SUPPLEMENT; The Unofficial Iguala History; Fed Police and Army Involved in Massacre?

Borderland Beat posted by DD

The story I posted on the 14^th of this month about the army and Federal police being involved in the kidnapping and murders of the Ayotzinapa Normistas  was based on a short summary that Proceso published on it’s online website as a sort of a “teaser” for a feature article it was publishing in it’s weekly magazine.

Since I posted the story, the magazine has reached the newsstands and Pepe posted the full article in Spanish and a good summary of the article in English.on the Forum.  I am not posting the Spanish language article simply because it is too long.  For you Spanish speaking readers the full article can be read at http://suracapulco.mx/archivos/239825. 

The article in Proceso magazine was written by Anabel Hernández and  Steve Fisher and gives much more details than the short story I posted on the 14^th.  . 

Also included in this supplementary story is some information on the army colonel who the Proceso story identifies as the military official who gave the orders for the army’s involvement in the events in Iguala.

A report from an interview by TeleSur with Anabel Hernandez and Steve Fisher, the authors of the Proceso story is also included in this Supplement.

For you English speaking readers, a summary of the Proceso article written by Pepe in English is below;

 1.  Evidence that the Mexican Federal Government, right up to the Office of Interior Minister Osorio Chong, knew about the attacks on the normalistas as they were taking place:
     a.  the cities of Iguala and Chilpancingo operate with something called C4, as I described above.  Apparently all radio dispatches from the local police are relayed automatically to the state police, the base for the Federal Police nearby, the offices of the federal Attorney General, and the local Army base nearby.

     b.  the local police chief of Iguala (not the fugitive one, the one arrested), called the nearby Federal Police base with the warning that the normalistas had stolen some buses from the Iguala bus station and that the Federal Police should be "on alert."  Shortly thereafter, the head of the Federal Police base was notified of an attack on one of the buses.

     c.  The authors talked to a dispatcher at the Iguala police station working that night, Natividad Elías Moreno, who confirmed these calls went out.  During AG Murillo's press conference, when he announced that Mayor Abarca (number or element "5" supposedly) had ordered the attack on the normalistas, he stated the information was provided by a dispatcher named David Hernández Cruz. Dispatcher Moreno told investigators he's never heard of this Mr. Cruz.  Likewise, the authors could find no evidence of him in any city records

2.  Evidence the Mexican Federal Police took part in the attacks.
     a.  Researchers at UC Berkeley reviewed 12 videos taken by the students during the attacks.  In one of the videos, you can hear a student yelling, "the police (la policía) are leaving, the Federal Police (los federales) are staying."

     b.  Students have described the uniforms and trucks present during the attack:  reports that the police were wearing chest, knee and elbow protectors and that they wore helmets or ski masks. The pickup trucks were described as containing supports in the back with machine guns and that an officer was pointing the weapons at the students.  (anyone who's seen a Policía Federal Ford F-150, in hotspot areas, loaded up with 2-3 in the front and four in the back, knows exactly what the students are describing).  In addition, after one of the bus attacks, some student clothing was found with traces of tear gas. Reports are that municipal police do not possess tear gas.

     c.  The investigators at UC Berkeley, after reviewing the 12 videos, stated it is possible to see Federal Police participating in the attacks.

     d.  The Attorney General of Guerrero, two days after the attacks, asked the nearby Federal Police base to provide him with data showing the times of departures and arrivals of convoys or patrols, to and from the base, on the night in question.  The State AG never received a response.
3.  Evidence of the involvement of the Mexican Army in the attacks.
     a.  It is well known that members of the nearby 27th Battalion detained a number of students after and during the attacks.  And they took their cell phones.  Then, supposedly, released them.
     b.  The "Official Story" says that local Iguala Police picked up the normalistas, brought them to the Iguala police station, then later delivered them to GU gunmen.  This report says the Iguala Police station has only one street entrance for detainees, since the patrol units with rollbars can't fit into the small entrance to interior parking.  Neighbors report not seeing any group of young men being brought in.  They report the station was quiet that night.
     c.  A judge working at the Iguala Police station that night, said he saw no students brought in, but around midnight, an officer from the Army base, a Captain Crespo, came in asking if a white motorcycle had been found.  When he was told "no," Crespo nonetheless demanded to search the entire premises of the Iguala police station.

     
d.  One of the many narcomantas left in Iguala in the weeks after the Massacre mentioned an Army Captain Crespo as being responsible for the disappearance of the normalistas.  There is some confustion on this, but Proceso has reported that it was an Army officer "Crespo" was a close friend of the Abarcas. (En una supuesta ‘narcomanta’, firmada presuntamente por “El Cabo Gil”, señalado por el gobierno federal como lugarteniente del líder del grupo delictivo Guerreros Unidos, se menciona como parte de la estructura criminal a un capitán y a un teniente del 27 Batallón de Infantería, identificados sólo como Barbosa y Crespo. Este último existe y apareció al lado del alcalde José Luis Abarca, en varios actos públicos:

  http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=389808)  This last report says the 27th Battalion has a history of attacks on normalistas and some Army elements based there have been linked to GU).

DD.  So who is this mysterious Captain Crespo?

