Tijuana killing spurs many to join march
Protesters call for end to violence, corruption in city
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20040325-9...
By Sandra Dibble
March 25, 2004
TIJUANA ? Clamoring for justice and an end to violence, more than 1,000 protesters marched silently yesterday as darkness fell, spurred on by last
week's slaying of a 27-year-old television executive.
They carried sunflowers ? the favorite of Ang?lica Aguilar Navarro, shot to death March 15 as she drove into the carport of her family's residence in
an upscale Tijuana neighborhood. Eight months earlier, she had seen her younger brother killed in a similar fashion and near the same spot.
"We've had enough of fear in this city. We've had enough of being in the hands of drug traffickers, enough of being in the hands of corrupt
governments," said Dr. Josefina Cota, a family friend who organized the march through downtown Tijuana, from Teniente Guerrero Park to City Hall in
the Rio Zone.
Aguilar worked as marketing director for Mexican television network TV Azteca and was the daughter of a Tijuana oncological surgeon. Yesterday,
friends, co-workers and family members wore T-shirts bearing her likeness, and the words Por Siempre Angie ? Forever Angie.
The march drew a range of residents, from doctors in their white tunics to schoolgirls in plaid skirts. Professionals, business owners, artists and
retirees marched side by side with political leaders, carrying candles and signs and photographs of missing and slain loved ones.
Though Aguilar's death was a rallying cry for the march, she was not the only victim mourned yesterday.
H?ctor Garc?a, a 50-year-old teacher, wore a T-shirt carrying a likeness of his son, shot to death July 25 outside his family's home in Otay Mesa.
Friends were dropping off the 20-year-old engineering student when car thieves shot him in the head, Garc?a said. Two suspects have been identified,
but are on the loose. "We've got to stop violence. It's not fair that Tijuana is in the hands of thieves and assassins," Garc?a said.
Carmen Rivera wept for her son Ramiro Contreras Rivera, a 29-year-old accountant slain May 23. "We don't know who it was, nor where they live, nor why
they did it," said the mother. "We're hoping for justice, and that we can stop living in this uncertainty, this agony, this fear."
Investigators believe that Aguilar's killing was closely connected to the July death of her brother, Jorge Angel Aguilar Navarro, 25. One of the
strongest leads links both deaths to a suspect named Jorge Brise?o, also known as El Cholo or El Cholillo, Baja California Attorney General Antonio
Mart?nez Luna said this week.
Though Brise?o has ties to organized crime, the brother and sister apparently did not, Mart?nez Luna said.
But Brise?o's former girlfriend Itzel Durazo was pregnant with Jorge Aguilar's child, and the two were planning to marry, the prosecutor said.
Investigators believe Brise?o "acted personally, in all probability motivated by passion," said Mart?nez Luna.
Ang?lica Aguilar had seen the killing and testified shortly thereafter, Mart?nez Luna said. But she did not directly accuse Brise?o, and it is unclear
whether her death is linked to her testimony, Mart?nez Luna said. But friends and co-workers said yesterday that there is no doubt that Ang?lica was
killed because of her testimony.
Mart?nez Luna warned people to stay away from anyone linked to organized crime. "We should not have any relationship with any of these criminals," he
said. "We must repudiate them completely."
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