Carlos Salcedo’s family entanglements: Murders, intrigues and a story full of loose ends

Soccer player Carlos Salcedo and his family are in the eye of the storm after the murder of Martha Paola Salcedo, the player’s sister, on June 29 in the State of Mexico. The death of the young woman during an alleged assault set off alarm bells after the player’s mother, María Isabel Hernández, directly accused her son and daughter-in-law of masterminding the crime. In the midst of the scandal, the case took an unexpected turn when the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that Salcedo’s mother and sister are the primary suspects in another murder within the family.

The Salcedo story has been marked by intrigue, controversy and power struggles to control family assets for the past 10 years. As Salcedo’s success on the field grew, so did money and trouble. “Blood gives you relatives. Life gives you family,” the soccer player wrote in 2018.

Paola Salcedo, 29, originally from Guadalajara, was an influencer and a sports talk show host. She shared a passion for soccer with her brother, which led her to embark on a career as a content creator on social networks. She later made the leap to television and had a four-year-old son with fellow soccer player Nicolás Vikonis.

Carlos Salcedo, just a year older than Paola, was one of the most promising players of his generation. He started his career at Chivas and became one of the mainstays of the Mexico national team at a very young age. In 2017, aged 24, he earned a contract with Eintracht Frankfurt to play in Germany, which took his career to a new level. Nicknamed El Titán, he stood out for being a very physical defender with a good aerial game. In 2018 he started all of Mexico’s matches at the World Cup in Russia and in 2019 he touched the peak of his career when Monterrey club Tigres paid $10 million to sign him.

Back in Mexico he hit a slump and fell out of favor. His loss of form and off-field scandals weighed him down. Two years later he left for Juárez and in 2023 he ended up at Cruz Azul. When it seemed that his career was gaining momentum and he was back on the right track, the murder of his sister affected the player and led to his abrupt departure from the team.

According to insiders familiar with Cruz Azul, Salcedo sought permission to leave “urgently” to play abroad shortly after his sister’s death. “The real reason why Carlos Salcedo wants to leave the country is because he and his wife Andrea Navarro are the intellectual authors of Paola’s murder,” his mother claimed on social networks. The spotlight returned to the player and the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico summoned him for questioning on July 18.

That same week Salcedo published a motivational message on his social networks: “Let it hurt, cry what you need to, accept what you feel, embrace your vulnerability as part of the process, do not judge yourself for what you are going through, allow yourself to be heartbroken...” One of the few direct mentions the player made about his sister’s death was to share an obituary Cruz Azul published on social networks. After signing a confidential agreement to leave the club, Salcedo appeared at the Ciudad de los Deportes stadium on July 20 to say goodbye to the fans without giving further explanation.

Salcedo’s career has always been surrounded by off-field scandals, such as the daughter he had in 2015 and whom he did not recognize until 2018 by order of a judge, or the accusations against his father, Carlos Joel Salcedo Zamora, his manager until the player sacked him for “taking advantage of the trust I had in him to handle my matters and interests unduly.” Salcedo has also accused his family on several occasions of leaking information about his private life to the press.

He also accuses his mother and sister of having put some of his properties in their own names. Paola herself was interviewed on the television program Ventaneando about this conflict: “They advised him that due to his legal problems they could take away his things, so he put his house in my name and two cars in my mother’s name [...] he asked me to return the property but my parents asked me not to, especially because they married under joint property [...] Andrea [Salcedo’s wife], when she saw that we would not give her the deeds, defamed us,” the player’s sister said.

It all blew up in 2018. By then Salcedo had cut off his parents and sister despite some Christmas photos the mother uploaded to her Instagram profile. The family issued a statement to defend themselves: “We are a normal family and problems were always solved at home [...] We regret his behavior in recent months, we believe that his current environment is not helping him as a public figure,” they said, railing against the player’s wife, uncles, and cousins. Salcedo responded with another statement: “I decided to separate from them. I insist, it was my own decision, not made by third parties; I have enough judgment to decide for myself.” In another interview, Paola Salcedo said that she again confronted her brother when she tried to warn him about an alleged infidelity on the part of his wife, leading the player to distance himself even further from his parents and sister.

He has also claimed on several occasions that his mother had attempted to tarnish his career. “A real mother does not make things up and expose her son with the desire to see him harmed.” He also accuses her of “being in collusion with Martha Paola in trying to attack my career and marriage. For not wanting to give me back a house that I bought with a lot of effort, and that through deceit and bad advice ended up in Martha Paola’s name.”

While leaving a hearing in which the paternity of his daughter, Ivanka, was determined, the mother, the sister and one of the player’s aunts came to blows. It was one of the player’s aunts who denounced María Isabel Hernández and her daughter before the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office for being behind the shooting murder of her husband in 2023, according to the investigation into the inheritance of some properties. Last week the Jalisco prosecutor, Luis Joaquín Méndez, confirmed that an arrest warrant has been in force against the two women for the murder of José Félix N since January of this year. However, Hernández claims that she was never notified there was a warrant against her. Through a video on social networks, the player’s mother has defended herself against her sister-in-law’s accusations and claimed that everything is a set-up as a result of her son’s influence in the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office.

Hernández insists that Paola’s murder was a feminicide plotted within her family and has called on the Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Mexico to also call her son’s wife to testify as the alleged mastermind. “I trust that the prosecutors will do things according to the law. As I said from the beginning, I want justice for my daughter Paola Salcedo,” she said.

Paola Salcedo was murdered in front of her four-year-old son outside a circus in Huixquilucan, in the State of Mexico, at the end of the show. The police investigation indicates that two men riding a motorcycle attempted to rob her, shooting her six times before fleeing. The presenter and influencer was taken to a hospital, where she died a few hours later. Days later, the Prosecutor’s Office arrested two suspects. Miguel Ángel ‘N’, alias “El Pecas,” and José Iván ‘N’ were placed under judicial custody while waiting for a judge to evaluate the case and determine whether they will be brought to trial.

The authorities claim to have found the perpetrators through images collected by security cameras in the area and information gathered by the police. However, Hernández has asked that no hypothesis be ruled out. The Prosecutor’s Office, however, seems to be more in favor of the robbery-assault motive.

Meanwhile, Carlos Salcedo has announced that he will play for Juárez next season. “Life teaches you that many times you will give your best and be a good person with the wrong people and that’s okay, go with a clear conscience. Learn that there are ungrateful people who don’t know how to care for or value what they have by their side,” he wrote after signing with Los Bravos and putting thousands of miles between himself and his family.

Far from ending, the Salcedo’s story of crimes, intrigues and conspiracies is writing a new chapter. As the saying goes: “You can choose your friends but not your family.”

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