1982–1985 (SUCCAR KURI)
After meeting Gloria Pita when she is fourteen years old, the two marry. She is aware of “his defects, the fact that he likes little girls.”
He leaves Acapulco following a failed attempt to abuse a minor and being threatened by the girl’s parents. He keeps his apartment in the city.
He meets Miguel Ángel Yunes. He opens businesses in the Mexico City airport.
1986
Succar Kuri arrives in Cancun and purchases several retail stores in the Nautilus shopping center. Assisted by Alejandro Góngora Vera, he makes deals with FONATUR.
He purchases units at the Solymar Villas and, thanks to his friendships and influence, begins doing business with his associate and friend Kamel Nacif.
2000
August. Emma is a student at the La Salle school and tells her Morality teacher, Margarita, about the abuses she suffered at the hands of Succar Kuri. Emma’s mother contacts her brother (Emma’s uncle), Ricardo Cetina, and the latter forbids her from reporting Succar.
2003
March. Kamel Nacif asks Succar Kuri to bring him a girl from Florida and another from El Salvador so that they can “fornicate” in a ménage à trois. Kamel asks how much each girl will cost him, and Succar tells him it’s US$2,000 each and that he’ll have them brought to the Solymar Villas in Cancun. (Telephone recording revealed by the journalist Carmen Aristegui. Nacif admits to the daily newspaper Reforma in 2007 that the recorded calls are authentic.)
October. Emma seeks out her former teacher Margarita and asks her to assist her in reporting Succar Kuri. Emma is introduced to the lawyer Verónica Acacio of the nonprofit organization Protégeme, who agrees to represent her and other underage girls in their accusation free of charge.
October 27. Quintana Roo state attorney general Celia Pérez Gordillo authorizes the state assistant attorney general to make a video recording of a conversation between Emma and Succar Kuri in order to obtain evidence against the latter. Succar admits to having raped girls as young as five.
The Quintana Roo newspaper Por esto! offers full, real-time coverage of the case. All the state media outlets follow suit.
October 29. Succar’s lawyers orchestrate the pedophile’s escape, after having been warned that he was going to be arrested the following day.
October 30. Gloria Pita, alias “La Ochi,” telephones Emma and her mother and threatens to kill them if they do not retract the accusation against Pita’s husband, Jean Succar. Two telephone calls are recorded in which Gloria can be heard admitting clearly and expressly to having explicit knowledge of her husband’s pedophiliac activities.
November 2. Emma reports Jean Succar Kuri to the PGR for child pornography and for raping her when she was thirteen years old, and her younger sister and cousin when they were eight and nine years old, respectively, as well as other six-year-old girls. She testifies that Succar established contact with girls from the United States for the purpose of bringing them to Kamel Nacif Borge, Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, and Alejandro Góngora Vera.
November. Emma gets in touch with Óscar Cadena and asks him to interview her on his television program Encadénate, because she fears for her life after having reported the man who raped her. Cadena broadcasts the interview on Televisión de Quintana Roo and on SKY.
November 4. The underage girl Carmen reports to the PGR that Succar has been raping her and filming videos with her since she was six years old. Another girl, Laura, reports that she met Succar Kuri when she was in kindergarten, at the home of a neighbor woman, and that he began abusing her when she was five years old. Three more underage girls who have never met Emma also file reports.
November 4. Emma locates Lydia Cacho and asks that she help her, as a journalist, to tell her story, explaining that her life has been threatened. Emma later accepts the assistance offered by CIAM Cancun to herself and other victims.
November 7. Alejandro Góngora (head of FONATUR) claims that he does not know the girl Emma.
Emma testifies to the PGR that she met Alejandro Góngora and his wife, Rocía, at the Solymar Villas—she was in the room and Succar introduced her to them as his daughter “La Pecas” [“Freckles”]. Emma explains that she accompanied Succar to FONATUR several times to do “business” with Góngora. The details she provides are later corroborated by the authorities.
November 12. INTERPOL reports that it has initiated an investigation into Jean Thouma Hanna Succar Kuri for “money laundering” in at least eight tourist resort cities around the country, where he also owns homes, clothing and jewelry shops, restaurants, and other properties.
November 13. The PGR has Emma and the other victims submit to psychological evaluations.
November 21. Governor Joaquín Hendricks promises to take action in the Succar case and declares, “I will see to it that the law is rigorously enforced,” in the event that public servants at the State Attorney General’s Office are proven to have been complicit in the escape of the pedophile Succar Kuri.
November 22. Kamel Nacif telephones Governor Hendricks to assure him that his friend Succar Kuri is innocent.
Succar Kuri telephones Lydia Cacho and threatens to kill her for having “meddled in his life” by publishing an analysis of the case in her newspaper column and going on television to discuss his acts of abuse.
Novmber 24. Attorney General of Mexico Rafael Macedo announces that the U.S. Marshals Service has reported having located Succar Kuri at his residence in Downey, California. They announce that they will seek a warrant for his arrest. (The PGR waits two months before sending the U.S. Marshals Service the documentation required for the arrest.)
November 26. The PGR hears testimony from American witnesses residing at the Solymar Villas. The latter declare that they inquired whether pedophilia of the sort Succar practiced with young girls was not illegal in Mexico. EJ and RC testify to having witnessed some of Succar’s people removing boxes and documents from Solymar’s Villa #1. They contacted the police but were ignored.
The PGR interrogates Kamel Nacif Borge, who declares under oath that he has seen Succar Kuri on only one occasion, at the inauguration of the Marriott hotel in Cancun, and that the two are not friends.
November 29. Víctor Manuel Echeverría Tun, third criminal court judge for Cancun, issues an arrest warrant against Succar Kuri for child pornography, corruption of minors, and statutory rape.
Yunes Linares categorically denies knowing Succar Kuri.
Sandra Moreno, Yunes Linares’s secretary, admits to the PGR that she has been to the Solymar Villas in the company of Yunes, but she denies that her daughter or niece was ever molested.
The PGR’s General Division of Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance requests that the accused pedophile be handed over for trial in Mexico.
December. The magazine Proceso publishes investigations conducted by the American DEA and the Mexican AFI (the Federal Investigations Agency, a body under the direction of the PGR) into Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, as well as the testimonies of captured narcotraffickers revealing that Yunes received US$15 million while serving as Veracruz Secretary General of Government. SEIDO assistant attorney general Eduardo Berdón reports that Patricio Chirinos and Miguel Ángel Yunes “supported narcotrafficking activities and, specifically, received approximately US$15 million” from drug boss Albino Quintero.
2004
January. Kamel Nacif succeeds in acquiring a 100 percent ownership stake in the American company Tarrant Apparel Group, with offices and factories in China, Thailand, Korea, New York, and Los Angeles.
February. Kamel Nacif hires San Diego–headquartered law firm Seltzer, Caplan, McMahon & Vitek and requests that Charles L. Goldberg be assigned to his case. Goldberg was named “Best Criminal Lawyer” in San Diego in 2000; he resigned from Kamel Nacif’s case in 2005.
February 4. Jean Succar Kuri is arrested in Chandler, Arizona, at the request of INTERPOL.
March 10. Succar Kuri is ordered to undergo criminal proceedings for child pornography, in case number 447/2003-IV.
April 6. The Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit sends the Federal Public Ministry twenty-two files containing information pursuant to the analysis of reports into 144 “unusual” banking transactions made by the company Kanan Banana that may be related to money-laundering activities.
June. Judge Armando Chiñas orders the “freezing” of US$20 million from accounts held in the name of Jean Succar Kuri, owner of Kanan Banana.
July. Succar Kuri’s cellmate reports to prison authorities at the Arizona jail that Kuri has hired Felipe de Jesús Argüelles Mandujano, alias “El Rayo” [“Lightning”], to kill Emma, Lydia Cacho, Verónica Acacio, and their former lawyers, Edmart and Gabino Andrade.
2005
January 10. President Vicente Fox appoints Miguel Ángel Yunes Lunares to the post of assistant secretary of public security. Yunes is a former federal deputy, a former member of the PRI, and is currently a PAN activist and right-hand-man to Elba Esther Gordillo.
January 18. Assistant attorney general Miguel Ángel Pech Cen signs his name to a note given by him to the attorney general in which he states, “In prior enquiry 7431/2003, it must be added that there are in fact indications that Miguel Yunes [sic] was engaging in sexual relations with one of the underage girls. As per instructions, this finding has been 52-ed [legal code used to refer to cases that have been frozen].”
March. SEIDO detains the Municipal Public Security Office’s assistant operative director, Felipe de Jesús Argüelles Mandujano, alias “El Rayo,” for having run security for vehicles used in hit operations by the Gulf Cartel in Cancun. He is held in custody for his connections to criminal and narcotrafficking activities.
