“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
According to the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), the four men who attacked three tourists from Mexicali in La Rumorosa are members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
After the young men went to Tecate for a UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) festival and headed to La Rumorosa to have their photo taken on the recently inaugurated Jaime Maussan street, the criminals accosted them, chased them, shot them, and took one of them, Fernando, away. His body appeared days later in the State Capital, handcuffed, tortured and decapitated.
Relatives of Fernando conducted a search campaign on social networks, and later reported that he had been found dead, with the premise that the young Fernando was a graduate of the UABC, a medical worker, with no ties to organized crime, and a tourist in his state.
In this context, the FGE pressed its investigation. They conducted searches and sweeps in Tecate and the town of La Rumorosa to identify the attackers. In the investigation, they located persons of interest who provided information about the killers, including names and photographs of them.
Among them, two in particular, who have only been identified by nicknames, such as “El Cholo” and “El Wacho”, who according to the investigations, are dedicated to human trafficking, drug dealing and fuel theft in the area known as “Las Cabañas”, where they have vigilantes at the entrance of the town and in the mountains.
They also have as criminal accomplices others identified as “El Catracho”, Cristian Parra and a woman named Figueroa.
As to the motive of the aggression in which the three young men were shot and one was killed, so far the investigators say two things: that after reprimanding the tourists, they thought that they had alerted the police, and two, that they mistook them for their criminal competition.
THE ATTACK
Minutes before midnight on Friday, November 11, Fernando and two friends, a woman – a teacher – and a man dedicated to photography, arrived at La Rumorosa. They were from Mexicali and had come to Tecate for the UFO Fest.
They decided to stop for a photo at the newly named Jaime Maussan Flota Street, on Kilometer 73.
While they were joking and taking pictures of each other, men on board a white Nissan March vehcile intercepted them and, with expletives, questioned them about what they were doing there.
Upon seeing that the men were armed, Fernando and his companions returned to their vehicle, a white Hyundai vehicle with California state plates, attempting to drive to Tecate, but their attackers followed them, firing several shots at the vehicle.
Fernando, who was driving, lost control when he was hit by one of the bullets. The car went off the road and landed in a ditch. The four attackers got out of the car and opened fire on the young men, grabbing Fernando and then taking him away.
The female and male companions were wounded and were taken to a Tecate hospital by municipal police.
The municipal report indicates:.
“Upon arriving at the scene they noticed a white Hyundai vehicle with California plates, which was in a ditch. The vehicle was hit at least fifteen times by bullets of various calibers. When they approached they heard a male person asking for help, when they approached the injured man he said his name was Jorge, 28 years old, and said he had a gunshot wound in one leg and in the shoulder (…) they caught up with them and lost control, shooting at them with long weapons, wounding his two companions and taking the aforementioned driver, without knowing where”. They killed him.
A person close to the victim’s family explained: “Nothing was heard of Fernando until yesterday (Tuesday, November 15) when he was located, you know how, he was a good boy, he didn’t do anything to anyone, he studied, he went to the UABC, sometimes he seemed very serious but he was cheerful. What do we do, listen, there is no law, there is no justice, the delinquents killed him for taking a picture that at the beginning was taken as a joke. Today it was someone’s son, how many children, fathers, mothers, neighbors… how many are needed for the authorities to do something, for a photo they did all that, who is going to put a stop to the bad guys, you tell me, who”.
Fernando’s father announced that his son’s body had been located: “Colleagues, I found my son, unfortunately they killed him, do not go to La Rumorosa or let your family go, it is a lawless land, and the authorities do not bring it to light because they don’t want to lose tourism, but every day there are kidnappings, today it happened to my family, take care of yours”, wrote Fernando Alushe in social networks.
The body of Fernando, a graduate in bioengineering from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) who worked in the medical sector, was found on Tuesday, November 15 at 7:23 a.m., next to the Centinela Cemetery in Mexicali, near a water plant.
Authorities received a report of a bundle tied up in a black bag. When they opened it, they discovered that it was a man who had been decapitated. The head was at the level of the calves, the bound body had visible signs of torture. He was wearing blue jeans, a black T-shirt, work boots and a black leather jacket. He was identified by his curly black hair and a tribal tattoo on his forearm.
24 hours before Fernando’s abduction, at a press conference for the inauguration of Jaime Maussan Flota Street, Mayor Dario Benitez assured that high impact crimes had already been eradicated in that area.
“The truth is that we have practically no longer had the presence of high impact crimes, fortunately, and we owe this thanks to the coordination with the Federal Government, the presence of Sedena and the National Guard has been fruitful in areas such as… La Rumorosa. Today the statistics tell us that in that area high impact crimes have been reduced in their totality”, said the municipal president of Tecate.
The statements contrast with the numbers of kidnappings and disappearances currently reported. Just in October, on October 3 and 19, search groups in Tecate reported the location of skeletons in the area and there are active search records of young people and adults who have been taken away.
In this regard, a member of these collectives told ZETA: “Out of fear many families like me do not denounce, we are alone, we can only try to locate our family members to give them a Christian burial, to denounce is to throw a problem on yourself, we no longer trust the authorities”.
In previous editions, this Weekly has presented the cases of the bodies of at least four people found on the borders of Tecate and Mexicali, just down the road from La Rumorosa, with apparent signs of torture.
The three bodies were piled up on the side of the road; they were found half naked and with duct tape ties on their arms, black bags covered their faces. Elements of the State Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the bodies had gunshot wounds in various parts of the body.
In spite of the violence rates and the flow of tourists in the area, the town of La Rumorosa only has one Municipal Police unit, which is in charge of Jacumé and El Hongo as a security strategy of the current director of Tecate’s Public Security and Municipal Transit Directorate, José Manuel Márquez.
Fernando’s companion, Jorge, was identified as a collaborator of PAN congresswoman Alejandrina Corral Quintero, who on Sunday, November 13, issued a communiqué exhorting government authorities to work for the security of Baja California families:
“It is unfortunate that our state is becoming more insecure every day and that it is not possible to go out for a walk with family and friends… Thank God Jorge is stable after receiving 5 bullet impacts, let’s hope for his speedy recovery. We strongly condemn this type of acts, today it was Jorge and his friends, tomorrow it could be your daughter, your mother, aunt, friend or acquaintance”.
TWO ARRESTED
On Wednesday, November 16, the State Attorney General, Ricardo Iván Carpio, stated that after the violent events in Tecate, several searches in coordination with elements of the Army and National Guard to apprehend the perpetrators of the murder of Fernando and the attack on his friends, two men have been arrested and are being prosecuted under the charge of drug dealing. Firearms were also found in the homes.
