This city's main daily newspaper is Diario de Yucatán - a PAN (National Action Party) vehicle through and through, to be sure - but one that does a reasonably acceptable job of local reporting.
Today Diario noted that 2012 was a difficult year for foreigners, three of whom were murdered in the White City or its environs. The article's title is Violencia en suelo yucateco, and it reviews homicides of foreign visitors over the last decade or so. Victims have included Dutch, Austrian, Chinese and Cuban nationals. Some of the cases were solved, others were not.
But last year was very different, as Diario noted, because two Americans were killed, both within just blocks of the city's historic main plaza. The victims, Robert Leon Wickard, 67, and Sam Woodruff, 63, were gay males who were brutally executed by gay partners or prostitutes in separate incidents, several months apart. MGRR reported extensively on the cases - more than most local Spanish press sources did - and at times in the face of very harsh commentary by Mérida's large expat community. Many gay males, permanent residents of the city, are included within the ranks of foreign nationals, and most hale from Canada or the United States. Some didn't like MGRR's coverage, although others quite vocally supported it.
Today's Diario article implicitly recognizes, as did MGRR months ago, that the cases of the murdered Americans were newsworthy - not because they were gay men who died in violent episodes, but because homicides of foreigners in Mérida remain extraordinary events. Last May local authorities called Wickard's vicious murder "unprecedented" in the city.
Links to the Wickard and Woodruff stories are below. Wickard's case has been solved (although police continue their search for a prime suspect), but Woodruff's remains wide open. There's every reason to believe it will remain so. Prosecutors know that criminal investigations generally don't get better with age, especially when the perpetrator may be one who makes his way by trolling streets.
At the very end of 2012, another foreigner was found murdered near Xocempich, which is close to the historic town of Valladolid and the famous Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá. The area is in Yucatán state. The victim was ultimately determined to be a 25 year old Ukrainian tourist who rented a car in Playa del Carmen and then drove west, toward Mérida. MGRR did not report directly on that story, because the details remained very sparse for days and key facts could not be verified. Diario and the English language Yucatan Times both suggested that the man might have been yet another victim of gay sex gone awry. But authorities now say the victim was most likely stabbed to death by his own wife, who accompanied him to Mexico. Police are looking for her (Yucatán prosecutor: remains of Ukrainian woman may have been found).
Feb. 8 - Associated Press has reported the murder of an American woman in San Miguel Allende
May 31 - A "free press" in Mexico - but who's really paying the tab?
Sam Woodruff case
Dec. 30 - Six weeks after murder of American in Mérida, no arrests, no identified suspects
Nov. 12 - Another American resident murdered in Mérida
Robert Lee Wickard case
Suspects in murder of Mérida American expat indicted and ordered to stand trial
Robert Wickard suspects held for 30 days
Four suspects in murder of U.S. citizen set to be arraigned
Gay readers share candid thoughts on gay sex tourism in Mérida
Opinion: A revolting way to die – and to live
American citizen murdered in Mérida died at hands of gay sex partners, police say
U.S. citizen found murdered in Mérida
Detienen a homicidas
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