Murder of Fernando Balderas Sánchez and Yolanda Figueroa

On 4 December 1996, police investigating an abandoned red Mustang traced the vehicle to its owner, Fernando Balderas Sánchez, and to his home in the upscale Pedregal neighborhood of Mexico City. Upon breaking into the residence, officers discovered that Balderas, his wife Yolanda Figueroa, and their three children — a daughter, 18, and two sons, 14 and 8 — had been murdered. Four of the five victims were killed with an 18-inch chisel while asleep; the 8-year-old boy was the only victim stabbed with a knife. The family's driver, Alejandro Perez de la Rosa, then around 27 years old, was found unconscious on the premises and survived the attack.

Balderas was the publisher of Cuarto Poder, a crime magazine, and had previously worked as a Federal Judicial Police official. At the time of his death, his reputation was under scrutiny: two newspapers reported that sources told them he was under investigation for taking money from drug cartels during his law-enforcement career, and he had also been accused of sexually assaulting two maids, though an arrest warrant against him was never served. Figueroa had published a biography of narcotrafficker Juan García Ábrego, leader of the Gulf Cartel, titled "El Capo del Golfo," in August 1996 — two months after García Ábrego's conviction in the United States. She had dedicated the book to Mexico's attorney general, Ricardo Cordero Ontiveros, who was fired and detained shortly before the family's murder.

The case was resolved within two weeks when Perez confessed during the investigation, implicating two other household employees: a driver named Martin Hernandez and a maid named Josefina Hernandez, described as husband and wife. According to Perez, the motive was revenge against Balderas, whom he said had held the family's two maids captive and sexually abused them. Perez said he was beaten by his co-conspirators over the division of stolen possessions. Perez could have received a 50-year sentence but was instead sentenced to 118 years in prison due to the brutality of the crime. Martin Hernandez and Josefina Hernandez remained at large, with Mexican police searching for them in their home state of Veracruz. Following Perez's confession, police also opened an investigation into extortion or theft involving six luxury cars owned by Balderas.

The killings prompted broader concern about the safety of journalists in Mexico. The International Press Institute described the murder of Figueroa's family as the most violent case affecting journalists in 1996. Commentators, including writer Homero Aridjis and journalism professor Rick Rockwell, linked the killings to fears of narco-related violence and intimidation against reporters covering drug trafficking, though investigators noted the method of killing did not match typical drug-cartel executions.