The Attorney General of Veracruz reported that the death of the 62 -year -old retired teacher, Irma Hernández Cruz, who was driving a taxi and was forced by a group of organized crime to record a video to threaten other taxi drivers, occurred for “aggression, torture and violence exercised during its captivity” on July 18.
The prosecutor of the entity, Verónica Hernández Giadans, said Monday that the four people – identified as Octavio ‘N’, Jeana Paola ‘N’, Víctor Manuel ‘N’ and José Eduardo ‘N’- remain in informal preventive detention while investigations on other possible involved.
And he confirmed that initially these people “were arrested for crimes against institutions and crimes against health”, but “subsequently the criminal type of aggravated kidnapping was charged.”
“On the subject of teacher Irma we have considerable advances, there have been other detainees in the northern zone in this effort that has been made with federal, state forces and the State Prosecutor’s Office, which are being investigated for their alleged participation,” he said in a press conference.
The head of the Local Prosecutor added that there has been constant communication with the relatives of the teacher, from the location of her lifeless body – six days after her kidnapping – until the recent imputation.
Soser context:
Authorities investigate extortion after the murder of a retired teacher in Veracruz
The murder of Hernández Cruz in the municipality of Álamo Temapache (northern Veracruz) had a national impact because during his kidnapping a video on social networks was viralized in which he is observed kneeling and surrounded by a dozen armed men.
“Taxi fellow, with the Veracruz mafia, you do not play, pay their quota, as it should be, with them (…) or they will end like me,” says the teacher, who had refused to pay the extortion fee demanded by this criminal gang and appeared dead in a racho on July 24.
Prior to this information offered by the Prosecutor’s Office, the governor of Veracruz, Rocío Nahle García, had indicated that the death of Hernández Cruz was due to an infarction derived from the aggressions and blows received during his kidnapping, a statement that the doctor responsible for the autopsy, José Eduardo Márquez.
When questioned about Hernández Cruz’s autopsy, the prosecutor replied that “the opinion meets all law requirements.”
According to figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, 10,804 victims of extortion in Mexico accumulated at the end of 2024, while the daily average incidence was 29.77 victims in January 2025, which meant a rise of 57.62% in the last six years.
On July 10, President Claudia Sheinbaum sent a constitutional reform to Congress to combat extortion, which has become one of the fastest growing crimes in the country, with the aim of homologating penalties and sanctions throughout the nation.
With EFE information.
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