Manuel Burgueño Orduño was a journalist and they killed him. At his home, in front of his family, they shot him. That was what was ordered by a Sinaloa police chief who was working for a drug cartel, because Burgueño was writing about corruption, he denounced the lack of punishment and the dirty business between the drug traffickers and the police. They shut him up.

Indifference has buried the matter little by little. The impunity dug a deeper tomb: one of the accused escaped from jail, a court acquitted four of the hired gunmen and the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office failed to carry out a warrant for the arrest of the mastermind, despite the fact that he has been behind bars for the past nine years for other crimes.

The case has now passed its statute of limitations and no one has been found guilty. All that is left is barely an echo of the clamor for justice which never came and of that indolent omission that allows impunity.

The power of a police chief

It happened in 1988 in Sinaloa, a state in Mexico’s northwest. A place where the cultivation and sale of drugs has a long history, dating from the beginning of the last century, and which has been the cradle of a large number of the drug traffickers regarded by the authorities as the major ones in the country.

It was there that Manuel Burgueño was born, in the city of Mazatlán, a major port and tourism and fishing center. A simple family man and a builder of generations of journalists as a professor at the Autonomous University. He was critical, sharp and to the point in his writings. He wrote a weekly editorial column in the newspapers Noroeste and El Sol del Pacífico.

His income barely enabled him to lead even a simple life, at his home in a housing project in Mazatlán’s Infonavit Playas neighborhood, located at number 407 Cruces Street.

Both in his columns and in his small, simple publication named Deslinde, Burgueño would speak of politics, but especially he would constantly expose corruption, the presence of drug traffickers in Mazatlán and their business, also the increasingly notorious links between officials and drug barons.

He wrote very clearly and directly against Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos, a.k.a. “La Rana” (The Toad), at the time the police chief in charge of the Mazatlán district. He warned of the protection this man was giving to Manuel Salcido Uzeta, known as “El Cochiloco” (Mad Pig), then regarded by the authorities as the region’s most powerful drug trafficker.

Burgueño was at home on that February 22, 1988, he was recovering from an operation to his back, and some members of his family were with him, a number of his daughters and grandchildren, as well as a friend. They were getting ready to eat. It was almost 3:00 p.m.

Two men with masks covering half of their face hurried into the apartment, asked who was Manuel Burgueño and when they found out they opened fire. Very close up, straight ahead, without missing a shot. They ran out and outside they were supervised by Rigoberto Rodríguez Bañuelos, a State Judicial Police officer, who saw them get into a green Atlantic automobile with tinted windows. Half a block from the journalist’s home there was waiting Police Chief Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos together with Sergio Patiño Ramírez. That was what was said in the case file. They had planned it well.

Burgueño was in agony. Although an older man he had strength enough to get to hospital, but he did not survive. He died before he could be operated on. The bullets had ripped his insides.

Journalists and students were outraged at the crime. They came out onto the streets of Mazatlán and Culiacán to demand justice, to decry the helplessness of the death. Governor Francisco Labastida promised to investigate and arrest those responsible. He failed to do so, on the contrary his officials made the atmosphere even tenser, even to the point that the assistant public prosecutor for the south of the state, Manuel Sánchez Guzmán, hinted at the possibility that those responsible were journalists holding a personal grudge.

Later, that official confidently declared, “From the way he wrote the truth Burgueño was compulsively looking to be killed … he was not all there in the head.”

Three days later, on February 25, according to news reports, Arturo Moreno Espinoza, at the time head of the Sinaloa State Judicial Police, declared that the motive for the murder had been in revenge for what Burgueño had published. The only thing that happened then was that Sánchez Guzmán was fired shortly afterwards.

Chain of impunity

In September 1988 Judicial Police Chief Arturo Moreno Espinoza presented Antonio Flores Ramírez, saying that he was the one responsible for the crime. But the accusation got watered down.

In December 1989, 22 months after the murder, the Army arrested four persons who confessed to the military and then confirmed their confession at the Public Prosecutor’s Office, according to the case file, that they belonged to a group called “the death squad” that operated in southern Sinaloa and carried out murder for hire, mainly for drug traffickers, although they also took part in robberies and assaults.

