Alba Lucía Castañeda Torres had graduated from high school just a few months earlier. Her father, José Isidro Torres, proudly accompanied her to the graduation ceremony that marked the beginning of her working life.
The 19-year-old worked at a call center in Bogotá, near the neighborhood where she was born, in Bosa, in the area popularly known as Tropezón, in the southwest of the Colombian capital. Two years earlier, she had met a man with whom she communicated every day. He offered to pay for a trip to Mexico so she could spend a few days on vacation, attend the World Cup, and afterward start a business that would help her build a better future.
Alba Lucía Castañeda was murdered on the night of June 8 while riding in a car with Iván Darío Nieto Luque, a 45-year-old Colombian national. He was the man who had paid for her trip and who met her at the airport when she arrived in Mexico City on June 6. On the day of the attack, several men riding two motorcycles closely followed the couple’s car along Paseo de la Reforma at the intersection with Flores Magón in Tlatelolco, a central neighborhood of Mexico City.
Security camera footage from the area shows the two motorcycles trailing the car closely and the moment when one of them pulled ahead to get a clear look at who was inside. Moments later, both motorcycles turned around and came back to open fire. The car was struck by dozens of bullets, killing Alba Castañeda and her companion.
For several days, her father, José Isidro Castañeda, did not know that his daughter had been killed. It was not until the following Friday, June 12, that a friend sent him a photo and a message confirming that his daughter was dead.