May 19. The journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro publishes the book The Demons of Eden: The Powers Protecting Child Pornography, an investigation based on the testimonies of the victims of a pedophilia ring headed by businessman and American legal resident Jean Succar Kuri. The book is presented by Carlos Loret de Mola and Jorge Zepeda at the Jaime Sabines Cultural Center.
June 22. Businessman Kamel Nacif Borge reports Lydia Cacho to the Puebla authorities for defamation and libel; he requests that the state’s governor, Mario Marín, use his influence to have the journalist arrested for the publication of The Demons of Eden, which linked him to textile magnate Succar Kuri.
July 11. Federal prosecutor Reid Charles Pixler, acting in representation of the government of Mexico, presents a file of new evidence to a federal court in the United States of America in support of the former country’s request to have Succar extradited. Among this new evidence, there are videos showing Succar raping girls, setting up cameras in order to film pornographic scenes on his bed, and preparing a massage table on which to film still more girls.
December 16. Lydia Cacho is arrested by the Cancun Judicial Police in Cancun, Quintana Roo, and transported overland in conditions of torture to the city of Puebla. After spending almost thirty hours under arrest, she is released on the historically large bail sum of 70,000 pesos.
December 23. Judge Pérez Gonzáles, after allowing three working days for the submission of evidence, orders that Cacho Ribeiro be remanded to prison for the crimes of defamation and libel.
December 23. Cacho’s lawyers resign for fear of reprisals from Marín’s government, which was threatening and firing individuals supportive of Cacho even as she was being released from prison.
2006
January. In an interview on TV Azteca, Kamel Nacif admits to being friends with Succar and having taken care of his immigration papers upon the latter’s arrival in Mexico twenty years earlier. (Nacif had denied this information previously when questioned by the authorities.)
January 17. Lydia Cacho is absolved of the crime of libel for lack of evidence, in an appeal made by her lawyers before the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Puebla, but the charges of defamation are allowed to stand.
January 20. The Puebla TSJ rules in favor of the journalist, acknowledges Judge Pérez González’s lack of jurisdiction, and transfers the case from Puebla to Cancun.
February 14. La Jornada publishes recorded telephone conversations between textile magnate Kamel Nacif Borge and the governor of Puebla, Mario Marín Torres, which lay bare the conspiracy between Puebla and Quintana Roo public servants to have Lydia Cacho arrested.
February 27. Close to forty thousand people take to the streets of Puebla to demand Governor Marín’s removal.
March 13. The journalist files a report with the PGR against Puebla governor Mario Marín, businessman Kamel Nacif, Puebla state attorney general Blanca Laura Villeda Martínez, and judge Rosa Celia Pérez González for the crimes of bribery, influence peddling, abuse of authority, attempted rape, and false testimony.
April 4. American judge David K. Duncan authorizes the extradition of the alleged pedophile Jean Succar Kuri—denounced by the journalist Lydia Cacho in her book The Demons of Eden—to Mexico for his role as the head of an international pedophilia network.
April 18. The Congress of the Union requests that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) assert jurisdiction and investigate the alleged violation of Lydia Cacho’s human rights; the nation’s highest court accepts the request and rules to create an initial investigative commission whose aim will be to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring impeachment charges against Governor Mario Marín.
July 5. Jean Succar Kuri is extradited to Mexico and incarcerated at the Cancun jail.
August. Quintana Roo criminal court judge Sergio López Camejo requests that the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) transfer Succar Kuri—at this point considered a high-risk inmate—to the La Palma detention center, as an investigation carried out by the state’s Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) had learned that he was involved in a dangerous extortion ring operating from within the Chetumal and Cancun prisons.
August. Three more underage girls file reports against Succar Kuri with the PGR’s SEIDO division.
August 1. Quintana Roo state attorney general Bello Melchor Rodríguez Carrillo declares that “during Governor Hendricks’s term of office, his public servants were known to have aided Succar in his escape, and appropriate response measures were never taken.”
Jean Succar Kuri, alias “El Johnny,” confirms that Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, assistant secretary of public security at the federal level, is a friend of his and that he has known him for fifteen years. In a Televisa interview conducted by Carlos Loret de Mola from the Cancun municipal jail, Succar Kuri also admits that Kamel Nacif contributed US$300,000 to his defense.
August 3. Lydia Cacho’s case file, which was opened just months previously at the request of the journalist herself, is stolen from the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission. The Commission files a criminal report with the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (PGJDF) to have the robbery investigated.
August 17. The authorities transfer Succar Kuri to the Chetumal correctional facility. Information is leaked to the effect that Succar Kuri and other inmates are organizing a jailbreak from the Cancun prison.
September. Succar Kuri admits on Loret de Mola’s news broadcast that he met Yunes Linares when the latter was employed as the commercial director of the Mexico City airport and that Yunes came to dine at his Solymar Villas in Cancun “with his wife.”
September 9. By a vote of seven to three, the Supreme Court rules to widen its investigation into the possible violation of Lydia Cacho’s rights in order to include an analysis of the so-called “Precious Guv’.” A second special commission is created.
September 28. The PGR asserts jurisdiction in the case involving the theft of Lydia Cacho’s case file from the CNDH. Four people are arrested as a result of the ensuing probe.
September 29. A second face-to-face session between the journalist and Kamel Nacif is held before a judge headquartered in Cancun.
October 25. Inmates Armando Bocanegra Priego and Juan Ramón González confess that they were hired by “El Johnny” Succar Kuri at the Chetumal prison to kill several witnesses, among them Lydia Cacho. Succar had given them a sketch of Cacho’s residence.
November 16. Succar Kuri is transferred to the El Altiplano high-security prison in Toluca.
December 9. Nearly one hundred inmates escape from the Cancun municipal jail. Three are killed in the commotion. Authorities confirm that Succar was involved in the planning of this jailbreak, in which he himself had originally planned to escape, as well.
December 17. Emma files a civil suit in a Mexico City courthouse against Lydia Cacho for having published “her story” in The Demons of Eden. Emma also wrote to Lydia Cacho, stating that she had been forced to sign an agreement, written in English, with Kamel Nacif’s lawyers in exchange for money.
2007
January 2. Kamel Nacif definitively loses the legal battle he began a year earlier against Cacho Ribeiro, whom he had accused of defamation. Fourth Criminal Court judge Lorenzo Medina Garzón of Mexico City ruled to throw out the proceedings initiated in December 2005 by the Puebla judge Rosa Celia Pérez González and decrees that the journalist be absolved.
March. The Supreme Court’s second special investigative commission initiates investigations in Quintana Roo and Puebla. Public servants involved in the case, Jean Succar Kuri’s victims, Lydia Cacho, and various members of the media are all formally questioned.
March 23. Lydia Cacho receives the Amnesty International Ginetta Sagan Award for her work in defense of human rights.
May 3. In a session lasting nearly thirteen hours, Lydia Cacho gives further testimony against alleged pedophile Jean Succar Kuri, who, in the presence of the journalist, admits to having had sexual relations with a minor. At the end of the face-to-face session, Succar Kuri threatens the journalist’s life.
May 8. Lydia Cacho reports an attempt on her life. After the PGR assigns her an SUV and chauffeur as part of the precautionary measures being taken to protect her, Cacho gets into the vehicle at the Mexico City airport. After five minutes of traveling, the vehicle is stopped by the driver, because he notices a problem with one of the wheels. The security team discovers that the vehicle has been intentionally tampered with in order to provoke an accident. Three months later, the PGR has still not made an analysis of the vehicle or taken any witness testimonies. It does, however, arrange an appointment for Cacho to submit to a psychological examination, as a precondition to investigating the attack.
May 24. Governor Mario Marín appears before Justice Juan N. Silva Meza and submits to the latter a document with his version of the events. The text is filled with errors and political arguments in defense of the governor.
June 6. Justice Silva Meza circulates among his fellow justices at the nation’s highest court a copy of the special investigative commission’s findings report for the Lydia Cacho case, in order for them to analyze its contents prior to the public session that will be held to discuss the topic.
June 17. The secretary of the congressional Committee for Radio, Television, and Cinematography, José Antonio Díaz García, petitions the State Information and Communications System (SICOM) to broadcast the Supreme Court session in which the findings for the Lydia Cacho case will be announced.
June 21. A group of intellectuals, artists, film directors, and civil society bodies publishes a full-page spread in a variety of newspapers under the title “Once Upon a Time There Was a Pedophile . . .” It is signed by Alfonso Cuarón, Luis Mandoki, González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro, Salma Hayek, Noam Chomsky, and more than three thousand others.