Their names: Antonio Cordero Lamadrid, former State Judicial Police officer; Sergio Patiño Ramírez; Lorenzo Zataráin Félix and Juan Francisco Cortés.

Some of them confessed and gave details of the Burgueño murder and of several others, at least Patiño Ramírez and Cordero Lamadrid did. The documents were included in the initial inquiries and on January 22, 1989 Alfredo Franco Rodríguez, at the time assistant public prosecutor for southern Sinaloa, publicly declared that they were guilty of the murder of the journalist, together with the brothers Humberto and Rigoberto Rodríguez Bañuelos, the former as mastermind and the latter as accomplice.

The military investigations showed that the police in Sinaloa were not trustworthy, that they provided protection of drug traffickers operating in the state and that they were even taking part themselves in their crimes. That is why on April 9, 1989 a special Army unit arrived by surprise at the headquarters of the Culiacán Municipal Police and arrested its head, Robespierre Lizárraga, and other officers. But they were all to be released shortly afterwards.

In a development that was never publicly explained, after that police protection network was broken up a special Sinaloa Judicial Police team traveled to Sonora state, where they arrested Rigoberto Rodríguez Bañuelos for the murder of Burgueño and other crimes.

Rodríguez Bañuelos confessed – at least there is a statement in the case file that says so – that his task was to verify that the two hired gunmen killed the journalist and departed in the green Atlantic. He said that Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos and Sergio Patiño kept watch on the action from at least one block away.

Former police officer Rigoberto was sent to the Mazatlán Social Reform Center jail in June 1989 but did not stay there even to December. It was a well planned and paid for escape that enabled 97 prisoners to flee. One of them was Rodríguez Bañuelos. It was on November 14, 1989. He was behind bars for only five months.

It has been said, really just a non-confirmed rumor, that the former police officer was himself killed some years later. True or not, he never again went to prison for the murder of the journalist.

The case file the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office sent to the Third Criminal Court (case number 144/89) cited aggravated homicide by Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos, Rigoberto Rodríguez Bañuelos, Antonio Cordero Lamadrid, Sergio Patiño Ramírez, Isaías Mar Hernández, Luis Alfonso Sámano Calderón, Sergio “El Guamuchilito” and Arturo “El Guamuchilito.”

Not charged with Burgueño’s murder were either Lorenzo Zataráin Félix or Juan Francisco Cortés, who were also believed to belong to the “death squad.”

Criminal proceedings were begun against Cordero Lamadrid and Patiño Ramírez. Evidence, documents and witnesses, coming and going for 21 months, were presented until the judge issued his ruling: for their participation in the murder of Manuel Burgueño Orduño the two were sentenced to 31 years and eight months in prison.

It was a categorical sentencing, only possible with sufficient evidence. It was a day for joy, October 30, 1990, when the judge pronounced sentence.

But the joy was short-lived, too short. In one year they would be free. On October 2, 1991 the First Chamber of the Sinaloa Supreme Court revoked the sentence and ordered acquittal for lack of evidence, under document number 49/91. So, without further ado, they went home. There was no evidence, they argued, despite the judge having considered that there was sufficient.


On November 26, 199, one month after the acquittal of the only two persons to have been put on trial, almost as a gift there was arrested in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Isaias Mar Hernández. He also confessed. In addition he confirmed in his statement the participation of Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos and all those who appeared in the case file. The motive, he said: in revenge because Burgueño had made frequent remarks against the police chief.

One more person was arrested – Sámano Calderón. The two were sent to the Social Reform Center and legal proceedings were begun for the murder of Burgueño.

Their trial was slower, more wearing but conclusive for the judge. On June 24, 1993 he declared them guilty as perpetrators and of criminal association. Luis Alfonso Sámano was sentenced to 32 years and 6 months in prison, very close to the maximum at that time (the Criminal Code stipulated up to 40 years’ imprisonment) and Mar Hernández to 27 years and 6 months.

But the chain of impunity continued. The Sinaloa Supreme Court again acquitted the two accused, in document number 941/1993, on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence.

There was nothing the state Attorney General’s Office could do, but nor did it try to – neither to reopen the investigations to strengthen the accusations, nor to attempt to locate Humberto or Rigoberto Rodríguez Bañuelos. The case file showed no movement whatsoever.

