Violence Intensifies in Mexicali

Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from Zeta Tijuana

The cold-blooded murder of a young 18-year-old student became the most important case for the entire Violent Homicide team in Mexicali, but besides this, three more crimes caught the attention of citizens, especially that of a former PEP agent and the shooting of an enterprising farmer in front of the UABC.

Although the Municipal Police director, Alonso Ulises Méndez, says that only 7 percent of the murders that occur in Baja California happen in Mexicali, and has even been overtaken by Ensenada as the second highest place for this type of crime, the events of last week and the beginning of this week, reminded Los Cachinillas [native Baja Californians] that the State Capital is not safe, as code red was activated for a few days following several high impact crimes.

And although none are related (according to information from the State Attorney General’s Office, PGJE), the public perception of insecurity worried the authorities, as the events happened in areas with favorable economic conditions. In one case even, an ex-military man who tried to hide in a barracks after stabbing a man was arrested. 


 The murder of high school student Raúl Velderraín 

Friday afternoon, October 6. The young Colegio de Bachilleres (Cobach) student of the “José Vasconcelos” school, Raúl Velderraín Quijada, left his school in a recent model silver Toyota Camry with Baja California license plate number AKP4491, registered to his mother.
 
He took the road to Islas Agrarias “A” and then cut to the right on Avenida Heres. Just in front of the entrance to the Toledo I and Alcazar residential development, to the east of the city, a gray Chevrolet Malibu pulled up. The driver took out a nine-millimeter gun and fired it once.
 
The bullet entered through the back windshield, pierced the seat and landed in the victim’s neck; the bullet kept its path, exiting through the student’s chin, who, stunned slightly lost control of the car; security guards report that two other shots were fired, but the PGJE insists there was only one shot.
 
The vehicles differed in speed, while the young man’s car accelerated, wounded, he hesitated and stopped the vehicle in the middle of the street to get out, but force overtook him and he was only able to take two steps and pass out; his last words were “Help me, help me,” recalls an eyewitness who asked for anonymity, who said that he would call the police. Raul died within seconds, on his side, with the stereo playing a “narco corrido” on high volume.
 
Once the attack happened, the Malibu accelerated towards the entrance of the Toledo housing development, turned left, reached the bottom of a soccer field and an Oxxo on Calle San Luis Rio Colorado, and at that moment went out of sight. There are two possibilities: the south towards Lázaro Cárdenas Boulevard or the north to the Agrarian Islands highway, which allows a world of roads to escape.
 
Raúl’s murder shocked citizens, but at least three more crimes occurred at the same time, which landed three individuals with bullet wounds in various hospitals. The PGJE says they are not related crimes although they also happened in the eastern zone of the city and, some of them, within minutes of each other.
 
In addition, the attack on a former state police officer, who received wounds from two different weapons, one of them an assault weapon, and the attempted murder of a farmer, increased the perception of insecurity in Mexicali, which has a high number of crimes per capita and around 120 homicides, slightly above the previous years.

Revenge for sexual photos, the other hypothesis
 
Although the PGJE stated at a press conference that there were some indications of a traffic altercation as the reason for the Cobach student’s homicide, another version emerged after the proceedings.
 
According to sources close to the investigation, a young student threatened Raúl Velderraín for uploading compromising photos of him to a social network, and told [Raúl] he would pay for what happened. 

  

The warning occurred a few days before and although there were initial doubts with this version, the PGJE began to investigate and, based on the testimony, have found elements to establish it as the main hypothesis of the attack, since both the family and the young man have a clean crimnal history. In fact, the director of Cobach, Aidé Pelayo Torres, told the media that Valderreín was a good student and did not get into trouble.
 
It is possible that the student could have had a friend or relative with the ability to acquire a weapon, and although it was initially assumed that the shooter was very accurate and an expert, since he only fired the weapon once, the investigator compared the crime with the incident against the former State Police Preventive Agent (PEP), where the gunmen emptied their cartridges to make sure of the murder.
 
On the other hand, the official version issued by David Lozano Blancas, coordinator of the Special Investigations Office (SIE), states that the victim may have had a traffic altercation with the aggressor moments before.
 
The official said that there is nothing to indicate it as a mix up, because he said the attack was directly against the high school student, and although there is a recording at the time of attack, it doesn’t help the investigation because the attacker’s car blocked the camera when he fired. No discussion or sign of confrontation before the attack is seen on the recording.
 
Security Guards’ versions at the incident indicate that the aggressor’s vehicle was following the victim, but has not been confirmed by authorities.
 
Since that day, high school students leave candles and flowers where he died died to remember their friend.
 
“Narco” killed former PEP
 
The murder of former PEP [Baja California's State Preventive Police] agent, Nicolas Francisco Ibarra Pino, has no other hypothesis: it was the “narco”.
 
