Part I of article
This event put the Army at clear risk and should be one of the main lines of investigation to be followed by the Attorney General of the State of Veracruz. But, as he has in each and every one of the 16 cases of journalists killed under the government of Javier Duarte, the Prosecutor opted for criminalizing her: in a press statement, he reported that he will investigate whether Flores Salazar had criminal links as a possible motive for the crime.
Starting from the fact that the reporter tried to photograph, with her cellphone, soldiers carrying off Victor Osorio Santacruz and other two men from a restaurant on August 30, 2014, the Prosecutor does not deduce reasons for believing that her murder could have been an act of retaliation or elimination of witnesses, but assumes that she had a relationship with Osorio, an alleged member of the Zetas cartel.
The Prosecutor lied: he stated that Flores was arrested with Osorio. It didn't happen like that. To dispel doubts, they could go question Osorio, but it will be difficult if he was disappeared under military custody.
On August 30, 2014, Victor Osorio Santacruz, Miguel López and Delfino Hernández Falcón were having breakfast at Jaimito's Restaurant, in the community of Sierra de Agua, municipality of Acultzingo, Veracruz. Osorio, a former municipal policeman and an alleged member of the Zetas, had already been arrested in 2010, but somehow was freed. His wife, Norma Albor Cano, and her companion, Yadira García Chávez, related to Lourdes López, a correspondent for Excelsior newspaper what happened, starting with what witnesses told them: soldiers entered and forced diners to get to the kitchen or lie on the floor:
"It was a real ruckus, because there were more than 100 people—that restaurant is always full."There was "a reporter" who
"upon seeing them hitting someone, begins to take pictures with her cell phone when a soldier goes up to her, snatches her cellphone together with the (press) badge and removes three people, including my husband, roughs them up and takes them away."
The detainees' wives began to tour the hospitals, agencies of the Public Ministry [prosecutor's offices] and the regional Army headquarters. At City Hall, where there is a military office, they had a verbal confrontation with several military personnel who took pictures of the women and the women of them. According to the text, later, when they showed the photos to the reporter, she was able to recognize them as the ones who took the threesome, despite the fact that they had their faces covered.
The regional and state Public Ministry [Public Prosecutors] declared themselves incapable of taking the case. It took the wives two months to get the PGR [federal Office of the Attorney General] to send someone to review the matter.
The identity of "the reporter" was kept anonymous. Although her press badge was left in the hands of the soldiers, it was clear that she had not been arrested with the three now disappeared. Sra. Albor does not mention that she or her husband knew the reporter before the incident.
Then, in the pre-dawn hours of this past Monday, February 8, men in military uniform, with rifles, helmets, balaclavas and bulletproof vests, arrived at the house of Anabel Flores Salazar, in the municipality of Mariano Escobedo, with a supposed arrest warrant and took her. On Tuesday her body was found on a nearby road.
The presence of Anabel Flores at the incident in "Jaimito's" restaurant was disclosed by the Prosecutor: they detained her with Osorio, he said. It was Anabel's aunt, Sandra Luz Morales, in an interview with Eirinet Gómez, with La Jornada, who contradicted the [Prosecutor's] story.
Anabel Flores was "the reporter" who had tried to photograph the soldiers when they carried away three men of whom no one would know anything more. The aunt denies that Anabel had been arrested or that she knew Osorio. Several members of her family had gone there to celebrate Anabel's birthday:
"According to the authorities, she had a meeting on that date with that person, but since she was with us, when did she meet him?"
*Témoris Grecko, Mexican freelance journalist, has written articles and reports in 91 countries and territories, including conflicts in Egypt, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Congo and the Philippines; and the deserts of Central Asia, India and Africa. He has worked for various international media, including Esquire and National Geographic Traveler (editions for Latin America), Proceso magazine, Domingo and Quo magazines, and the daily newspapers La Nacion (Buenos Aires) and El Periódico de Catalunya (Barcelona), among others. Blog "Storyseeker" (Spanish/English): Témoris Grecko.