Leader of Guerreros Unidos cartel absolved in Ayotzinapa case

Gildardo López Astudillo “El Gil,

” identified as one of the leaders of Guerreros Unidos cartel , a criminal group linked to the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa , was freed after a judge absolved him from the last charge Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) had against him.

Sources involved in the case informed “El Gil ” achieved his exoneration from the offense of kidnapping after a process in which he distorted, little by little, the accusations against him for organized crime and criminal offenses against health linked to drug trafficking ; hence, he was freed on Saturday after having spent four years in prison, as was ordered by the First District Judge of Federal Crime Proceedings in Tamaulipas.

Mexico creates special unit to handle Ayotzinapa case

The last place where “El Gil” was imprisoned was the Reclusorio Oriente in Mexico City , where he was moved last February . With him, there are 44 persons freed from the Iguala case.

The disappearance of the students, which took place in September 2014 , was part of the First Annual Report of the Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who only reported the creation of the Truth Commission but no progress in the investigation of the case.

Ayotzinapa: truth commission on the works

The demand for the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa’s Training Teacher Rural College is simple: the return of the students alive or the clarification of the case .

In Iguala , where the students disappeared, the most serious problems the country has faced in the last years were combined: The figure of the municipal president as a character with a tyrannic power on the local level, mostly concentrated on treating his term as a loot; the criminal groups linked to drug dealing have a wide control over several regions in the country, and have influence over police corporations and in the political arena , through threats and bribes; lastly, the impunity levels registered in Mexico. Those who have been victims of crime know that the chances of the transgressor being punished or paying for the damage are 1% , according to data from the Global Impunity Index.

Ayotzinapa: four years later

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