The Story of Vicente, Who Murdered His Mother, His Father, and His Sister: Life and Death in Juárez

by Sandra Nieto

Overview

The intimate story of a teenager’s murder of his family, from an award-winning Mexican journalist

Sixteen-year-old Vicente and two of his high school friends murdered his mother, his father, and his little sister in cold blood. Through a Capote-like reconstruction of this seemingly inexplicable triple murder, Sandra Rodríguez Nieto paints a haunting and unforgettable portrait of the most violent city on Earth, with an in-depth investigation into the thought process of the three boys, the city of Juárez and the drug cartels that wage war in its streets.

This book explores how poverty, political corruption, incapacitated government institutions and US meddling combined to create the explosion of violence in Juárez. The product of years of tenacious reporting that have brought Sandra Rodríguez Nieto international acclaim, this book traces the rise of a national culture of extreme violence, and is a testament to the extraordinary bravery of a reporter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784781057
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	07/04/2017
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Sandra Rodríguez Nieto began reporting for the Ciudad Juárez daily newspaper El Diario in 2003. She has received the Reporteros Del Mun­do prize from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the Knight International Journalism Award from the International Center for Journalists, and the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. She was a Harvard Uni­versity Nieman Fellow in 2014. She now reports for Sin Embargo.

Table of Contents

1 A Crime 1

2 The City 19

3 The Perfect Plan 35

4 Conscience 57

5 Impunity 77

6 The System 89

7 Artistas Asesinos 113

8 Los Aztecas 131

9 Ruptures 155

10 …And Justice? 181

Acknowledgments 193

Editorial Reviews

As crime-beat reporter for the local paper (a job that cost her closest colleague his life), Sandra Rodríguez lives and narrates the brutalization of her city, Ciudad Juárez, at a range so close and raw it is painful to read. Yet this book—on intimate terms with Mexico’s narco-carnage, and from under its skin—draws us irretrievably into an abyss we need to know; this is the masterpiece of reportage from the murder capital of the world.”
—Ed Vulliamy, author of Amexica: War Along the Borderline

“Sandra Rodríguez is a reporter the corrupt want to keep at a distance. Untiring, exhaustive, intelligent. This is the only kind of reporter who could turn a case like that of Vicente, a child-murderer, into a story about the world of the mafia and the impunity of violence that reigns in Ciudad Juárez and in Mexico. If you want to understand Juárez, you have to read Sandra.”
—Óscar Martínez, author of The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

“Sandra Rodríguez Nieto has got some guts. For more than a decade, she has reported from one of the world’s most dangerous cities to be a journalist—Ciudad Juárez. And in The Story of Vicente she paints a shattering portrait of that boomtown’s deadly violence and how it ruined the life of an ordinary boy.”
—Somini Sengupta, author of The End of Karma: Home and Fury among India’s Young

“Her book, like no other recent book written about Juárez, adds layers of understanding that make the reader appreciate the complexities of the problem, moving away from facile explanations and solutions advanced by government officials on both sides of the border.”
—José Luis Benavides, California State University, Northridge

“Rodríguez paints a dismal portrait of a border city in distress. It’s a necessary portrait that government officials and other promoters of Juárez might prefer we not view or ponder.”
—Ramón Renteria, El Paso Times

“Frontline performs a fantastic service of giving voice to journalists who are reporting what many are afraid to. Sandra Rodríguez is one of many who does this. We need to get out there what happens when governments fail to deal with the deep corruption of both banking and narco trafficking.”
—Jeremy Corbyn

From the Publisher