The Netflix documentary titled “In Broad Daylight: The Narvarte Case” arrived on Netflix on December 8 to show the impunity left by the multiple murder of five people in the Narvarte neighborhood in Mexico City in 2015, whose wounds have not yet closed and that so far left many doubts in the Aztec country.
The production by director Alberto Arnaut Estrada investigates all the mistakes and obstacles put in place to clarify the crime of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa and four women. As the case still shows more unknowns than concrete answers, we tell you the story that shook Mexicans.
The real story of the Navarte case
The Narvarte case focuses on the multi-homicide that occurred in Colonia Narvarte, in Mexico City, on July 31, 2015, referring to the murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa Becerril, activist Nadia Vera, model Mile Virginia Martín, makeup artist Yesenia Quiroz, and the domestic worker Olivia Alejandra Negrete.
The day of the crime
It was around 2:00 in the afternoon of July 31, 2015, when three armed men entered the apartment on Luz Saviñón Street, where the photojournalist and four women were, whom they gagged, tortured, and shot each of them in the head. The whole thing was perpetrated in less than an hour.
After committing the crime, the killers fled in a car owned by one of the victims, model Mile Virginia Martín, taking a briefcase with them. In the evening, a woman who had left for work on Friday morning returned to the apartment and found the bloody scene: she found the bodies in the bedrooms and the bathroom.
Was it truly about theft?
On August 5, one day after it was confirmed that three people committed the crime, Daniel Pacheco Gutiérrez was arrested and confessed to the crime but said he entered the apartment to steal. He was charged with femicide, homicide, and aggravated gang robbery. He was sentenced to prison for having participated in the robbery but not for the murders.
When it was learned that only six thousand pesos had been stolen and the police found valuables in the property, many pointed out that this event was due to a political motive.
Why did the investigation become political?
Taking into account that journalist Rubén Espinosa had become in Veracruz the voice that would not shut up against the abuses and violations against social movements by the government of Javier Duarte and his Secretary of Security, Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, alias ‘Captain Storm,’ he would have become a target for the political class because he was not afraid to denounce the murder of 15 reporters in that place and the violence against his colleagues. This fact led him to receive death threats for asking for clarification of the deaths, which motivated him to leave and settle in Mexico City, where he met with the activist and human rights defender Nadia Vera, who was also under threat for fighting against the disappeared. On one occasion, he said that if anything happened to him, it was the fault of the Duarte government.
Authorities: it was about settling accounts
Initially, the authorities indicated that the crime was due to a settling of scores between gangs, having assured that the Colombian Mile Martín was a prostitute. Therefore she belonged to a criminal organization, and drugs were found in the apartment, but in minimum quantities. But this was undone.
They omitted to investigate important details
After many came together to find out what happened, for which they resorted to experts and telecommunications experts, it was determined that there was negligence and facts that tried to hide important information, which prevented knowing that politicians were behind the crime.
“We think there is protection for officials of the Attorney General’s Office during the Mancera government and for the criminal groups that participated in this homicide. We don’t know the reasons or who they protect, but we do know that the Attorney General’s Office wanted to hide the participation of other people involved,” Arnaut said in an interview with El País.