The man who outran drug assassins
Source: Toronto Star / Linda Diebel

Luis Najera, who worked for El Diario in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, escaped to Canada with his wife and three children. He says he'll be killed if he returns.

Mexican reporter took cop's warning seriously, left town shortly before colleague gunned down
June 02, 2009


SURREY, B.C. – Bang-bang. You're dead.

That's not exactly how the cop warned crime reporter Luis Najera in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez that he could be assassinated, but that was the intent.

The officer was a good contact and, one day last September, he casually brushed past Najera in the street as if he didn't see him, flicked out his hand and whispered: "Aguas!"

He didn't even say it, really; it was more a rush of air. The word means "waters," but in Mexican slang, it's "Be careful!" Najera, 38, who wrote about drug trafficking, knew he was getting one last chance to run for his life.

He hurried home, packed three suitcases with five changes of clothes and, with his wife and three children, 17, 8 and 2, fled for their lives to Vancouver.

He arrived on Sept. 27 to a city he'd never visited, in a country he didn't know, to claim refugee status and begin the battle to stay in Canada.

On Nov. 13, 2008, his colleague Armando Rodriguez, 40, from El Diario de Juarez, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. They blasted his body with eight bullets in front of his home as he prepared to drive his daughter to school in Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Tex. He died at the scene; she was not physically injured.

Rodriguez was among eight journalists gunned down last year in Mexico, according to Reporters Without Borders, their deaths attributed to the drug cartels.

"This crime specialist was on the front lines of this savage conflict which has made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists," said a press release from the international agency.

Najera grieved for his friend, while knowing it could have been him. Rodriguez ignored personal death threats, as well as the bloody head placed last year on the Journalist's Memorial in Juarez – a message to all. Before his murder, he wrote about two police officers believed executed by narco-gunmen, among 1,300 to die in Juarez drug wars in 2008.

Najera ultimately decided he could no longer put the lives of his family at risk, not in a vicious new age of narco-vendettas that reach out to innocent family members. The days of the unchallenged power of the Juarez Cartel are fading.

"I knew there wouldn't be another warning," said Najera, intense, with a thin, worried face, wearing glasses that slip down his nose.

"This was different. Yes, I feared for my life, but when my wife noticed she was being followed, I knew I was victimizing my family. We were at the point we wouldn't let our kids out to do anything – it was always "No.'"

He lives in virtual hiding and was nervous about the exclusive interview with the Toronto Star. Arranged by an intermediary in Mexico, it took place discreetly in our hotel in Surrey, 30 kilometres from Vancouver. He didn't disclose where he lives, the names of his wife and children or the church that is helping him during a process that could take two years or more – and still turn out badly.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada declined to comment on an ongoing case.

Najera says flatly he'll be killed if he returns to Mexico.

He'd always dreamed about journalism – and basketball. Born in the central city of Guadalajara, he studied journalism at university and worked as a sports and general reporter before spending five years with the attorney-general's office in the state of Chihuahua, where Juarez is located. As press officer, he handled police matters and made vital contacts for his later reporting on cartels and corruption.

"Some police thought I was a traitor, others didn't," he said of his career change. One saved his life.

He had insider information. Working back and forth across the Mexico-U.S. border, he saw patterns of power and made connections that made people nervous. In his view: "The police are involved with the narcos and the government is passive."

The last thing drug lords and their supporters want is attention. Najera broke a story about the existence of a series of mass graves found by police, quoting one officer: "Maybe there are more. Maybe they are in every neighbourhood in this city."

Warnings prepared him. He'd had discussions with his wife, sold his Jeep Cherokee and gathered important documents – including his coverage of the cartels – he would need for refugee board hearings. He had always liked Canada from afar and chose Vancouver because he knew a Mexican lawyer there. After the final tip, he left his house, knowing he would lose it along with a career he cherished.

Now he can only wait.

His English is good and improving and, if he can't be a journalist, he'd like to make a career as a researcher in the field he knows, perhaps joining a think-tank with a specialty in narco-trafficking.

"Once you are a reporter, it's how you see the world," said Najera. "You think, `What can I do for society? What can I do to make a better life for people?' It's the truth ... it's how I see things."








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Locals rally for immigration reform

Campaign seeks solution that keeps families together

By LYNNETTE CURTIS
Source: LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A coalition of labor, business, faith and immigrant rights leaders gathered in downtown Las Vegas on Monday to launch the local leg of a national campaign pushing reform of America's immigration laws.

The campaign, dubbed Reform Immigration for America, seeks to encourage lawmakers this year to consider comprehensive immigration reform that emphasizes keeping families together.

"All of us have seen the disastrous effects of this broken (immigration) system, which has enforcement only as its approach," said Peter Ashman, chairman of Nevada's chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "The immigration system must be overhauled to create and accommodate a balanced and sensible approach to immigration, one that takes into account our need for secure and orderly borders and protects our integrity as a nation of immigrants."

About 50 people gathered outside the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse for the launch, one of dozens held in cities across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Boston.

Local speakers included representatives from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, the International Hispanic Church of Las Vegas and Culinary Local 226.

Millions of immigrants "have been suffering for many, many years and living in the shadows," said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, president of the Culinary union, which represents about 60,000 workers. "These immigrants are a big contribution to this country. They work every single day."

In 2007, Congress considered the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, but the bill failed. Immigration rights activists are more optimistic about the chances of a federal immigration reform plan moving forward this year with Barack Obama in the White House and a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Obama is slated to meet next week with congressional leaders to discuss U.S. immigration laws.

"We are at the dawn of a new day and a new era in immigration reform," said Marco Rauda, state director of Democracia Ahora -- Democracy Now -- a nonpartisan Hispanic advocacy organization.

