Minatitlan, Veracruz.- Yesenia Mollinedo Falconi he received a call and immediately spoke to his mother as if sentencing what awaited him. Before being killed, she confessed to her mother that she was afraid; that she had received threats by phone and suspicious people were beginning to memorize her work routes.
It was the first time he behaved like this. “I had eight siblings and I can tell you that seven are fearful, except for Yesenia. If she had suspicions of you, she would stop you and she would confront you, but she has been strange in recent days, ”says Ramiro Mollinedo, brother of the founder of the Veraz newspaper, who was shot on May 9 along with her camerawoman. Sheila Johana Garcia Olivera.
Yesenia’s fear could have been misunderstood, because it occurred in the midst of an apparent cessation of high-impact crimes in Cosoleacaque, a municipality where she had a bunch of political sources and even a close relationship with the Vázquez Parissi family, caciques emanating from the PRI who have governed uninterruptedly for the last 11 years.
According to official figures, Cosoleacaque and Minatitlan -conurbation city that also covered Yesenia but to a lesser extent- barely added 6 murders and zero kidnappings from January to March 2022. This criminal incidence, which could be alarming in any other region of the country, was synonymous with calm in the oil zone of the southern Veracruz.
State authorities translate this tranquility as a preponderant domain of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in this area where the most scourged guild was business. At least 100 businesses closed in Minatitlán during the first two months of this year, most of them due to floor charges (extortion), said Jorge Hernández, former local president of Canaco.
Under these conditions, Yesenia Mollinedo reported together with Sheila Johana García, whom she had accredited four months ago as a contributor to the newspaper Veraz. They had a sentimental relationship that today is used by characters sponsored by the Veracruz government to spice up social networks with morbidity.
Sheila Johana’s last days were different from her partner’s. Although she did not study journalism, her job gave her new opportunities, her relatives acknowledge. The 33-year-old woman was moving away from alcoholism and approaching her three minor children with whom she did not live but she enjoyed weekends at the movies.
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Yesenia is referred to by her colleagues as a sullen and bad-tempered person, who recently showed a better face after municipalities in the southern zone agreed to contract advertising with hundreds of media outlets that are distributed in the region.
On the morning of May 9, Yesenia was driving a gray Ford Fiesta that she had recently taken out of the garage, where it had been stored for months. In a WhatsApp group they reported the seizure of weapons in the central neighborhood of Minatitlán and the arrest of three people. She asked Sheila to accompany her to cover the news.
“My sister went but she didn’t even get out of the car. There are audios where her classmates make fun of her but she said what if she had already seen how many detainees she was. She almost didn’t cover police, her thing was politics”, explains Ramiro Mollinedo.
After that coverage, Yesenia even contacted another of her friends to tell him that it was very hot, where they would meet. Hours later, the two returned to Cosoleacaque and parked in an OXXO in the Cerro Alto neighborhood. There they were intercepted by at least two men who fired at least 16 times. They later fled on motorcycles. Yesenia died instantly; Johana on the way to the hospital.
The governor, Cuitláhuac García, demonstrated this May 10 the complexity of the crime with a message to the media where he acknowledged that, 24 hours after the attack, there are four lines of investigation that are being analyzed by a whole team of experts in the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE ).
The history of threats
Fear permeates the wakes of Yesenia and Sheila. In the Gravera neighborhood, in front of the Minatitlán petrochemical complex, no more than ten people guard the camerawoman’s wooden coffin. Her father, Artemio, remains silent most of the time and shares what the number 33 already means to him.
“At the age of 33, my wife died of a stroke in the brain, when Sheila was born. And now at 33 they take my daughter from me. Look how beautiful she was,” the hunched man says as he holds up a photo of Sheila with the caption “Rest in peace.”
The family asks the government for respect for the press and security in the home. They, without giving details, report that Sheila Johana was the subject of a violent attack in 2020.
In Yesenia’s house the panorama is not so different from Sheila’s. Few people, few messages of condolences and brief protests by journalists in the streets. “There is fear everywhere,” some of them justify.
Relatives of Yesenia Mollinedo warn that the last ten days of the journalist should be considered.
On April 30, she attended a Children’s Day event in a Cosoleacaque neighborhood where she told her mother that suspicious men followed her on a motorcycle.
