Public Sector: Government

More than one/ government 2010-2016

Dark times were experienced in Veracruz between 2010 and 2016. These years cost the lives of at least twenty journalists; thousands of people disappeared, and the population lived in fear, experiencing executions, corruption, and an absent state.

The Government key decisions (police, justice, information management, allocation of public funds) were made jointly by the governor and his closest collaborators. That is why it is not correct to speak of the «Duarte government», but rather of the Duartismo.

Several of those high-ranking officials have been imprisoned for both economic crimes and crimes against humanity. However, almost all of them have regained their freedom. With the exception of the governor and some police officers, the rest are free: they have not been sentenced, but neither have they been acquitted.

Javier Duarte de Ochoa

He was an admirer of dictator Francisco Franco and a political protégé of former governor Fidel Herrera. His government recorded the highest number of attacks on journalists in the state’s history and one of the worst in Mexico (17 journalists killed and three disappeared to date).

His administration was also characterized by a high deficit in public accounts, ending before the end of his term amid scandals of corruption, diversion of funds, and fraud against the public treasury, in which Duarte and his closest family and political circle were involved. On October 12th, 2016, he requested a leave of absence, fleeing shortly after.

He was captured in Guatemala on April 15th, 2017, extradited, and imprisoned in the Northern Penitentiary in Mexico City, charged with criminal association, serving a sentence of 9 years, and having 40 properties seized, among other penalties. In 2022, he was linked to a second trial for forced disappearance.

María Gina Domínguez Colío

She was the former press chief in the nineties for Mario Villanueva, former governor of Quintana Roo, arrested by the DEA and sentenced to more than 36 years for drug trafficking in the U.S.

Data revealed a 400% increase in official advertising payments during her tenure. She was called «the vice-governor» due to the power she wielded. She was dismissed in early 2014.

Domínguez was arrested for crimes of abuse of authority, failure to fulfill a legal duty, and collusion to commit crimes. She and the subsequent head of social communication, Alberto Silva, were accused of embezzlement of public funds totaling at least 4,000 million pesos.

 Domínguez Colío was in prison until 2019 when she was granted the benefit of house arrest due to health problems. She has not been sentenced.

Arturo Bermúdez Zurita

He was the former Secretary of Public Security when Duarte took office. Bermúdez was a forceful figure in the government; he was called «Captain Storm.» He created two special police groups: Grupo Tajín and Fuerza Civil, both with questionable results.

During this period, violence increased in the state and was marked by the struggle for territory between Los Zetas and Los Matazetas (later Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación). There was also an increase in serious human rights violations committed by the security forces he directed, as well as incidents of repression of social protests in which Zurita played a leading role.

He is linked to the paramilitary group Los Fieles and to the abuses committed at the police academy, El Lencero. He resigned in 2016 after several scandals involving abuse of authority, forced disappearances, and illicit enrichment. He was arrested in 2017 as a suspect in the forced disappearance of 15 people and investigated for abuse of authority, influence trafficking, and illicit enrichment. He was imprisoned for less than two years when he was granted bail. He has neither been sentenced nor acquitted, and he remains free.

Reynaldo Gaudencio Escobar Pérez

Attorney General during Duarte’s government, author of the controversial «anti-tweeter law» that allowed the governor to detain those who disseminated information on social media, which they labeled as «equated terrorism and sabotage.» He resigned in 2011 after a series of massacres occurred, leaving more than 70 dead in a month, including the 35 bodies left in front of the hotel where the attorneys general meeting in Boca del Río was held.

Felipe Amadeo Flores Espinosa

He was the second prosecutor during the most violent period and with more disappearances across the state. Six journalists were killed and three disappeared during his two years and three months in office. Accused of «stalling» investigations, halting any efforts to achieve justice, or referring them to federal jurisdiction as a delaying tactic.

Under his tenure, Regina Martínez was murdered, and the institution he headed dismissed the journalistic motive that exposed institutions. Officials argued that it was a «crime of passion.»

Luis Ángel Bravo Contreras

He was the Veracruz Institute of Access to Information (2011–2013) councilor and president. Bravo served as prosecutor from February 2014 to November 2016, amidst a security and corruption crisis that led to the resignation of his predecessor. During his tenure, seven more journalists were murdered. Accused of forced disappearances of people, obstructing investigations, and covering up more perpetrators, he was captured on June 17th, 2018. He was charged with concealing 13 bodies found in the La Aurora ravine, alleged victims of the paramilitary group Los Fieles, supposedly linked to the Ministry of Public Security. He was imprisoned until November 2019, when he was granted conditional release. No sentence has been issued yet.

Marcos Conde

Conde was the night commander in the Veracruz-Boca del Río Intermunicipal Police, which the Duarte government dissolved citing corruption and collusion with Los Zetas, later taking command in José Cardel during times of terror. Kidnappings of civilians and local police officers intensified in that city and its surroundings. According to complaints, testimonies, and even videos, agents of the Secretary of Public Security, under Conde’s command and Bermúdez Zurita’s, were aboard a patrol car when the crimes were happening. Kidnappings by state police were so frequent that their patrol car became known as «the sweeper.» It is said that part of the police force worked for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and that «the sweeper» took away more than 30 people.

In January 2016, he was arrested on various charges, including the forced disappearance of 5 young people from Playa Vicente. Along with him, 7 former state police officers and 13 civilians were also arrested. Although Conde remains detained, he was acquitted in 2019 of federal charges, along with the other accused, who are still being tried in local courts. No sentence has been issued.