Tragic ending to the life of the Mexican trash king that became member of the
house of representatives
El Pais, Spain, 03/24/1987
Former Member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI ) and immensely rich “king
of garbage” of the Mexican Federal District , Rafael Gutierrez Moreno , was killed last
week by order of his wife, who , with the crime, wanted to end 11 years of harassment.
Rafael Gutierrez, (aka Rafa) , who for 20 years was the leader of the open dump
pickers ( scavenger workers ) and reached even one seat in the house of
representatives as member of the PRI in the administration of President José López
Portillo , was born in the trash dumps , and there made his fortune and finally met his
death at age 54 .
A reporter for the newspaper El Universal wrote that " the scavenger leader bribed
officials, drove farmers away from their lands to build a fairytale residence two square
kilometers of land, implanted diamonds in all three front teeth, raped as many women
as he could and had the macho ambition of having 180 children. " On February 14 ,
Valentine's Day , Martha Garcia , 29 , wife of the slain , with whom he had four children
and a fifth adopted , took the decision to assassinate him. For that purpose,she plotted
with her brothers and the perpetrator of the crime, Juan Carlos Roque , 26 . Martha
struggled to leave the sumptuous house where practically lived like a prisoner . Her
husband would not let her leave, not even to attend the wake of one of his brothers ,
and this , plus the sexual abuse of a niece aged 16, was the straw that broke the
camel’s back. On the pretext of going to the dentist, Martha left the house and went to
meet Roque , who was offered six million pesos ( about a half million dollars) to
liquidate the king of trash. As an advance , Roque received 300,000 pesos (about
25,000 dollars).
On the morning of Thursday , Roque jumped the fence surrounding the mansion and
went undetected through Rafa’s surveillance consisting of of three booths bodyguards
that protected him . Martha had given all the necessary indications. She slept next to
her husband with one of his sons . When she noticed the presence of the murderer in
the room , she curled up the boy in her arms and turned away to allow three shots finish
the life of the man who had bullied and humiliated for eleven years of marriage. With
unusual speed , police in Mexico found all the details of the crime and provided all
perpetrators who confessed what happened, but did not give the slightest sign of
repentance .
The head of the Judicial Police of the Federal District , Jesus Miyazawa did not hesitate
to characterize the victim as " a degenerate, gangster and rapist ." His words were
interrupted by a journalist who said aloud : "He was also a member of the house of
representatives ."
The widow explained that she had offered six million for the death of her husband, " but
if the murderer had asked my life for doing his job, I would also had gladly given it " .
Martha recounted the horrors suffered in her marriage : " He abused my mother, my
niece, the women in my family and always cynical, he was always bragging about how
many children he had had – he was already at 56. I had five with him; he wanted to get
to 180. " .
According to the widow, "the life of Rafael Gutierrez Moreno was filthy , and so was
ours, the members of his family . Our lives had become a hell from which only death
could save us. We suffered his punches and threats for many years, but the moral
promiscuity is what finally forced us to decide to kill him. We all planned the death of
Rafael . Rafael had frequent and continuous difficulties with the scavenger workers.
Under threats of death, of beatings and of expulsion from the landfills, they were forced
to give away their daughters to Rafael . He was a degenerate; he was crazy and had
sexual sickness. "
He became a member of the house on behalf of the dominant party PRI and made his
fortune by selling profitable garbage business . He controlled about 5,000 scavenger
workers, who worked for him at poverty wages separating the garbage so that valuable
components could be sold . The dumps of Mexico City are virtually lawless areas under
the control of mafias and individuals as Gutiérrez Moreno, who was reckoned to have a
monthly income of 60 million pesos ( about five million dollars) . It is said he owns
homes and bank accounts abroad, tourist residences in different parts of Mexico and
also a block of flats . His estimated fortune is around one thousand million pesos (about
100 million dollars). It seems that for political influence got concessions to the landfills .
His leadership on the pickers earned him the political rise up to member of the house of
representatives. Among PRI politicians , Gutiérrez Moreno had friends, because he
was able to mobilize his pickers to attend rallies and acts as political supporters in mass
rallies.