On May 4, at 12 midnight, she reported upset that she was now being followed by taxi number 3584, manned by two robustly built men. “They yelled at her through the glass that they were going to kill her.”
But the history of threats and harassment goes further back. Although Cosoleacaque and Minatitlán looked to be one of the largest development poles, it became the main red flag of insecurity for journalists in the state, according to reporters.
According to Jorge Hernández, a member of the National Chamber of Commerce (CANACO), during 2022 more than 100 businesses in Minatitlán and Coatzacoalcos closed their doors due to the payment of fees, an illegal practice that continues in the area.
For Yesenia, the payment of the fee forced her to pay an amount every so often, to continue with her medium, which at that time was printed and distributed every week, says one of her brothers.
More than a day after his murder, the now digital portal does not show information and his social networks are out of date.
The faces of relatives and colleagues show tiredness and weariness. They do not understand the exact reasons for the attack and ask for justice.
Ramiro Mollinedo Falconi, Yesenia’s brother, also a journalist, found out about the news through a call. The man was aware of the history of threats to which Yesenia was subjected.” About 15 days ago they were going to put him on her mother,” he said.
Ramiro never thought that his sister would be killed, “Yesenia was ballsy, that Yesenia faced you.”
Yesenia, who always wore a ponytail, suffered from diabetes and was missing a tooth, was known among the journalistic profession for her strong character and commanding voice, she could go out at six in the morning and return at midnight and her energy followed.
Those who knew her in life assured that the information allegedly disseminated by expert elements took them by surprise. The woman had no history of drugs or weapons.
History of persecution and extortion
The murders of Yesenia and Johana, aged 45 and 33, join the figures of lacerated reporters and communicators in Veracruz.
There are 11 nationwide and three in Veracruz, during 2022, according to figures from the State Commission for the Attention and Protection of Journalists (CEAPP).
Yesenia was concerned about these figures. For a few months, she became the bait of unknown individuals who attacked and persecuted her while she was doing her job as a reporter.
In 2016, when Yesenia was buying and selling pets and iron, unknown individuals approached her, beat her and left her dumped at the scene.
“They spared her life, but pus came out of her breast. That is why they were going to operate on her, she was being treated, ”said her brother.
After that event, their relatives were kidnapped and extorted; They decided to move to neighboring cities and states.
Yesenia decided to stay in Cosoleacaque with her mother, who accompanied her until the last moment. That decision cost him his life, assured her brother.
On April 30, the reporter was chased and chased while leaving an event of the municipal president in Ordaz Park, where they celebrated Children’s Day. Yesenia managed to escape and took refuge with her family.
On May 8, two men followed her very closely on motorcycles and then in a car. “They were municipal”, managed to say her brother.
A day later she was murdered
Johana, fleeting career in journalism
Sheila Johana García Olivera was found together with Yesenia, in the same car, with a credential hanging from her hand that accredited her as a camerawoman for the outlet, El Veraz.
Johana was the mother of three minor children, six, 11 and 15 years old, she began her career in the media about six months ago, according to relatives.
The woman was excited to go out daily to record the daily events in the area.
Her body has been veiled since Tuesday, May 10, at her home, located in the Gravera neighborhood, almost half an hour from where she was murdered.
His father and relatives could not hold back the tears when they saw his body arrive. The hot atmosphere of Minatitlán, pays for the family hustle and bustle.
The woman was away from her relatives, but they kept informed about her life.
Her body will be buried tomorrow, Wednesday, May 11, almost at the same time as Yesenia.
For 17 years, there has been a record of 31 journalists murdered and seven disappeared, for which journalists ask to stop the criminalization and victimization of the union.
The government of Veracruz before the murder of Yesenia and Johana
The governor of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García, together with the state attorney general, Verónica Hernández Giadáns, said that the murder of the two journalists would not go unpunished.
The Prosecutor’s Office announced that it is working on four lines of investigation, two of them suggested by the first indications at the scene of the events, those investigated by the institution itself and another one due to its journalistic activity.
While the public organisms declare on the subject, the houses of Yesenia and Johana are guarded by elements of the Municipal Police, they started three patrols and only one remains.
For his part, the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, described the events as cowardly and evil.
“Press freedom is under attack and requires an urgent response to end the escalation of violence against journalists,” he wrote.
After the crime, the families and the guild ask for justice.
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