June 26. Results of the Supreme Court’s investigative committee: Silva Meza’s conclusions establish that Marín, Guillermo Pachecho Pulido, Blanca Laura Villeda, and judge Rosa Celia Pérez González conspired to act to the advantage of businessman Kamel Nacif, through the apprehension and torture of Lydia Cacho, whose journalistic work uncovered a network of political and financial forces supporting and protecting child pornography and pedophilia rings as well as self-proclaimed pedophile Jean Succar Kuri himself.
Report by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation: “The Special Prosecutor for the Detection of Sexual Crimes, under the direction of the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Quintana Roo, reported 1,595 prior inquiries having been initiated for sexual crimes committed against minors (2006). The actions highlighted herein show the individual guarantee contained in Article IV of the Constitution, pursuant to the right of children to secure the fulfillment of all necessary elements for their complete and proper development in the states of Puebla and Quintana Roo, to be in a state of absolute neglect.”
August. Proceedings are concluded in the Succar case at the federal court, which hopes to deliver a sentence of at least sixteen years’ incarceration on federal charges of child pornography and twenty years on state charges of rape and corruption of minors. (Federal and state sentences may not be combined.)
Succar Kuri’s lawyer, Wenceslao Cisnero, steps down publicly from the defense after viewing one of the pornographic videos in which his former client is seen raping small girls. He admits that Succar Kuri is a pedophile and that a Salvadoran girl whom the latter had been exploiting for use in the sex tourism industry is, according to Succar Kuri, dead.
The special federal prosecutor for crimes against women, Alicia Elena Pérez Duarte, acknowledges that Succar Kuri is part of an international network involved in the trafficking of girls and teenagers. Despite this, none of his accomplices are investigated.
August. Kamel Nacif is starting up new businesses in Costa Rica and Cuba. The factory where he manufactures Disney-brand children’s products—Skytex de México, a variable capital company—is a huge commercial success.
The Congress of the Union has received the Supreme Court’s resolution allowing impeachment charges to be brought against Mario Marín. Top PRI leaders have declared that they will protect Marín at all costs.
LAWYERS WHO HAVE ATTEMPTED TO DEFEND SUCCAR KURI AND LATER STEPPED DOWN
2003: Sidharta Bermúdez, Edmart and Gabino Andrade.
2004: Joaquín Espinosa (who, on Succar Kuri’s orders, coordinated an attack against the Andrades that ended in a gunfight on March 23).
2004: Charles L. Goldberg (USA) is hired by Kamel Nacif and steps down after he is pressured to try to buy off judges and witnesses.
2005: Patrick Hall and an unnamed Cuban lawyer (whose voice is heard in recorded telephone conversations with Kamel Nacif).
2005: Elías Abdalá Delgado and Ena Rosa Valencia Rosado (who, as part of their defense of Succar, put Emma in touch with Carlos Loret de Mola for the purpose of having the latter interview her).
2006: Efraín Trujeque Arcila and Armando René Ancona Araujo (who worked as a Federal Public Ministry agent and as such had access to the underage girls’ reports against Succar before becoming the latter’s defender).
2006: José Wenceslao Cisneros Amaya and Hernán Cisneros Montes (who stepped down in 2007 after coaching some girls for the witness stand subsequent to the latter having been threatened and given money by Succar Kuri in exchange for a partial retraction of the accusation they had made against him).
2007: Dr. Alfredo Delgadillo Aguirre (president of the Academic Board at the National Institute for Higher Studies in Criminal Law [INDEPAC]—as of the date of this book’s publication, he continues to defend Succar Kuri).
My case took a turn, as I have previously explained, on February 14, 2006, when recordings surfaced of telephone conversations between Kamel Nacif and Governor Mario Marín, as well as conversations the former held with other public figures, including three governors and the PRI’s congressional leader, Emilio Gamboa. Marín denied that the voice on the tapes is his, only to feel remorse and recant this statement later, claiming now that it was his voice, but that his words had been manipulated. For his part, Nacif declared in a statement to the daily newspaper Reforma that he had asked the governor to arrest me, and that the governor had obliged. Now desperate, the governor used public money to hire a number of American specialists who would analyze the calls and provide him with an “expert witness” in an attempt to prove that they had been faked. But on November 19, 2006, Kamel Nacif involuntarily dealt the final blow to his friend the Governor—whom he affectionately called “Daddy,” “Precious,” and “my hero”—when he put out an editorial explaining that his then wife (they have since divorced) recorded the calls because the two were experiencing marital troubles:
Until today, I had chosen to proceed with the accusation I filed against Ms. Cacho under conditions of the strictest adherence to the law, limiting my dispute with her to appropriate forums, such as the courts, and not the media, but the events of a few days ago in which recordings obtained illicitly from my telephone lines were made public make it necessary for me to write this open letter to the public.
I never imagined that sentiments I had expressed privately would be made public, fundamentally due to the nature of the setting in which my words were originally spoken. Morally speaking, I am the sole bearer of responsibility, it is I who can be heard speaking in those conversations, and the offensive words used were my own, in these conversations that—and I stress this once more—were of a private nature.
In these conversations, Nacif can be heard planning a hostile buyout of residential property with Succar Kuri and asking him to bring over some girls from Florida and El Salvador “to fornicate” with them in Cancun. Later dates have Nacif planning and celebrating my arrest, as well as discussing having me raped and beaten in the Puebla jail. All of the conversations you will read below are extracted and transcribed directly from the audio files provided to us by La Jornada and journalist Carmen Aristegui. The language used in them is uncouth, at times vulgar and offensive. In the interest of preserving authenticity, mispronounced words and disjointed ideas have been left untouched.2727
THE “PRECIOUS GUV’”
Christmas 2005 is approaching, it is December 23. Puebla judge Rosa Celia Pérez had remanded me to prison just a few hours earlier. There is the voice of a secretary, who mentions both men by name before connecting them, then the following conversation transpires:
Governor Mario Marín (GMM): Talk to me, Kamel.
Kamel Nacif (KN): My precious guv’.
GMM: Hey, my hero.
KN: No, you’re the hero of this movie, Daddy.
GMM: So yesterday I finally gave that old bitch a goddamn good smacking. I told her that here in Puebla we respect the law, and there’s no impunity, and if a person commits a crime, we call them a delinquent. And she better not go around playing the victim and trying to use this to get publicity for herself, either. I sent her a message, and now we’ll see how she reacts. But she just keeps screwing around with us, so she can take her smacking and everyone else can goddamn well learn from it.
KN: I know, these bastards keep coming out with one bullshit thing after another. But I made a statement. I went on TV.
GMM: Hey, great. There in Mexico or here in Puebla?
KN: Here, but they said they were gonna send it there. It was shown here. And I told them at Milenio—if you want, you can read it—I told them, yeah, well the governor doesn’t pussyfoot around.
GMM: No we do not, and we’re not gonna start.
KN: Fucking bunch a rats. What have they done? What is this shit, huh?
GMM: No! They think they’re God on high.
KN: Exactly. I called to thank you. I know I got you into a mess with this, but . . .
GMM: No, don’t worry about it, I like this stuff. I agree with you that, sons a bitches, this stuff . . . I mean . . . we’re no saints, clearly, but if anyone has any proof, then let them show it. And if not, they can shut the hell up.
KN: I know, but it’s all just so shameful, my distinguished friend. It really is shameful.
GMM: It is.
KN: And to thank you, I’ve got a beautiful bottle of Cognac here for you, but I don’t know where to send it.
GMM: Send it over to Casa Puebla.2828
KN: I wanted to give it to you personally, but you’re so busy.
GMM: Send it to me at Casa Aguayo,2929 that way I can drink it.
KN: You’re gonna drink it? Then I’ll send you two, not one.
TELEPHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN KAMEL NACIF AND “JUANITO” NAKAD ON THE DAY OF LYDIA CACHO’S LAWFUL KIDNAPPING
“Juanito” Nakad (JN): Hey, patrón.3030
Kamel Nacif (KN): Hey, Juanito.
JN: Listen, I’m down here at the Attorney General’s. I couldn’t see Alfonso Karam [the chief of police] because he’s at a press conference. (. . .) I spoke to the judge. The judge is here now at the courthouse.
KN: And what did she say?
JN: She says “Juanito, I can’t have you coming down here today.” So I say, “Why not?” And she says, “Later, I’ll tell you in a little while.” It seems they’ve been talking to her since yesterday. “I don’t wanna see you around here, don’t worry, you’re in good hands.”
KN: So . . . what, then? Is she gonna let her out on bail?
JN: I don’t think so. I don’t think so. But—she did say we’d talk soon. I don’t know what orders she’s got from above. It was the same last time . . . s’all right, listen, we’ll talk in a sec, I’m gonna catch Alfonso Karam here, I’ll call you in two minutes, five minutes. (Hangs up.)
