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the workers when they were abducted. The kidnappers told Rodríguez that if he wanted to
negotiate the release of his workers, he would need to meet them the following morning at
a bridge on the outskirts of town. An employee who drove him to the location said that a
municipal police car and a car without license plates were waiting for him there. 63
Rodríguez got into one of the cars, which then drove away. Neither he nor the 19 workers
were ever seen again.
Seventeen police from Pesquería were arrested on June 9, 2011, and placed under arraigo
detention64 the following week for the abduction of the workers and collusion with
organized crime. At this writing, nine police officers had been charged in the
disappearance, while the investigation remained ongoing. 65
In another example of collusion between authorities and organized crime, on December 27,
2011, brothers José Carlos and Juan Rogelio Macías Herrera, 39 and 37—who ran a
business selling used cars—were driving between the municipalities of Apodaca and
Juárez in Nuevo León when they were detained at a police checkpoint. 66 The wife of one of
the brothers lived along the road where police had set up the checkpoint. At 4:30 p.m., she
said, she saw the two men being driven in the back of a Juárez municipal police car, which
was being followed by another police car. 67 She saw the numbers of the two patrol units
and wrote them down. When the brothers did not return home within several hours,
relatives went to the Juárez municipal police station to ask if they were being held. The
police denied any knowledge of their detention, members of the family said.
On January 3, 2012, five men, including three members of the Juárez police, were detained
for kidnapping the two men. 68 In statements given by the police officers to prosecutors,
63 Ibid.
64 Arraigo allows public prosecutors to hold suspects, with the authorization of a judge, for up to 80 days before they
charging them with a crime.
65 Human Rights Watch email communication with Consuelo Morales, director of human rights organization Citizens in
Support of Human Rights (Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos, CADHAC), who is assisting several of the victims’
families in the case, January 24, 2013.
66 Human Rights Watch interview with family members of victims, Monterrey, Nuevo León, June 2, 2012. The identity of the
individuals has been withheld out of concern for their safety.
67 Ibid.
68 “Six Officials from Nuevo León Indicted for Kidnapping” (Indagan por plagio a 6 agentes de NL), El Norte, January 4, 2012
(on file with Human Rights Watch); “Display of Juárez Police Who Worked for a Criminal Group,” (Presentan a policías de
Juárez que trabajaban para grupo delictivo), Milenio, January 3, 2012,
http://monterrey.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/625a69992a4324d2bab7ec1f7319b513 (accessed July 31, 2012).
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