Before leaving the agency he possibly had some criminal links, and when he resigned, he was formally linked to parts of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to state police consulted by this newspaper.
 
Similarly, the circumstances of the event and the favorable economic conditions of the former policeman despite being seven years unemployed, suggest that the murder was due to an adjustment of accounts, thus organized crime seem responsible.
 
The incident happened outside of 288 Adolfo Ruiz Cortines Avenue, in the Adolfo López Mateos neighborhood, an upper middle class area including civil servants and former local officials.
 
Ibarra Pino was driving a recent model gray Mazda pickup with California license plates, when a sedan blocked off the way to his house. Two criminals caught up and fired an R-15 caliber weapon and a .357 revolver. A large number of cartridges were located at the scene, the victim received six bullet wounds to the head, chest, abdomen and arm, but his partner to his side was unscathed.
 
He was well enough to be taken by the Red Cross to the General Hospital, but died hours later during the operation.
 
On the wall of the house – which should be noted is very large – were bullet holes, and in the door of the vehicle. There was also a 12-year-old girl but more information is unknown.
 
Ibarra Pino, 36, under escort of the current deputy director of the PEP, Osiel García Hernández, has a criminal record for drug trafficking, in addition to abuse of authority and assessed injuries, the latter while still in the state agency.
 
He resigned in 2010, but according to information from the State Public Security Secretariat (SSPE), his Control and Confidence Exams were not sufficient, so a removal process was initiated.
 
After leaving the position, he had several altercations, the first of them after his resignation was when strangers “blasted” into a house in the Los Portales II housing development where he was. The incident was documented by the media on June 21, 2010, but there were no injuries.
 
Three years later, on February 26, 2013, he caused an intense police mobilization involving ministerial and municipal agents, as he refused to get out of a black Dodge Charger vehicle with fake 6DTH710 California plates.
 
Municipal and ministerial policemen made the stop, which he obeyed without complaint, but when asked to get out of the car because it had fake plates, various squads were called to get him out of the car to make an arrest.
 
A farmer riddled with bullets and an arrested ex-military man
 
Iván Valdivia Hernández, representative of the company VH Associates of Ejido Tlaxcala, was riddled with bullets in the parking lot of Plaza Cimarrón, on Benito Juárez Boulevard, just in front of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC); he had gone to the gym together with his romantic partner.
 
Deputy Attorney Fernando Ramírez Amador commented that the victim received three bullet wounds from a 9 mm caliber weapon: one in the head, one in the abdomen and a third in the arm. However, none of them put his physical well being seriously at risk.

 
The assault occurred at about 7:00 am on Wednesday, October 11 and, as reported by the ministerial police, the victim did not recognize his attacker, who was described as a young, thinly built individual wearing a polo shirt with a UABC logo, the ones received by new students. The shirt was found on Calzada López Rayón, near the university.
 
The victim was lucid and could meet with ministerial police, who said that the planners of the attack could be competing farmers, whom he had an altercation with days before almost coming to blows; it was a direct accusation.
 
Furthermore, a fight inside the Capri bar in the Esperanza neighborhood ended in the murder of Ubaldo Ambrosio Valentín, 36, who allegedly was stabbed by a former member of the Mexican Army the morning of Sunday, October 8.
 
The uproar started inside the bar. The 21-year-old former military man, Gabriel, had a fight with the now deceased, so the military man decided to leave the cantina located a few meters from the military barracks, and wait for him sitting on his motorcycle.
 
When the now-dead man left, he saw him sitting in his vehicle and demanded that he go away, but the former military member rushed the victim and thrust a knife into his chest.
 
Gabriel ran to the entrance of the 23rd Cavalry Regiment, but was stopped by the guards, as they discovered that he had blood on his clothes and a knife with blood stains in his pocket, so they notified the Municipal Police, who apprehended him.
 
The hearing was held on the night of Tuesday the 10th where the Attorney General’s Office explained how the arrest occurred.

We are 30% higher in homicides than last year: Ulises
 
Meanwhile, the Municipal Police director, Alonso Ulises Méndez, stated that Mexicali has the lowest homicide rate in the state and its numbers are positive compared to the national level, according to its estimates.
 
He commented that only 7% of the killings in the state occur in Mexicali, which he considered a very positive result.
 
Méndez Manuell-Gómez said that when it comes to homicides they are above the normal average, registering more than 12 homicides per month. However, he acknowledged that at the beginning of the year the number of murders was up 200%, but as the months have passed has been reduced to 30%, assessing this as positive.
 
He added that in the State Capital most of the homicides are derived from personal issues or crimes of passion, unlike Tijuana, where between 70 and 80% are related to organized crime.