FOLLOW-UP CALL 1
Juanito calls Kamel from his cell phone twenty minutes later while monitoring the police’s actions at the state attorney general’s office.
JN: Listen, that woman’s here now. Jesus Christ.
KN: And? Was it a whole big fucking thing or just nothing?
JN: Not a big thing, but . . . no. No sign of her husband. And Televisa showed up and the whole deal, and they brought her down from where she was being held. Because I told her—on orders of the governor, even if it’s just for five minutes, you lock her up in a cell. And they were gonna stick her in there, and they brought her down, took her picture, I don’t know what the fuck else. Then she left. He [Nakad is referring to the head of the State Judicial Police] was standing right in front of me talking to López Zavala, telling him to tell the governor that this woman [Lydia Cacho] was on her way over to the correctional facility, that she’d be at the correctional facility in five minutes. [It’s clear that Juanito is giving orders in the name of the governor, as I was indeed locked in a cell after my photograph and fingerprints were taken.]
KN: Mm-hmm.
JN: And I was gonna go, but the judge told me not to, said she’d talk to me later. (. . .) Anyhow, they brought her [Lydia Cacho] in, blackmailed her. They say she’s a mess. ’Cause she says they brought her over in a piece of shit car. I told her that was on purpose, that they sent an old car on purpose. In the twenty-four hours she was with them, they only let her eat once. We’ll see what happens.
FOLLOW-UP CALL 2
In this conversation, “Juanito” Nakad and Kamel Nacif chat about the advisability of corrupting the authorities so that a person getting arrested never finds out about their impending detention ahead of time. They revel in influence peddling.
JN: Don’t you remember when we were filing the report? He said he had to notify her about it. And the Public Ministry guy said no, if we notify her, she’ll get herself an injunction, and then she’ll never go to jail. Do you remember that?
KN: Of course.
JN: He said it then: Juan knows what he’s doing. Your lawyer wanted us to notify her about it. I said no. We have to hit her hard. When you start notifying people, they never go to jail. (. . .) She never found out, she never found out that there’s an accusation and an arrest warrant out against her. Otherwise we’d have never gotten this far. That’s how you succeed, that’s how you gotta do things.
KN: Goddamn right. What did the guy say?
JN: He’s saying she’s being escorted by the AFI because she’d gotten a death threat. They’re gonna be with her the whole way. She’s being escorted like a star. [Laughs.] She’s coming here with your people and also some other people who’re gonna make sure your people don’t do anything to her on the way over. That’s normal here. If you’re awake, you can see your friend López Dóriga at 10:30, he’s sure to broadcast something about it. [Although Nakad is insisting here that my AFI escort is traveling in another car behind me, in reality the leader of my own security detail, Óscar Cienfuegos, called his boss on the phone while I was being held and he was given the order to let me go with Judicial Police agents. The AFI agents gave testimony to the PGR stating that they never attempted to stop the arrest, nor did they follow behind us. The other vehicle of armed men belonged, in fact, to Kamel Nacif.]
KN: I doubt it.
JN: I bet you anything this is gonna end up on TV. And especially if you’re saying a bunch of journalists from all over Mexico called the governor to ask him if the news is true or not. The news went national, Daddy.
KN: Let it go national.
JN: What the hell, we’re into it now, anyways. [Laughs.]
KN: [Laughs.] We’re into it now.
CALL FROM WEDNESDAY THE 21ST
On the eve of the hearing to determine whether I would be remanded to prison, Nacif lets his nervousness show in this conversation with Nakad:
KN: So is the judge gonna fuck around and change her mind?
JN: No, look, I was with the judge today. (. . .) Adolfo Meneses told me he doesn’t think the judge is gonna get cold feet, because that’s going against her own decision. The only thing I said to Valentín was: Don’t get all up in the judge’s life, the judge doesn’t give a shit, the judge is gonna be all about the law. But if she gets orders from the court, because they screw her over, then she can’t say no, you see what I’m saying? [Valentín Meneses was Governor Marín’s spokesman.]
KN: You know why she can’t go back on her decision? Because they’d come off looking like fucking idiots.
JN: Exactly. Another thing she told me, they were talking on Saturday, they called her thirty times, get her out of there, do whatever you have to, to get her out. She told her 104 thousand pesos. No, wait, 140 thousand. So they negotiate it: five, ten, fourteen. She said, “I can’t lower it.” In the end she only dropped it by 30. So she got 30 of it dropped and paid 70 in cash. When I went to see her on Monday, she said, “Juan, I’ve got the money that bunch of assholes put together when they came down here to defend her. They drained their bank accounts and emptied their wallets and put up 70 thousand in cash.” And she said, “Juan, as far as I’m concerned, she’s getting remanded to prison.” [According to the Supreme Court of Justice’s investigation, the highest amount ever to have been set as bail for similar crimes, in the entire history of the Fifth Criminal Court, was 12 thousand pesos.]
KN: That’s right!
JN: But I know how she is in her personal life. She takes a lot of shit. Poor woman, she should really be on vacation. (. . .)
KN: Tell her I’ll set her up with a vacation.
JN: That’s what I’m saying. She’s gonna have to stay there working all week, ’cause she goes to work on Saturday, too. She’s a true brother to us, a thousand times over.
KN: Where does she want to go on vacation? Tell her I’ll set her up. Tell her I’ll send her wherever she likes, anywhere at all.
JN: I’ll tell her.
KN: Tell the judge I’ll send her to Las Vegas, all expenses paid.
Later, Nacif exclaims:
KN: Man, I look really ugly on TV, don’t I? I look really ugly.
JN: [Laughs.] Saw yourself, did you?
KN: Fucking old, bald son of a bitch.
JN: ’Ats all right. It comes off good here . . . it’s fitting because you can see the old bitch hurt you, fucking cunt. [Laughs again.]
EMMA, ONE OF THE VICTIMS, INTERVIEWS “EL JOHNNY”
Quintana Roo state attorney general Rosa Celia Pérez Gordillo ordered in October 2003 that Jean Succar Kuri be recorded in order to obtain further proof of his involvement in the rape of minors. She never guessed that Succar would be so exhaustive and detailed in his explanations. This is the transcription of the video footage taken when one of the victims, whom we will call Emma, interviewed him with a hidden camera, aided by agents of the Attorney General’s Office. The transcription is literal.
Jean Succar Kuri (JSK): I don’t do it with fifteen-year-old girls anymore. Do you know why I don’t? Because I only do that when I’m somewhere isolated. Like with Marína, when she was at my house and she disappeared and I told her, “Talk to me . . .”
Emma (E): Who’s Marína?
JSK: I met her at your school, before I met you.
E: Ahh . . . Marína.
JSK: What was her name?
E: Leticia Marína.
JSK: But she has another name, she told me another name. I asked her, “Where are you?” and after two days she’s standing in front of me, just there in the bedroom, shouting at the top of her voice.
E: But when I came by, I came with Sandra. Well, at the beginning . . .
JSK: Yeah, but the two of you came. Sandra was coming by alone back then. When I met you, I had just slept with Sandra for the first time, and that was when she bled, a shitload of blood came out of her, and she said, “My mom’s gonna fucking kill me.”
E: Why? Was she a virgin?
JSK: Hey, you know, I really couldn’t tell you.
E: How old was she?
JSK: Sixteen or seventeen. They all bleed with me, my wife bled, a bunch of different housemaids I’ve fucked bled. Plus, they don’t bleed because they’re virgins, they bleed because they’re really small. I didn’t know anything about this one girl.
E: You started seeing her when she was fifteen?
JSK: No, I told you, I approached your friend once, because she was looking for me, so I approached the girl’s dad and there was no problem.
E: But when you took her with you, you touched her.
JSK: That’s a whole different matter, as long as you don’t have relations, as long as you don’t consummate the act, everything’s fine. But you’ve got a past I don’t like . . . [Said mockingly.]
E: Why don’t you like my past?
JSK: Forget it, it doesn’t matter. [He fiddles with the straw in his glass of juice.]
E: It does matter, because those three years I was with you, who did I ever mess around with when I was a girl. No one, I’m telling you, no one.
JSK: You just want to block it out.
E: I want to block it out . . .
JSK: And everything you did when you were there with the girls, I kept bringing out the bottles . . .
E: I didn’t know anything, you asked me to and you turned on your little camera for me to sleep with them . . .
JSK: It’s done. If you enjoyed it or if you still enjoy it, that’s your problem, I’m not telling you to do it or not to do it, after all, it’s your own private life.
