sotelo to get out of his car. However, he opted to leave the area in response to the distress of the journalists who witnessed the threat being launched by the former deputy.
After the incident, the correspondent Process went to the offices of the federal Attorney General (PGR), in the capital, where public ministry officials [investigators] opened a file for the crime of threats made by the ex-legislator.
Reporter's Story of PRD Links to Organized Crime
For four years, Proceso has documented Roger Arellano's alleged links with operators of the criminal group, La Familia. In a report published by the magazine in October 2012 entitled " Guerrero: narco contagion authorities" ["Drug Traffickers Infect Authorities," written by Flores Contreras] it was revealed that for former governor Angel Aguirre* the web of connections involving criminals and local authorities in the north of the state was not unknown. [The following is from the cited article]
Aguirre Rivero began his campaign for governor in Teloloapan in November 2010 and at that time he was invited to a meal in the San Andrés ranch, owned by Bernardo Lagunas Contreras, a hotel owner and fond of horses.The banquet was hosted by Santana Rios Bahena, known producer of melons. Both have been singled out for their alleged links to drug trafficking, according to official reports consulted by the weekly.
The meeting had been arranged by the current PRD Senator Sofío Ramirez was promoted by a group of politicians, also of the PRD, who were jockeying for positions in the north to keep the party's reserves of power.
The group brought together the New Majority current of PRD and the Guerrero Group, headed by the current mayor of Acapulco, Evodius Velasquez, David Jimenez Rumbo, a congressman and former mayor of Teloloapan, and the former federal deputy Marino Miranda. Miranda left as his successor his friend, former state deputy Ignacio Valladares. He, in turn, appointed as his replacement Rogelio Contreras Lagunas, brother of Bernardo.
Similarly, Roger Sotelo Arellano, the former mayor of General Canuto A. Neri, when he became a state deputy, left as his successor at city hall Eleuterio Salgado Aranda, "El Solitario del Sur" [The Loner of the South, his nickname as a music performer], who was the municipality's police chief and singer of narcocorridos [narco-ballads] which exalt La Familia.
Consulted by Proceso [Ezequiel Flores Contreras], Governor Aguirre acknowlwedged that this group of PRD politicians had invited him to eat with suspected drug traffickers Bernardo Lagunas and Santana Ríos, but said that, in the end, he did not attend the meeting.
"I received some invitations but did not go to that place (Rancho San Andrés) and, besides, in a campaign you often receive greetings from people whom you don't know who they are, nor do you have reason to know that. You don't have investigative functions at the time. Of course, I absolutely and totally disavowed any connection with those people, " Aguirre said at the time.Spanish original
*MV Note: Angel Aguirre Rivero was a federal congressional deputy representing Guerrero from 1991 to 94 and, from 1993 to 1996 state President of the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution]. In March 1996, the then governor, Rubén Figueroa Alcocer, requested to leave his post due to the Aguas Blancas massacre, where peasants were murdered by agents of the state police ini Aguas Blancas, municipality of Coyuca de Benitez. The Congress of Guerrero Governor appointed Aguirre as interim governor to finish the term ending in March 1999.
In 2003, Aguirre was elected again as a federal deputy. In 2006 he became a senator for a six-year term. In August 2010, he took leave from his senatorship and announced that he was leaving the PRI to become the PRD candidate for governor of Guerrero, as the PRI had failed to back him for the nomination. He won and took office on Apri 1, 2011. He resigned in October 2014, in the face of the attacks on and disappearance of the Ayotzinapa normal school students that September and his relationship with the PRD mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, now being held on charges of directing the municipal police to attack the students.