CJNG's El Chocorrol Will Stand Trial for the Murder of Luis Roberto Don Felix

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Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) member El Chocorrol was approved to stand trial for the alleged murder of Luis Roberto Don Felix, a 27 year old lawyer and councilman candidate. The prosecution says Luis Don Felix was shot to death in Tecate by four CJNG members due to a “confusion on the part of the alleged assassins.”

On May 20 2021, an arrest warrant was issued for Néstor Manuel Mejorado Ávila alias “El Chocorrol” for his probable participation in the murder of Luis Roberto Don Felix. That same day, El Chocorrol was successfully arrested near Calzada Cortéz Road in the La Bondad neighborhood of Tecate, Baja California. The next day, El Chocorrol appeared before a judge who determined based on the evidence presented that Chocorrol will stand trial. The judge granted two months of preventative detention for El Chocorrol. The prosecution will use these two months to further investigate and prepare evidence for the upcoming trial.

The charges against El Chocorrol include Qualified Homicide with advantage. In Mexican penal code, the qualification of homicide “with advantage” is defined as having greater physical strength than the victim, being better armed than the victim, weakening the victim’s defenses in some way, or taking advantage of the victim’s inferior position. 

In addition to El Chocorrol, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) believes other CJNG members connected to the attack on Don Felix include: José Antonio Peña Alvarado alias “El Michoacano”, José Manuel Reyes Acevedo alias “Don Meño”, J. Jesús González Isais alias “El Uno” and Joaquín Ernesto Reyes Morales alias “El Neto”. 

El Chocorrol is also thought to be connected to the January 24, 2021 murder of National Guard member Francisco Negrete Vite in Tecate at the junction between Universidad Boulevard and Lázaro Cárdenas Avenue. Negrete Vite was reportedly dressed in civilian clothes at the time of his death.

Negrete Vite was shot three times in the back with 7.62 mm rounds. Isaías Bertín Sandoval, Technical Secretary of the Security Table reported “This person was not killed in a confrontation, but rather he was walking through the streets of Tecate, when he was killed by his perpetrators.”

El Chocorrol has previously been arrested in 2018. He was arrested alongside other CJNG Tecate members José Antonio López Jacobo alias “El Jacobo” and José Jovany Ortiz Covarrubias alias “El Puma”. El Chocorrol being this directly connected to El Puma is of note because El Puma was thought to be the leader of the CJNG in Tecate at the time of this 2018 arrest. 

After CJNG leader Javier López Ríos was killed in November 2017, El Puma was selected for this leadership role by Jesús Alfonso Trapero Ibarra alias “El Trapero”, one of the highest ranking CJNG operators in the state of Baja California. El Puma was later killed in February 2019. A narcomanta later claimed El Puma was killed by El Mayo-associated Sinaloa Cartel members. 

Danny Isaac Ortíz Covarrubias alias “El Moreno”, El Puma’s brother and second-in-command was believed to have taken over the role of CJNG Tecate leadership following the death of his brother.

El Moreno has since had a famous falling out with the CJNG and his departure from the CJNG was confirmed in a narcomanta in December 2020. El Moreno’s current cartel affiliation and status is unknown.

Luis Roberto Don Felix

At 5:45pm on April 8, 2021, Luis Roberto Don Felix was trying to park his Ford Explorer SUV in the parking lot of a small shopping center in the Rancho San Francisco area. He was visiting the shopping center in order to buy a birthday cake for a relative’s celebration. Four armed men in a white Toyota Camry opened fire on him. The FGE indicates the reason behind their attack “was a confusion on the part of the alleged assassins.” 

By the time municipal police received the 911 report and paramedics arrived on scene, Don Felix no longer showed vital signs and the attackers had fled. Authorities notified his relatives, who were presumably celebrating at his home in the Cerro Azul area. The mother of the deceased drove to the scene of the attack.

Upon arriving, she reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown due to the impact of losing her son. The nervous breakdown was so severe that she had to receive treatment from the paramedics on scene. 

28 year old Luis Roberto Don Felix was a lawyer and graduate of Harvest Biblical University who lived in the town of Nueva Hindú. He also worked as a music teacher and worship director at his church of Torre Fuerte in the neighborhood of Cerro Azul.

Celso Arturo Figueroa Medel, an independent mayoral candidate, selected Don Felix to be a part of his slate of recommendations for Tecate city council. Celso Figueroa described Luis as a young man who got ahead despite hardships he experienced in life. 

Before the FGE stated it was an alleged case of mistaken identity, reporters pressed Celso Figueroa for details about the attack and the motive behind it. Figueroa made clear that neither he nor anyone on his team had received threats prior to the attack. Adding “I will not request special protection measures, since what happened is something that any common Tecatense faces. Luis Roberto represented the proposal for a young councilor on our electoral path.”

A Change.org petition was launched which demands Governor Jaime Bonilla and Attorney General Juan Guillermo Ruiz Hernández clarify the facts of Don Felix’s death.

The petition reads in part, “we demand to clarify the regrettable and cowardly facts in relation to our comrade Luis Roberto Don Félix and the other homicides in our city of Tecate. On behalf of the parents, brothers, uncles, nephews and grandchildren who have lost relatives due to these acts of cowardice, I sign!!! And you?”

As of May 22, 2021, there are roughly 8,000 out of 10,000 needed signatures on the petition.

Pre-candidates Arturo Figueroa Medel and José Manuel Márquez Martínez wrote about Don Felix’s death saying “It fills us with sadness and anger to see what Tecate, our municipality, has become, where our children play, where they study, where they live, where our seniors taught us to respect and to respect ourselves…From this space we raise our voice to demand the security we all deserve. His young voice has been silenced, his dreams to see a different Tecate, a fair Tecate, a safe Tecate, are gone.”

Sources on Chocorrol’s legal proceedings: Milenio, ZETA Tijuana, Politico.mx, El Sol de Tijuana, Zeta Tijuana Article on Negrete Vite, Zeta Tijuana Article on El Puma and El Moreno

Sources on murder of Luis Don Felix: 

Milenio, El Universal, Reporte Indigo,  El Sol de Tijuana, El Mexicano