E: But you have to understand something, you take a thirteen-year-old girl who doesn’t have any idea about anything and you start to teach her that that’s what the world is like, that that’s how people live, that all of this is normal, then pretty much what she’s gonna learn is that all of this is normal.
J: You don’t remember a lot of things, but I remember when we were at the pool, I told you, “M’ija, they tell me you’re a lesbian,” and I told you, “Lesly told me, even Nadia told me . . .”
E: It’s not true.
JSK: Don’t try to justify it, because there are things you don’t remember, but the most consistent thing about you, the most screwed up of all, is that you don’t remember everything I did for you.
E: I do, I do remember . . .
JSK: Yeah, but then whenever it suits you, you forget.
E: I remember a lot of things. What is it that might not suit me, according to you? Let’s hear it . . .
JSK: Look, it’s like I told you, I didn’t know you were a lesbian until I saw you screwing Nadia.
E: I did no such thing . . .
JSK: And now you’re coming out with all this oh, you taught me, oh, you forced me.
E: You taught me to do that, you taught me that if you need some medicine, I had to give you your medicine [sex]. Why? Because you were suffering . . .
JSK: Yes, I told you that I was a womanizer and I liked girls, and that if you love me, you have to bring me girls, but I didn’t tell you, “Lick them . . .”
E: You told me—
JSK: Motherfucker! I didn’t tell you . . . Look, let’s make a deal.
E: Okay.
JSK: Look, it’ll be really easy, we get some witnesses, some people, I swear on my children. I’m gonna bring you a girl and we’ll see if you’ll lick her, and if not, you can stay with me awhile.
E: But why?
JSK: To see if you’re a lesbian or not.
E: But why would we do that?
JSK: Because if you’re not a lesbian, you’ll never lick her, you’ll never do it, you’ll never do it, not for all the money in the world. You won’t be able to bring yourself to do it . . . there are some things that just . . . listen, one person might do it out of obligation, or necessity, but the other person—what are they guilty of? What need, what obligation do they have?
E: All the girls that were there . . . they were the same way. [According to testimony, he forced them to perform cunnilingus on one another while he filmed them.]
JSK: Who?
E: Pilar, Pocahontas, what’s her name . . . Citlalli.
JSK: No, with you it’s not a question of principles, it’s a question of what makes sense for you.
E: You told me it was the only way to make sure the little girls weren’t going to talk, because that way they’d be ashamed and their own reputations would be compromised, remember what you said!
JSK: All right [he tries to calm her down, he is visibly nervous, he looks from side to side], I love you very much and you’ve made me realize I still love you. . . . So, let’s change the subject. Let’s talk about something else.
E: About what?
JSK: I’m worried about this other girl at the house, she’s saying she’s gonna talk.
E: Why are you worried?
JSK: Because she’s a little girl and the day her goddamn mother figures out she’s already been fucked, the first thing her mind’s gonna go to is me.
E: But if she goes home . . .
JSK: That’s what I’m saying, but if the girl says it wasn’t me, I can stop worrying.
E: But so she wants to go home?
JSK: I’m not gonna be held responsible for something that’s not my fault.
E: Yeah, I know, what I’m saying is—
JSK: Lesly was coming to my place from when she was eight until she was twelve. Lesly took baths with me, she spent a long time with me, she slept whole weeks at my place, and I never did a thing to her.
E: But you would kiss her, and touch her.
JSK: But I’m telling you, that’s all allowed! Because that’s the risk you take when you go to some lonely old fuck’s house, it’s all part of the risk. Her parents just said, “Oh, he takes care of my daughter, he takes care of my daughter.” All that’s allowed. For instance, I say to Lesly, “Bring me a girl who’s four,” and if she says, “She’s already been fucked,” and I see if she’s been fucked already, then I see if I’m gonna stick my dick in her or not. You know this is my weakness, it’s my kink, and I know it’s a crime and it’s not allowed, but it’s so much easier this way, because a tiny little girl like that doesn’t stand a chance, because you can convince her really easily, and then you fuck her. I’ve been doing it my whole life, and sometimes they try to trick me, because they want to stay with me, because I’ve got a reputation for being a good father . . .
KAMEL NACIF AND JEAN SUCCAR, TELEPHONE CALL FROM THE YEAR 2000
Just when it seemed that nothing could surprise us anymore, Carmen Aristegui used her news program to reveal new recordings that provided a clear picture of sex tourism and the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women in Cancun. The federal police believe this telephone call to took place at some point in the year 2000, basing their calculations on the timing of the hostile negotiations being undertaken by Succar Kuri to muscle American citizens out of their residential properties in Cancun. This is the literal transcription of the call, which Kamel Nacif would later admit was recorded in secret by his wife—who fled their home five years ago after he tried to kill her during a domestic dispute, as reported in the divorce filing. Part of the conversation was conducted in Spanish and the rest in Arabic. The Arabic portions were translated for W Radio by Dr. Alfredo Jalife Rahme, a specialist in international relations and a native-born Lebanese man who is fluent in several languages, including Lebanese Arabic.3131
KN: Hello?
JSK: Yes?
KN: Who is this?
JSK: Hello, there, my dear Kamel!
KN: Jean Succar, how are you?
JSK: Where are you, are you over in Acapulco yet?
KN: I’m back in Puebla.
JSK: Ahh, just a quick visit, then, there and straight back again.
KN: Just had to talk to him . . . your friend wasn’t there . . . eh.
JSK: I’ll call you. Are you at home or at the factory?
KN: No, I’m at my house.
JSK: I’ll call you.
KN: Or I can call you. Where are you at?
JSK: 9-2-3-0-3-3-3.
KN: Hold on, you son of a bitch!
JSK: [Laughs.]
KN: I’m not some genius like you, you know . . .
JSK: Same area code.
KN: 5-6-2-9-2-3 . . . Nine what?
JSK: 9-2-3-0-3. Bye.
[Operator speaking in English.]
JSK: Hellooo.
KN: Hey.
JSK: Hellooo, how’s it going?
KN: What’s up, what are you up to?
JSK: Not much . . . so just a quick visit, then, you got there and since your friend wasn’t there, you didn’t want to stick around.
KN: You got me figs, you got me cheese, you got me a whole fucking spread.
JSK: I’m just trying to make you happy, I move heaven and earth to make you happy.
KN: No, unfortunately I couldn’t eat any of it.
JSK: [Laughs.] But you’re going back next week, right?
KN: I told Mari to set it aside for me, and to be careful nobody fucks with it.
JSK: You know what? I’ve got a special bottle here for you, you can take it back with you when you go, remind me when you come. I brought it back on my last trip, I’ve got it here in the refrigerator, but it slipped my mind.
KN: So what else are you up to?
JSK: Not much, just packing to get ready to leave again.
KN: What time are you leaving?
JSK: It leaves, it leaves here at like 12. I get in at like 7 in the evening.
KN: Hmm.
JSK: I’ll be there till the 7th, 8th of May. The 4th of May I have the fucking condo board meeting.
KN: What’s that all about, Daddy?
JSK: Oh, they’re all pissed ’cause I got the hotel, they’re gonna wanna scheme up something against me . . . they can suck my cock.
KN: ’Ats all right, bro, let ’em scheme.
JSK: [Laughs.]
KN: What do they want?
JSK: They’re just dying of jealousy, I’ve already got 30 percent of the building . . .
KN: How’s that?
JSK: They’re a bunch of old folks, you know . . . retired, jealous, they’re afraid I’m gonna kick ’em out, that maintainance costs are gonna go up, I’m taking over the whole building, they’re jealous. I gotta keep ’em at bay, I’m trying to be really nice to them. Once I get 51 percent, they can suck it.
KN: So . . . the condo board, huh . . . And what’s gonna happen on the 4th?
JSK: Nothing, they wanna kick the manager out and I’m supporting him. The manager means shit all to me, but if they kick him out, it’s a victory for them. [Inaudible.]
KN: Don’t get in a fight. And when can we get the 51 percent?
JSK: We’re still short like $2 million.
KN: 2 million?
JSK: [Laughs.]
KN: To buy them all out?
JSK: No, not to buy them out . . . to get to 51 percent.
KN: Okay. And is it worth it?
JSK: Yes, that land is worth $20 million, easy.
KN: What?
JSK: The land is worth $20 million, easy.
KN: What land? It’s not yours, man.
JSK: No, but it’s gonna be. Once I get to 51 percent, we control the whole thing.
KN: No, no, no, Daddy.
JSK: Sure, then you can do whatever you like, then you control the majority of votes.
KN: But what are you gonna do? I mean, I mean, I mean. How much to buy them out?
JSK: Three more.
KN: Is $5 million enough to buy?
JSK: At most.
