Throwback Thursday: 'El Mini Lic' Is Yet To Be Tried In Mexico For The Murder Of Journalist And Founder Of Ríodoce, 'Javier Valdez Cárdenas.'

 ”Char” for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE 

WRITTEN BY: ALEJANDRO MOJARDÍN

MAY 14, 2024. 

The intellectual authorship of Dámaso López Serrano in the murder of journalist and founder of Ríodoce, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, is documented, confirms the head of Feadle.

For the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression, Dámaso López Serrano, el Minilic, is the mastermind of the murder of journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas and will insist with the US government that he be extradited and tried in Mexico.

Heriberto “P”, a.k.a. El Koala, was sentenced to 14 years and eight months as the mastermind, and Juan Francisco “P”, El Quillo, was sentenced to 32 years in prison in an abbreviated proceeding.

In October 2023, the Minilic gave an interview to Proceso magazine in which he disassociated himself from the crime and blamed Los Chapitos.

“The United States has proof that I didn’t do it and Ovidio is going to tell it like it is. When he begins to cooperate, he is going to say that they were the ones who murdered Javier Valdez and I hope that all of that will be known and come to light. We just have to give time to time. I have no doubt about that. Ovidio is going to tell the story and tell it like it was,” he said.

Regarding Minilic’s statements, the head of the Feadle, Ricardo Sánchez Pérez del Pozo, said that it is only an attempt to distance himself.

“The evidence is very clear in the case against him and well here he has an arrest warrant granted by a federal judge who evaluated a series of evidence, it is not an affirmation just for the sake of it, there is a series of evidence that supports the affirmation that he is involved; besides the fact that the people who are deprived of their freedom and whose material participation has already been demonstrated, were part of the group that was with him”, he said.

The official mentioned that several factors determine his responsibility, among them testimonies that point directly to him and that the material authors already sentenced were part of his group.

“There are several testimonies that determine it that way, another factor is that the material authors belong to the direct and immediate group, there are proofs and evidences that support it, their geolocations of being in Eldorado constantly, even the testimonies of the people close to them and there is also an analysis that was already presented in trial about Javier’s journalistic work, where there is a cause-effect relationship that establishes the clear motivation of the facts”, he said.

Among the evidence that the Feadle has to accuse Minilic as the intellectual author, there are testimonies of members of his group.

Two of those witnesses testified that before Quillo, Minilic offered them to kill Javier in exchange for money, weapons and a promotion.

One of those witnesses, who already testified in the Quillo trial, stated that the first days of May 2017 he was outside his house along with another person, when Minilic arrived and told them that if they wanted to move up in rank with him and be trusted by him to kill journalist Javier Valdez and they answered that they did not dare, so Minilic got upset.