Federal agents nab Jalisco Cartel capo
Victor Hugo Delgado Renteria, alias “El Tornado,” was detained by agents from the Department of Defense (Sedena) in the Bugambilias neighborhood on the southwestern perimeter of the metropolitan area, said Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam.
Delgado stands accused of killing 11 men who were found beheaded in August 2008 in Yucatan. He was arrested at a property on Circuito de las Flores Oriente and Remanso de los Lirios, one of three buildings in Zapopan and Tlajomulco to be raided by Sedena agents.
Another suspected member of the CJNG, Domingo Medina Mogel, alias “El Mingo,” was also detained. Both Delgado and Medina were previously arrested by soldiers in March 2010 at a clandestine drug lab in Cocula, Jalisco, but the pair were released again within months.
Blonde beggar girl belatedly returned to mother
The blonde-haired, green-eyed girl made headlines last October when she was photographed selling chewing gum at the crossing of Avenida Vallarta and Niño Obrero. All too accustomed to seeing darker-skinned kids begging for change, the Tapatio public was shocked by the sight of a “güera” doing the same and the image was shared over 68,000 times on Facebook alone, with suspicion that she had been kidnapped soon prompting a police investigation.
The girl’s 23-year-old mother, Jiola Ornelas Sanchez – who has more traditional Mexican features – was detained while Lezly and her brother Tony, 4, were taken into care at the Hogar Cabañas. Jiola was only released when Lezly’s grandmother – who also has green eyes – came forward with her birth certificate, and unauthorized DNA tests taken by the local authorities proved positive, but even then she was not allowed custody of her kids.
Jiola was charged with child exploitation but the charges were never proven and there were a number of irregularities in the case against her.
In November, Jiola and her sister Laura – whose daughter had also been taken away from her – filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission (CEDHJ) over the way they had been treated by the Attorney General’s Office. With help from the local non-governmental FIND Foundation, they won an injunction allowing them to visit their children at the orphanage, but only for two hours a week.
Jiola told Spanish-language daily Mural that during this time, staff from the Hogar Cabañas offered to return her son to her, but not her daughter. “They would tell me that if I wanted my son he could live with me, but not Lezly because she was very pretty and she had to live with a nice family,” Jiola said.
The children were finally returned to their mothers this week after experts from the Institute of Forensic Sciences determined that they showed no signs of mistreatment or abuse; their weight and height were consistent with their ages; and they stated that they had never been forced to work. Lezly and Tony will return to a much improved family environment as Jiola now has a steady job, a home and the means to send her children to school.
‘Taliban Lawyers’ face criminal investigation
The STPS will file a criminal complaint accusing the collective of using false statements, forgery and abuse of power in order to bleed dry small- and medium-sized enterprises through lawsuits worth millions of pesos.
“They call themselves ‘Los Talibanes’… alluding to this fundamentalist group because they fight until the end,” said Labor Secretary Eduardo Almaguer Ramirez.
The STPS detected serious irregularities in a case in which 13 of the “Taliban Lawyers” sought to sue the Guadalajara Diocesan Food Bank for five million pesos – enough to bankrupt the altruistic organization – on behalf of five former employees who had filed for wrongful dismissal. The STPS found evidence that the former employees had filed invoices for more than they were owed; presented false papers to claim for overtime without having worked the additional hours; and falsely claimed they were fired, when documents show they resigned from their positions within the non-profit agency.
“We will not allow them to illegally affect an institution that helps the neediest,” said Almaguer. The STPS also alleged that the lawyers were aided by corrupt officials from the Local Board of Conciliation and Arbitration (JLCyA), who abused their power by accepting falsified documents and untrue statements.
Almaguer said he had identified 66 attorneys as members of the “Taliban Lawyers,” including Gildardo Gonzalez Perez, the apparent founder of the group.
The lawyers have been behind some 3,000 lawsuits in the last three years, many of which are still pending. These include 26 cases against metropolitan water authority SIAPA, which has already been forced to pay out between 20 and 30 million pesos and could end up losing as much as 100 million pesos in total.
The Tequila Files 