KN: Then fuck it, I’ll just give it to you, buy them all out and tell them to go fuck themselves already, right?
JSK: We’ll talk when you come. If you’re serious, we’ll talk.
KN: Serious, serious? No, no, course I’m serious, man.
JSK: You love me, whatever I want, you give me, but I want you to feel positively about this.
KN: Yeah, positively. How many rooms are there?
JSK: Total it’s like 250 rooms.
KN: Ok, so we put up $5 million. And how much is it gonna cost us to remodel the whole thing? Nicely, I mean, not that bullshit stuff you do, all that fucking ugly ass shit you do.
JSK: One, another million.
KN: You sure? That’s all?
JSK: You need a million to set up, you know, the conference room and a gym and all that, I’ve already got the specs.
KN: Right, and to remodel the whole thing?
JSK: Another million.
KN: ’Kay, so it’s 7 million. How much do you have? How many rooms are there?
JSK: 250, I’ve got 50.
KN: Right, so 200 rooms for 7 million, remodeling and everything, $35,000 a room—Do it! Right now!
JSK: There’s a problem, not everyone wants to sell . . .
KN: Ohhh!
JSK: It’s gotta be done all gangster, you have to study the thing, that’s what I’m telling you . . . once you have 51 percent . . .
KN: How much did those people pay?
JSK: Here? On average, thirty-five or forty.
KN: It’s what they paid, you’re giving them their money, so now they can just run along and fuck themselves!
JSK: [Laughs.] That’s what’s gonna have to happen, I’m telling you . . . right now half of Solymar is up for sale, because they’re scared, and if they find out I bought, that I have 51 percent the next day everyone [inaudible] it’s logical, the few that don’t sell because they wanna mess with me are gonna have to [inaudible]. It’s a nice place, Kamel, it’s cozy, it’s private, it’s not some building, some cold tower, it’s got charm, it’ll be a real jewel when it’s all fixed up, a nice one, all pretty and fixed up.
KN: All right. Set it up.
JSK: When are you coming to Cancun? Are you coming next week?
KN: No, this coming week I can’t, Daddy, the week after that.
JSK: Don’t just come one night so you have to go back the next day, bro, come for two, three days and walk around on the beach with me. Disconnect for two days.
KN: What?
JSK: Disconnect for two nights.
KN: ’Kay, but [begins speaking in Arabic].
Literal translation from Lebanese Arabic:
KN: Don’t you have any whores? [In Arabic] So why didn’t you sent me one? [In Spanish]
JSK: I’m no good at that stuff [laughs]. [In Spanish]
KN: You’re an asshole. [In Spanish]
JSK: I’m good at . . . I know what I’m good at. [In Spanish]
KN: You’re an asshole, man . . . I’m gonna tell your wife what you’re doing. [In Arabic]
JSK: [Laughs.] If she drops dead, it’s because she doesn’t love you.
KN: You want me to tell your wife? [In Arabic]
JSK: It’s not worth your while, you’re going to Cancun, I’ll be waiting for you with one. [In Spanish]
KN: You want me to?
JSK: Forget her, poor thing, those five sons of hers all doing sports, soccer . . . she’s very busy with them. It’s a blessing she’s so busy with those five sons.
KN: Where’s the girl from Miami?
JSK: She’s in Tampa, I get in on Sunday, and she gets in Sunday, too.
KN: That little whore is just like you.
JSK: You’ll see when you see her.
KN: How much do you pay her?
JSK: $2,000.
KN: You’re such an asshole.
JSK: You’ll see for yourself when I bring her to you.
KN: When? Next week. Motherfucker . . . but you’re bringing her to fornicate.
JSK: First one to chicken out is a rotten egg . . .
KN: But you understand me? She’s coming, but to fornicate.
JSK: She’s just as big a whore as you are.
KN: Just see how we fuck her! Maybe she’ll bring her little friend along. You feeling bad about it or something?
JSK: What do I know, it’s your business, not mine.
KN: No, no, no, bring her. Tell me when, and we’ll bring her over.
JSK: I’m telling you, my friend is really pretty, this short little blond girl.
KN: Why are you speaking in Spanish?
JSK: My wife’s not here, she went to the supermarket.
KN: All right, in Arabic then . . . but you understand, right, we’re bringing this one over to fornicate. [In Arabic]
JSK: Tell me when you’re coming. [In Arabic]
KN: When’s the other girl coming? [In Spanish]
JSK: She gets in from Tampa on Sunday, she’s staying with me until the 6th of May, whenever I tell her. Talk to your friend, we’ll send her her ticket, cause she’s in El Salvador, the friend’s in El Salvador.
KN: Does she have a visa for le Mexique?
JSK: I’m not sure . . .
KN: So?
JSK: That’s why we have to find out.
KN: So find out, man! Have the bitch get one in Tampa.
JSK: [Laughs.] All right.
KN: One who’s just as big a whore as she is, who won’t get all bitchy, and don’t you be a little bitch, either, we’re gonna make them have a ménage à trois.
JSK: Mine’s a virgin, man [laughing].
KN: Yeah, right, a virgin. She can suck a cock like a lollipop, she’s such a virgin! Ahhh, fucking Succar.
JSK: I told you what happened with the Viagra, right? She sucks my cock and she tells me . . . this time it was different [inaudible] different like . . . well, I don’t know what was different. [Laughs].
KN: Hey, you got that fucking fat one working now, right?
JSK: Which? Oh yeah. And now what do I do with her? I finally got her out of my hair.
KN: Exactly, put her to work, it’s Emma, you need her around here, so get over here and get to work already, you fucking cunt. No, you don’t need her at the house.
JSK: No, I don’t bring her to the house anymore.
KN: Do it and don’t, don’t do it and bring her to the house. Hey, you got rid of the DIRECTV in the fucking suite.
JSK: No, I dropped the ball on that one, I didn’t get rid of it, it’s not gotten rid of, I dropped the ball, the box gets taken to the lobby and when I need the suite, I ask for the box. I completely dropped the ball on that one, excuse me.
KN: Ohhh . . . might as well save money anyways man, you’re right. So what else is going on, man?
JSK: Not much, like I said, I’m hoping everything works out at Solymar, I’m a little nervous. I’ll tell you about it later . . .
KN: Nervous? Why? You want me to tell you something, Jean Succar? Take the whole thing easy . . . Whatever happens happens.
This telephone call corroborates the information provided by different witnesses who had given statements to the PGR to the effect that Succar Kuri was bringing girls and boys to the United States without their parents. One of the witnesses under federal protection, who worked with Succar at his shops in the Cancun airport, even told the authorities that the latter would take the children and their airplane tickets and “store” them at his shop until it was time to catch the plane to Los Angeles. “He told us on several occasions, ‘Take care of them until I come for them,’” the witness explained. “I saw the children leaving, but we never saw them come back. He would bring little girls over from the United States, as well, and they were never accompanied by any adults.”
EMILIO GAMBOA AND KAMEL NACIF, THE PROOF OF THEIR “FRIENDSHIP”
A few days after he became chair of the Senate’s Political Coordination Board, PRI-affiliated politician Emilio Gamboa acknowledged that the conversation he held with Kamel Nacif in which the two discussed a gambling law that would affect betting at the Hipódromo [horseracing track] was not the only such talk they had had, stating that there were at least six or seven others. To inoculate himself against any new leaks, Gamboa, who heads the PRI in the senate, revealed further conversations with the Lebanese-born businessman but stressed that he regrets the calls and their contents.
A recording in the possession of El Universal shows that businessman Kamel Nacif demanded that Emilio Gamboa, then a senator, block proposed legal reforms that would have allowed the opening of a casino at the Hipódromo de las Américas racetrack in Mexico City. In February 2004, PRI deputies realized it was in their interest to push through a bill for a proposed Law on Gambling and Lotteries. They drafted a document containing 175 articles and 3 stipulation clauses to regulate the operation of gambling and betting venues. The changes debated in Congress in April 2004 were not passed in the end, and the bill died in September of that same year.
Emilio Gamboa (EG): Hey, Daddy, where you been, man?
Kamel Nacif (KN): Oh, you know, still here in this fucking demon town, Daddy.
EG: But where’ve you been, my king? ’Cause a person can go around all day saying good things about you, but then you up and disappear, you son of a bitch.
KN: I’ve just been working my ass off, you know how it is.
EG: But you’re doing all right?
KN: Hey, you know, as long as I’m alive, I’m doing all right.
EG: No, no, seriously, you all right?
KN: Yes, my king.
EG: All right, take care of yourself, and I’ll see you soon.
KN: And how are you, Senator?
EG: Pfff . . . busy as hell, just having some lunch right now with a couple of senators, if I told you, you’d . . . Jesus Christ.