It was easier to let it go and, perhaps, forget all about it.

That choice of indifference paid off. It was the last link in the chain of impunity.

Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos was arrested in Tijuana, Baja California, in March 2001. He was going under the name of Carlos Durán Montoya. On that occasion he was accused of killing and wounding municipal police officers.

At first no one recognized him. He was someone else. He had other facial features and a thinner body. He had undergone plastic surgery and hair grafting and liposuction that enabled him, according to the authorities, to lose some 90 pounds.

Three months later, following a call from an informer, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office confirmed, from DNA and fingerprints, that it was Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos. That was what was reported by the agency and it asserted that this was one of the main hitmen of the Arellano Félix brothers cartel.

He was immediately taken to a more secure and reliable lockup – the maximum security facility of Puente Grande in Jalisco state. The accusations against him began to come fast.

Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos was an officer and came to be chief of the Sinaloa Judicial Police (now Ministerial Police). At that time he was a fat man, with wispy hair, droopy eyes and bitter look. Because of his complexion he was nicknamed “La Rana” (The Toad), but he was called “H-1” and “Don H,” depending on who was talking.

The authorities say he was a cruel and vengeful man, characteristics that served him when he left the force and joined the organization calling itself “El Cochiloco” of Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo and later that of the Argellano Félix brothers, according to details gathered by the authorities.

In all the organizations he held important posts, according to the Attorney General’s Office, because in addition to taking charge of supervising the movement of drugs he also got rid of enemies.

In 2001, already in prison, he was in principle facing four trials, in which he was accused of the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and Jalisco Public Prosecutor Leobardo Larios Guzmán, as well as 17 other murders, kidnappings, possession of weapons, drug trafficking, and criminal association, among others.

At that time, on May 3, 2001, Antonio Cordero Lamadrid was arrested once more in Sinaloa. He was now accused of the theft of vehicles. Once again he was set free, after just six days. No evidence was formally found against him. The Attorney General’s Office did not take the opportunity to charge him again with the murder of Manuel Burgueño, nor to at least interrogate him.

In the Humberto Rodríguez Bañuelos case the Sinaloa authorities erased from their memory the fact that there was pending a warrant for the arrest for the murder of the journalist. They did nothing.

The editor of the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta, Jesús Blancornelas, wrote in one of his columns that it was not necessarily forgetfulness. “I knew that the now jailed Rodríguez Bañuelos sent a message to Sinaloa state officials – Don’t formally charge him in the Manuel Burgueño case. He was not so worried about the Sergio Galindo (another journalist) case.”

Federal authorities also suffered from amnesia, despite the fact that since 1988 in an internal report of the Interior Ministry among the murders of journalists that was acknowledged to have been committed because of their work was that of Manuel Burgueño.

Sinaloa newspapers complained that “La Rana” had not been charged with the murder. So insistently did the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). But the authorities – all of them – remained silent and lost their memory.

In this long chain of impunity the authorities sought to place the final link on September 7, 2007 when the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office decreed “the discontinuance, due to the statute of limitations, of the criminal proceedings in favor of the four accused – Rigoberto Rodrígues Bañuelos, Humberto Rodrígues Bañuelos, Sergio a.k.a. “El Guamuchilito” and Arturo a.k.a. “El Guamuchilito,” as a consequence of which the legal actions that were being taken against them remain without effect.”

That is what the Attorney General’s Office said in response to a request for information (number 4117) made by the IAPA with the support of the newspaper El Noroeste.

In May 2008 the then mayor of Culiacán, Jorge Abel López Sánchez, inaugurated the paving of Manuel Burgueño Street in the city’s Libertad de Expresión (Freedom of Expression) neighborhood. It was a homage a few yards long to the memory of a journalist who has not been done justice.

Although the Attorney General’s Office has sought to close the case, what is certain is that international law and treaties ratified by Mexico establish that in this case there is a need to investigate who was involved and why no attention was paid to the warrants that existed for the arrest of the Rodríguez Bañuelos brothers, mainly against “La Rana” (The Toad), when it was publicly know that he had been in prison since 2001.

It remains to be ascertained who are those responsible for failing to investigate in more depth in order to strengthen the accusations against the persons responsible.

Questions to which the law still requires an answer.