Priests demand protection from violent extortionists
Bishop Jose Flores Preciado, 83, died Wednesday, February 6 after being beaten by several assailants during a robbery at the Templo de Cristo Rey in the city of Colima. He had received threatening phone calls for months. The day after the killing, Bishop Jose Luis Amezcua Melgoza revealed that of the 123 priests in the diocese of Colima, 30 had been the victims of attempted extortion, including himself.
During Sunday Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral, Guadalajara Archbishop Francisco Robles Ortega said at least three priests in Jalisco had also received threats over the phone in recent days, with some having been intimidated into making payments. He also recalled the case of a priest in Zamora, Michoacan, who went missing on December 27 in a suspected kidnapping and has yet to be found.
“There are priests here who say they too were called on the phone in this manner, told to deposit or deliver a certain amount of money, with threats to their physical wellbeing if they do not comply with the request,” Robles said.
The archbishop advised priests and citizens in general that if they receive threatening calls they should hang up the phone and immediately report it to the police. He also demanded that the authorities provide greater security not only for members of the church, but for all Mexicans, because “everyone is equally exposed to this kind of situation.”
How the ‘death’ of mining execs was planted in Mexican press
A Mexican journalist has confirmed that the news of two foreign mining executives supposedly found dead in the Rio Santa Rosa was planted in the local press last week.
“We were fed a story, and many of us ran with it,” Antonio Neri Johnston of local Spanish-languague daily El Occidental told The Dallas Morning News last week.
Neri said he received a call from a man identifying himself as a municipal police officer from Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco, where the bodies were said to have been found. The alleged cop told Neri that the bodies had been recovered in the Santa Rosa river, along with a briefcase containing documents pertaining to Michael Davies and Derald Johnston, the respective CEO and treasurer of U.S. mining firm Southridge Minerals Inc.
“Whoever did this knew what they were doing,” Johnston said. “They called us, got the story in public. They needed these people dead, part of a fairy tale.” Neri ran the story, along with several other local reporters who were contacted in a similar manner.
“The strange thing is, they called me, but also other colleagues,” Neri confirmed. “In retrospect, I should have verified the information more because Mexico is still a great place to disappear, especially in that part where killings are very common. Impunity is so high that nothing is ever solved, or clarified. We live in a country of rumors.”
As reported last week, the Hostotipaquillo municipal government and the Nayarit Attorney General’s Office – which was reported to be in possession of the bodies – denied all knowledge of the story when contacted by the Reporter.
Southridge has not commented on the case and no one answers the phone listed at the company headquarters in Dallas. Further investigation by The Dallas Morning News and WFFA.com confirmed that Southridge’s Dallas headquarters does not exist.
Southridge also lists Guadalajara offices on its website at Avenida Patria 358, Floor 5, Suite 30, but there is no fifth floor on said building and the phone number listed is not in service.
It is unclear exactly who would benefit from the world believing that Davies and Johnston are dead, but, as previously reported, Southridge has been linked with involvement in past trading scams and had its stock temporarily suspended in December 2012 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
WFFA speculated that the death of the executives was “a hoax designed to escape from investors back home,” while The Dallas Morning News said they could be “ghost” executives who never even existed.
Just days after the supposed death of Southridge’s two main executives, a press release declared the firm had sold its concessions to the Cinco Minas to Minera San Jorge, a Mexican company with no current address, website or working phone number. Southridge’s ownership of the Jalisco mine was disputed by Canadian mining firm Bandera Gold.
Man shot dead in front of Plaza Galerias
The victim, identified as Jose Antonio Castro Rivera, 53, was killed at around 5.30 p.m. while waiting at a red light on Avenida Vallarta at the junction with Rafael Sanzio.
At least two men pulled up on motorcycle and opened fire on Castro’s gray Ford Ranger pickup truck, striking him in the face and the neck. The assailants escaped and the victim died before Green Cross paramedics arrived to treat him.
Several bullet holes were visible on the vehicle and police discovered at least ten shell casings at the crime scene. No arrests were made.
The Tequila Files 