KN: Where . . . ?
EG: We’re gonna do the Hipódromo reform, not the gambling one anymore . . . just the Hipódromo one.
KN: What for . . . ?
EG: To put some gambling in there, man . . .
KN: What . . .? Oh . . .
EG: What do you think?
KN: No, don’t fuck around with that stuff.
EG: Whatever you say, then, man, whatever you say, that’s the direction we’re going, man.
KN: No, block it, Daddy.
EG: All right then, it’s blocked, that shit’s not getting through the Senate, right?
KN: Hell, no!
EG: Okay.
KN: Hell, no!
EG: All my best.
KN: When are we gonna get together?
EG: Whenever you like, my Kamelito.
KN: Just say the word . . .
EG: I’m going to Washington to see a couple of assholes up there, but I’ll see you when I get back.
KN: When are you going to Washington?
EG: I’m leaving Sunday . . . Friday, no, Saturday . . . and I’m back at 11 o’clock Tuesday night.
KN: All right, let’s try to get together on Wednesday.
EG: I’ll call you when I get back . . . believe me when I say I’ll call you . . . but don’t you call me, now . . . I’ll call you, friend.
KN: Sure thing, Senator . . .
EG: All my best.
KN: Take care. Bye.
EG: You too.
To listen to the recordings of these telephone calls, go to:
This story of conspiracy is jam-packed with names. All of these people participated, to greater or lesser degrees, in the plan to harass and intimidate me and violate my individual guarantees. The 1,205-page document containing the findings of Juan Silva Meza’s investigation includes fingerprints and photographs of each one of these individuals.
Source: Alejandro Almazán and Viétnika Batres, “Cómo se armó la conspiración contra Lydia Cacho” [“How the Conspiracy against Lydia Cacho Was Hatched”], emeequis, number 87, October 1, 2007.
PUEBLA:
Mario Plutarco Marín Torres, the governor
José Kamel Nacif Borge, the businessman
Hanna Nakad Bayeh, the businessman’s friend
Ana María Campeche Sánchez, the governor’s secretary
Guillermo Pacheco Pulido, the chief justice of the Superior Court of Justice of the State
Rosa Celia Pérez González, the judge
Blanca Laura Villena Martínez, the state attorney general
Enrique Ruiz Delgadillo, the adjunct secretary of the Superior Court of Justice of the State
Javier López Zavala, the state secretary of the interior
Carlos Escobar, the governor’s personal secretary
Mario Edgar Tepox, the coordinator of the governor’s agenda
Ricardo Velásquez Cruz, the governor’s legal advisor
Hugo Adolfo Karam Beltrán, the former head of the State Judicial Police
Leonardo Fabio Briceño Moreno, the secretary to the chief justice of the Superior Court of Justice of the State
Heriberto Galindo Martínez, the head of the Social Readaptation Center (Cereso) of Puebla (also known as the San Miguel prison)
Aldo Enrique Cruz Pérez, the director general of the Social Readaptation System for the state of Puebla
Arsenio Farell Campa, Luis Jorge Castro Trejo, Agustín Ruiz Parra, Manuel Farrera Villalobos, and Jorge Miguel Echeverría, the businessman’s lawyers
Igor Archundia Sierra, the assistant attorney general in charge of prior inquiries
Gerardo Villar Borja, Juan José Barriento Granda, and Fernando García Rosas, the justices serving on the
Superior Court of Justice of the State
Martín Macías Pérez, the general agreements secretary of the Superior Court of Justice of the State
José Hernández Corona, the assistant secretary for political affairs and civil protection of the Secretariat of the Interior.
Juan Sánchez Moreno, the commander of the arrest party from the now defunct warrant-issuing station.
Rómulo Arredondo Gutiérrez, the secretary of transportation
Luis Guillermo Arsención Serna, the director in charge of prior inquiries
Rosaura Espejel Prado and Ignacio Sarabia Martínez, the Public Ministry workers
José Montaño Quiroz and Jesús Pérez Vargas, the Judicial Police agents
QUINTANA ROO:
Bello Melchor Rodríguez y Carrillo, the state attorney general
Teodoro Manuel Sarmiento Silva, the state assistant attorney general for the Northern Zone
Javier Brito Rosellón, the former director of legal affairs at the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Northern Zone
Jaime Alberto Ongay Ortiz, the former head of the Judicial Police for the Northern Zone
Jorge Félix Humberto Adolfo Molina Osuna, the former commander of the Apprehension Group at the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Northern Zone
Miguel Mora Olvera, the Judicial Police agent
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A PEDOPHILE WHO WAS PROTECTED BY HIS VERY POWERFUL FRIENDS . . .
FOR THE PUBLIC’S CONSIDERATION
The report filed in 2003 by a group of girls and boys who had been sexually abused by Jean Succar Kuri in Cancun unleased a long series of scandals that has not yet run its course. It is a case that reveals the hurdles the Mexican people are met with whenever an attempt is made to bring authorities and other powerful men with ties to organized crimes before the courts.
THE FACTS
It could have been no easy task for the victims in this case to work up the courage required to report their tormentor, a man of great riches and connections. The authorities responded to this brave, civic act first with an attempt to extort the criminal, and later with negligence by allowing him to escape. Thanks to pressure put on INTERPOL by the victims themselves, Succar Kuri was detained in the United States, but his extradition process was stalled as a result of footdragging at the PGR when it came time to provide the American authorities with documentation of the crime. Evidence and testimony documenting the pedophile’s crimes, some of it irreplaceable, have disappeared from files. Influence peddling has caused the legal process to become completely bogged down.
Thanks to the publication of journalist Lydia Cacho’s book The Demons of Eden and the coverage her case has received, the PGR eventually sped up extradition proceedings. But the network of powerful individuals protecting Succar dealt a harsh punishment to the journalist for having had the audacity to expose them. Businessman Kamel Nacif and Puebla governor Mario Marín undertook negotiations for a torturous version of justice to be meted out as a punishment to Lydia Cacho, as several different pieces of evidence, as well as the famous recordings that came to light on February 14, 2006, attest.
Like the girls Succar abused, Lydia Cacho turned to the law (the PGR), and she reported her tormentors for abuse of authority, torture, and attempted rape. Cacho made the decision to battle it out with her tormentors in the courts, the very arena they had chosen for her torture. The strategy was a risky one, but it was born of a conviction that the country’s democratization might make it possible for a case brought by a citizen against a governor and a state attorney general to succeed.
The backlash has been unrelenting. The judicial system has set resources and subterfuges in motion to punish her daring: the disappearance of evidence, including the CNDH computer on which the testimonies of key witnesses were stored; the intimidation of witnesses; the repetition ad nauseum of interrogation sessions designed to exhaust the journalist; the attack on a PGR-issued SUV in which she was traveling; the Puebla governor’s campaign to discredit Cacho, which was aided by his illegal access to materials in the power of the State Attorney General’s Office; the intentional foot-dragging of Public Ministry workers and judges. The two cases—the case involving the pedophile Succar Kuri and the case of Cacho vs. Marín—are inextricably intertwined. Throughout the entire process, the Puebla authorities have used the courts as though the latter were an extension of the apparatus of the state, rather than a public space in which to hear citizens’ complaints.
To every violation and abuse, Lydia Cacho’s defense has provided a timely response in the courts, never failing to report irregularities and abuses. Every legal maneuver has been met invariably with further harassment and harsher retributions against the journalist.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
The case involving Lydia Cacho and the governor of Puebla has reached the Supreme Court for the second time, thanks to a request made by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The matter at hand is of vital importance for the country. There is much more under examination than a single violation of the human rights of a journalist who is known to protect and give voice to abused boys and girls. What is at stake here is the chance to know, for once and for all, if we average Mexican men and women have any chance at all of getting the state to protect us from criminals who ally themselves with public servants, those in the executive and the judiciary who use the criminal justice system to protect all manner of criminal rings, including networks promoting child pornography and the corruption of minors. For the Puebla authorities involved in this case did not need to participate directly in the act of pedophilia to become accomplices; it was enough that they form an illegal pact to send the public a message—the rights of attackers are protected, and victims and journalists who dare to reveal the true facts of matters are punished.
We urge the justices of the Supreme Court to return to the citizens of Mexico our right to trust the courts. So far, the reprisals dealt to Succar’s victims and the campaign of persecution against Lydia Cacho would appear to confirm the views of eight out of every ten Mexicans, who believe the reporting of crimes to be useless because the institutions of the state will not afford them the proper protection. If the Puebla authorities are cleared of all responsibility, if the obvious existence of networks propagating child pornography, child abuse, and the trafficking of minors in Mexico is not recognized, it is highly unlikely that any other citizen will dare to step forward and challenge in court those men who use the power of the state to corrupt society and strengthen criminal activities in Mexico.
