A Reporter's Remorse; Did A Story In The Washington Post Cause The Torture and Murder of a Family In Michoacan?

Borderland Beat reported on June 19, (story by ValorxTruth) Former Autodefensa Member and Family Murdered.A similar story was published Pepe on the same day on the Forum.  Both stories had basically the  source and content;  “A former autodefensa member who integrated with the Rural State Force from Tepalcatepec was murdered early Thursday morning along with his wife and three children on the border between Michoacán and Jalisco.According to information from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the victims showed signs of torture and injuries that were caused by firearms; so far the reasons for the murder are unknown.The murder victims were: former autodefensa member Santiago Moreno Valencia, his wife, Blanca Godínez Chávez, and their three children, Santiago, 16, Bernabé 14, and Bianca, 11.The incident was confirmed by members of the Fuerza Rural de Tepalcatepec (Rural Forces of Tepalcatepec), who also reported that after the incident, they tried to locate those responsible but without any success.The investigation was initiated by authorities of the neighboring state of Jalisco, since the incident occurred within their jurisdiction.According to Valor Por Michoacán SDR’s Facebook page, the family was ambushed by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). “In a “update” on the story, Pepe posted on the Forum on June 30, he gave links to 2 stories that the Washington Post had done on Santiago, one a few days before the massacre of his family, Drug cartel members join Mexican militia in Michoacan,  and one about 10 days later, Mexican militiaman and his family killed after speaking out.

 In 2001, Valencia returned to Tepalcatepec after five years of applying drywall and painting houses outside Yakima, Wash. As he worked at fattening cattle and buying and selling land, he witnessed the encroaching drug war.

Valencia was vague about his own beginnings in cartel life, although one defining event, he said, took place Oct. 15, 2010, when two teenagers he held dear were shot by a drug trafficker from Jalisco. “Their parents had fed me, they gave me work. I was raised among them. They used to call me uncle,” he said. “So when they were killed, like all the cabrones who have courage in their veins, I went to fight against this injustice.”

He allied himself with the La Familia cartel, itself originally a group of vigilantes intent on restoring order, and received its protection as he pursued his revenge. He got to know some of Mexico’s most-wanted men. He chatted with Servando “La Tuta” Gómez, currently the subject of a manhunt in the caves of western Michoacan, while at a cock-fight. He claimed that Nazario Moreno, the Templars’ cultish figurehead who was killed by Mexican marines this year, bragged to him about murdering 3,000 men. He learned about their unbelievable revenue, from stealing fuel and re-selling it by force to gas stations to taxing shipments of iron ore to China. Valencia admitted to killing men but said it was in combat, not assassination-style. At one point, being tipped off that a hitman had been dispatched for him, he staged his own death. In the photo he had sent to his enemy, he sits in a plastic chair, his head slumped back with red paint all over his neck. He recorded a video of himself on his living-room couch naming his various associates with drug and mafia connections and sent it to his relatives living in the United States so they can get it to authorities if he is killed.

Never enamored with Knights Templar life, Valenciaswitched quickly to the militia when it first formed in his town.”

As can be seen from the links I provided above, BB had fairly extensive coverage of the massacre and the WP stories, but the story of Jose Santiago Valencia and the massacre of his family only received a blip in news coverage in Mexico, and little beyond the WP in the US.   The lack of coverage might be because of obsession of Mexico with the World Cup and the coverage given leading up to the “Cup”, or it may have just been considered just another incidence of violence in Michoacan and so was not newsworthy.  But it would seem to me that what was on the video tape he left behind as a form of insurance which named names and public officials with ties to the cartels would be very interesting and worhy of investigating.In this, the latest article the Washington Post published on the Valencia family massacre,  the reporter, Joshua Partlow, felt it was “tragic and disorienting”, and raised the question whether his stories had put Valencia in greater danger or caused his death.  This story gives some inside news and insight into problems reporters face in covering a story.Keep Quiet Or Pay The Price