Immigrant rights advocates want that reform to stop deportations that separate families.

In a report released earlier this year, Human Rights Watch used Census data and figures released by the Pew Hispanic Center to estimate that more than a million spouses and children living in the U.S. had been separated from their parents, husbands or wives because of deportations between 1997 and 2007.

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“Hay dinero caliente del narco mexicano en futbol”

Por Doris Gómora Fuente: El Universal Lunes 08 de junio de 2009

Nuevas generaciones de capos, los interesados en infiltrarse

Grupos del narcotráfico de Colombia aseguran que dinero “caliente” de narcotraficantes de México está en los equipos del futbol mexicano, afirma en entrevista Fernando Rodríguez Mondragón, hijo de Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela y sobrino de Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, líderes del cártel de Cali. “Es de conocimiento en Colombia que hay narcotraficantes (de México) que están lavando dinero por intermedio de los equipos, están comprando jugadores con transacciones oscuras donde hay cuentas en Bahamas, en los paraísos fiscales y por ahí están lavando el dinero, dicen que realmente cuesta 2 millones de dólares, y dicen que cuesta 20 y con eso lavan 18 millones de dólares fácilmente”, dice. En entrevista telefónica con EL UNIVERSAL, Fernando Rodríguez Mondragón habla desde Colombia sobre el narcotráfico y los equipos de futbol de México y esa nación sudamericana, basado en la experiencia de su familia en el cártel del Cali el cual compró equipos de Primera y Segunda División de futbol colombianos en los años 80 y 90, pero cuya injerencia estaba vigente hasta febrero del 2009. El 25 de febrero pasado, los hermanos de Fernando Rodríguez Mondragón fueron detenidos por autoridades de Colombia y agentes de la Agencia Antidrogas de Estados Unidos (DEA, por sus siglas en inglés) acusados de narcotráfico y testaferros al ser aún los propietarios de 52% de las acciones del equipo América de Cali, escuadra que se suponía fue decomisada a Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela en los 90. Fernando Rodríguez es ahora el único de los hijos de Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela que está libre y a través de dos libros titulados El hijo del ajedrecista, como se le conocía a su padre, ha tratado de develar los secretos del cártel de Cali; del futbol mexicano habla en la entrevista. “Los narcotraficantes mexicanos pocos de ellos se han metido con equipos de futbol, pero hay ahora de los nuevos narcotraficantes, ciertos hinchas (aficionados) de equipos como los que han llevado a jugadores colombianos al exterior, que dineros calientes del narcotráfico están en ciertos equipos”, señala. Precisa, “el Cruz Azul, han dicho que el Cruz Azul; que el América de México son los dos equipos que aquí en Colombia, y a nivel de los narcotraficantes, se habla de que lavan dinero con el equipo, que hay dinero del narcotráfico en ellos”. Rodríguez detalla que los implicados en el futbol mexicano son los cárteles “exactamente de México. Sé que pasó con (Claudio) el Piojo López, el argentino, sobre todo los argentinos que se prestan para estas cosas”. El jugador al que hace referencia formó parte del América de México. Sin embargo, Fernando Rodríguez indica que no tiene conocimiento de que el cártel de Cali haya invertido en equipos mexicanos durante las décadas de los 80 y 90, o que árbitros o jugadores de México estén siendo sobornados o amenazados por el narcotráfico como ocurre en Colombia. El caso Colombia De hecho, explica, el cártel de Cali se caracterizó por sobornar a los árbitros para obtener resultados en favor del equipo de futbol América de Cali el cual fue adquirido por su tío Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela en 1979 tras lo cual compró además jugadores como Aurelio José Pascuttini, Ricardo Gareca, Roberto Cabañas, Pedro Sarmiento, Hernan Darío Herrera, Julio César Falcioni entre otros. “Entonces conformó un equipo casi invencible que se paseó por todos los estadios de Colombia no solamente con sus grandes jugadores, sino con el dinero que había producto del narco, el cual también influyó en ciertos resultados cuando empezaron a pagarles a los árbitros dinero para que favorecieran al equipo”, comentó. El América de Cali obtuvo muchos campeonatos, pero siempre bajo el esquema del soborno ya que con los contactos que el cártel de Cali tenía en la Federación Colombiana de Futbol cada lunes se sabía quien sería el árbitro del siguiente partido y se le enviaba un emisario con dinero. La regla del cártel de Cali, explica, era atender a los árbitros pagándoles el hospedaje en el Intercontinental de Cali y darles regalos. “Sé que en el partido América de México-América de Cali se invitaron a estos árbitros a un restaurante y se les atendió, se les dio todo el trago que quisieron y quedaron muy contentos”. Cuando Joao Havelange fue nombrado titular de la Federación de Futbol “fue diferente porque este señor dijo que América (de Cali) nunca iba a quedar campeón mientras él fuera el presidente de la Confederación, este Joao Havelange, que porque el América era de un grupo de narcotraficantes y él sí lo dijo abiertamente a la opinión pública”. Pero el América de Cali no era el único, el cártel de Medellín de Pablo Escobar Gaviria era dueño del Atlético Nacional y su operador Gonzálo Rodríguez Gacha El Mexicano fue dueño del equipo Millonarios y este cártel se caracterizó por amenazar a árbitros y jugadores para que sus equipos ganarán, incluyendo en la Copa Libertadores. Además, señala, hay de paramilitares de Colombia que fueron extraditados a Estados Unidos, “en varios computadores de estos jefes paramilitares aparecieron equipos (de futbol) que eran manejados por ellos”. Con una nueva vida tras salir de la cárcel en 2005 sin propiedades porque el gobierno aplicó la ley de extinción de dominio, y alejado de las grandes ciudades Rodríguez Mondragón ahora pretende que los jóvenes se alejen del narcotráfico.