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, DEMAND RESPECT FOR THE CHILDREN AND STAND AGAINST ABUSE AND IMPUNITY:
Adolfo Castañón, Agustín Coppel, Alan Ibarra, Alfonso Cuarón, Alberto Begné, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Alejandra Islas, Alejandro González Iñarritu, Alejandro Páez Varela, Alicia Leal, Alison Thompson, Álvaro Enrigue, Ana Claudia Talancón, Ana Colchero, Ana de la Reguera, Angeles Mastretta, Ángeles Ochoa, Ashley Judd, Astrid Haddad, Avi Lewis, Bart Freundlich, Beatriz Novaro, Benicio del Toro, Berta Hiriart, Berta Navarro, Blanca Guerra, Bridget Fonda, Blanca Rico, Blue Demon Jr. Carla Faesler, Carlos Carrera, Carlos Fazio, Carlos García Agraz, Carlos Martínez Assad, Carlos Monsiváis, Carlos Reygadas, Carmen Boullosa, Carmen Giménez Cacho, Carmina Narro, Caroline Coskren, Cecilia Suárez Charlize Theron, Chema Yazpik Clara Jusidman, Clara Montes, Clara Scherer, Clive Owen, Committee of Protection of Journalists, Cristina del Valle, Damien Rice, Dana Rotberg, Debra Winger, Demi Moore, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Darren Aranovsky, David Bialostozky, David Heyman, Daya Fernandez, Debora Holtz, Denise Dresser, Diana Washington Valdéz, Diego Luna, Eduardo Gamboa, Edward Norton, Elena Poniatowska, Elsa Cross, Emi Norris, Emilienne de León, Emmanuel Lubezki, Enrique Berruga, Epigmenio Ibarra, Eric Newman, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Eugenia León, Eugenio Caballero, Eugenio Derbez, Eve Ensler, Fabrizio Eva, Federico Campbell, Felipe Cazals, Felipe Garrido, Fernando Cámara, Fred Berger, Frederique Ulla Alonso, Gabriel Orozco, Gabriela García Luna, Gael García Bernal, Gerardo García, Gerardo Priego Tapia, Graciela Iturbide, Grupo Elefante, Guadalupe Loaeza, Guillaume Canet, Guillermo del Toro, Gus Van Sant, Harrison Lobdell, Heather Graham, Héctor de Mauleón, Henry Holmes, Huberto Bátiz, Humberto Musacchio, Ignacio Ortiz, Ignacio Rodríguez Reyna, Jackie Joiner, Jacquelyn Langberg, James Schamus, Jenaro Villamil, Jeniffer Hoffmeister, Jesusa Rodríguez, John Hecht, Jonás Cuarón, Jordi Soler, Jorge Fons, Jorge Volpi, Jorge Zepeda Patterson, José Gordon, Jose Luis Garcia Agraz José Pérez-Espino, Josefina Zoraida Vázquez, Josh Lucas, Juan Antonio de la Riva, Juan Carlos Casasola, Julianne Moore, Julie Delpy, Julio Pomar, Julio Scherer Ibarra, Karla Moles, Kristel Laiblin, Kyzza Terrazas, Kate del Castillo, Katia D’ Artigues, Laura de Ita, Leonardo de Leozzane, Liliana Felipe, Lorena Maza, Lucía Álvarez, Lucía Melgar, Lucina Jiménez, Luis Farnox, Luis Javier Solana, Luis Mandoki, Luis Mario Moncada, Manuel Carrillo, Manuel Pereira, Marc Abraham, Marc Weiss, Marcela Lagarde, Marco Lara Kahr, Margarita De Orellana, María Consuelo Mejía, María Elena Chapa, María Rojo, María Teresa Priego, Mariana Castaneda, Mariana Rodríguez, Mariana Winocour, Marie Claire Acosta, Mariestela Fernández, Marina Arvizu, Marina Castañeda, Marta Lamas, Mary Browning, Mateo Gil, Mauricio Carrera, Maximiliano Vega Tato, Mia Maestro, Michael Mann, Mike Davis, Milos Forman, Mira Nair, Moderatto, Molotov, Monica Hoge, Mónica Lavín, Naomi Klein, Naomi Watts, Natalie Imbruglia, Nerio Barberis, Nicole Teeny, Olallo Rubio, Oscar Figueroa, Pablo Cruz, Paloma Torres, Noam Chomsky, Patricia Mercado, Patricia Reyes, Espíndola, Paul Lalberty, Pedro Armendáriz, Pilar Ordoñez, Polly Cohen, Priscila Amescua, Priya Shelly, Rafael Pérez Gay, Random House Mondadori, Randy Ebright, Rebeca Miller, Regina Orozco, Reporteros Sin Fronteras, Ricardo Rocha, Richard Fox, Rita Varela, Rosa Nissan, Rosario Dawson, Rosaura Barahona, Rose McGowan, Ross Katz, Rossana Fuentes, Robert Rodríguez, Robin Wright Penn, Ryan Gosling, Sabina Berman, Salma Hayek, Salvador Camarena, Salvador Frausto, Sara Sefchovich, Sasha Sokol, Saul Hernández, Sean Penn, Sergio Aguayo, Sergio González, Sigfrido Barjau, Slavo Zízek, Stasia de la Garza, Steve Rabineau, Steven Czitrom, Susan Sarandon, Taylor McNulty, Thomas Vinterberg, Timothy J. Sexton, Toni Kuhn, Vicente Leñero, Warren Olney, Woody Harrelson
. . . AND OVER 2,000 MORE SIGNATURES—ALL SIGNING AS ONE—AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT: www.unafuente.com
Full-page spread published June 21, 2007, signed by artists, intellectuals, journalists, and millions of other individuals from a variety of countries, urging the justices at the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to halt impunity.
MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO STOP CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Authority www.aba.gov.au
Australian Federal Police www.afp.gov.au
New South Wales Police/Crime Stoppers www.police.nsw.gov.au
Phone toll-free: (800) 333-000
AUSTRIA
Stopline www.stopline.at
BELGIUM
Child Focus www.childfocus-net-alert.be
Judicial Police of Belgium www.ecops.be
CANADA
Cybertip www.cybertip.ca
Cyber Tipline – National Center for Missing & Exploited Children www.missingkids.org/cybertipline
Phone: (703) 274-3900, toll-free: (800) 843-567
The NCMEC Hotline can be used in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Ontario Provincial Police Child Pornography Unit www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=185
Contact person: Bob Matthews, Child Pornography Unit, phone: (416) 235-4552
DENMARK
Red Barnet www.redbarnet.dk
EUROPA
INHOPE Association www.inhope.org
P.O. BOX 737, Woking GU22 8SY United Kingdom
INTERPOL www.interpol.int
FINLAND
Pelastakaa Lapset www.pelastakaalapset.fi/nettivihje/report.htm
FRANCE
AFA Point de Contact www.pointdecontact.net
GERMANY
Anti-Kinderporno www.anti-kinderporno.de/start_adressen.htm
GREECE
SafeLine www.safeline.gr
HOLLAND
Meldpunt Kinderporno NL www.meldpunt.org
HONG KONG
Hong Kong Child Protection Unit http://www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_family/sub_listofserv/id_familyandc/
Phone: 2804 1437
ICELAND
Barnaheill www.barnaheill.is
IRELAND
ISPA of Ireland Child Pornography Reporting www.hotline.ie
Phone: 1890 610 710
ITALY
Stop-iT www.stop-it.it/
JAPAN
Japan National Police Agency www.npa.go.jp
SPAIN
Protegeles.Com www.protegeles.com
SOUTH KOREA
SWEDEN
Rüdda Barnen www.rb.se/hotline/
TAIWAN
ECPAT Taiwan www.ecpat.org.tw/
NEW ZEALAND
DIA New Zealand www.dia.govt.nz/web/submitforms.nsf/cencomp?OpenForm
UNITED KINGDOM
CrimeStoppers Freephone: 0800 555 111
Internet Watch Fundation www.iwf.org.uk
New Scotland Yard Child Pornography Division
http://content.met.police.uk/Site/tellsomebody
Freephone: 0808 100 0040
27. To hear the original recordings of these and all the other telephone conversations, see the La Jornada and El Universal websites.
28. Translator’s Note: Official residence of the governor of the state of Puebla.
29. Translator’s Note: The building that houses the official offices of the governor of the state of Puebla.
30. Q.v. footnote #6.
31. Translator’s Note: For the present edition of this book, the English translation of this portion of the conversation is based on Dr. Alfredo Jalife Rahme’s Spanish version rather than on the original Arabic.