From Proceso 

Crespo next to Abarca and ex-police chief  Flores Velazquez (Abarca's cousin)

Along with the collapse of Pena Nieto’s government version of the events  that transpired in Iguala, and anchoring an alternative hypothesis that the Federal Police and the army participated in the killings and abductions, there is one character that is key to this plot – Captain Crespo.

Captain Crespo was the army officer referred to as being involved in drug trafficking in one of the mantas posted in Iguala in the weeks after Sept. 26 (when the students were murdered and “disappeared”).   The manta was signed by “capo Gil”, a lieutenant of Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, alleged leader of the Guerreros United drug cartel.

The “Captain Crespo” was the military officer, who on the night of Sept. 26, appeared at the Iguala police station where according to the version of events offered by AG of Mexico the students were brought.   That version of events is now being seriously questioned.

The "Captain Crespo," according to the report published by Proceso , was accompanied by 12 soldiers of the 27th Infantry Battalion of the Army  based in Iguala,  according to the ministerial statement  of Judge Ulises García Barnabas, the judge on duty and present at the police station that night.

. Crespo spoke with the judge at the  handrail of the court,  and on the pretext of seeking 'a white Scooter' went to inspect cells, office and patio.  Witnesses of the captain's visit said that once they learned of the disappearance of students it seemed more suspicious'.

Who is this mysterious 'Captain Crespo'?  He  is the second captain of infantry, military inspector, José Martinez Crespo, actually attached to the 27th Infantry Battalion and a regular attendee at public ceremonies of the PRD former mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez.

The second captain of infantry, military inspector, José Martínez Crespo, appears in numerous official photographs of the City of Iguala by the prisoner mayor, and  also with the ex-police chief, Felipe Flores Velázquez, also accused of allegedly being in collusion with Gerreros United.

The  version of Peña Nieto government is that the Army and the Federal Police did not intervene in the case of the 43 young Ayotzinapa, but the reporting by Proceso this  week proves that not only were remiss these two institutions, but the attack on the students was orchestrated and executed, in fact, with its complicity or frank collaboration,

Martinez Crespo, is a key character who should be  forced to speak, not to threaten or to utter bravado to his military commanders and civilians.

Report on extended 3 way telephone call between Tel Sur and  Anabel Hernandez and Steve Fisher

The ever-passionate and expressive Hernandez is no stranger to explosive investigations and allegations, so much so that her home was raided by official authorities late last year. The award-winning and internationally acclaimed journalist has also been subjected to harrowing threatening acts, such as having found animal body parts at the doorstep of her home. In her latest investigation, 

However, Hernandez made the case that her co-authored findings starkly revealed that governmental responsibility for the presumed massacre is much higher than what has been previously admitted.

“The point is that we know that the federal police were there, we know that they knew when the students abducted and we know that many of the testimonies that the PGR [Mexico's Attorney General's office] were obtained and acquired through torture techniques. But in Mexico, evidence obtained through torture is illegal,” Hernandez told teleSUR.

In contrast to the official version, which maintains that the federal government was unaware of the massacre, Hernandez and Fisher allege that federal police and military soldiers directly participated in the presumed massacre itself and were one of three levels of government closely monitoring the students whereabouts throughout the night of the presumed massacre.

According to Hernandez and Fisher's accounting of the unedited Guerrero state report they obtained, which was drawn up for the Interior Ministry (SEGOB) and obtained by the magazine about a month and a half ago, students were monitored as soon as they left their school grounds at 5:59pm. Both federal and state police were monitoring the students while they traveled from the Chilpancingo-based Control, Computational and Communications Center (C4).

The article goes into further detail, noting that at 8pm, the federal and state police arrived to the highway where the students were fielding donations; at 9:21pm, a federal police chief – Luis Antonio Dorantes – was advised of the student's arrival; and at 9:40pm the C4 center reported the first gunshots.

The report was also based on 12 videos recorded by surviving students on their cell phones, whereby one now publicly released video has audio clearly noting a surviving student yelling in distress: “The police are now coming, the federales are staying and they are going to want to screw us over!”

In sum, various levels of government were much more aware of the students and more present at key points throughout the evening in question, than what has been previously admitted.

Hernandez made it clear to teleSUR, however, that their investigation didn't reveal whether or not the United Warriors gang were involved with the massacre. Fisher elaborated on this point: 

“We cannot say whether or not Guerreros Unidos was ultimately involved with this, or not, but we can say that the evidence we have acquired was that they were tortured [before their testimonies were given]. It is thus suspect that they could actually get proper testimonies considering the fact that they were tortured brutally, including electric shocks to testicles and extreme beatings.”

Hernandez added that other telltale signs of torture were uncovered in their investigation, including bruised ribs, blackened eyes and black-and-blue marks on the neck. Such findings were especially damning, Hernandez pointed out, considering that, “the attorney general’s version was based solely on testimony by presumed drug traffickers.”

Fisher spoke to this point, telling teleSUR that, 

“I would say that in any case where there is torture involved, it brings into question the entire investigation. It would be interesting to know why the PGR would base this very important investigation on, according to their own documents, information obtained through people that were brutally beaten and tortured.”

Hernandez and Fisher wrote that the Peña Nieto administration has withheld the information they reported on .

Soon after the disappearance of the education students, the Guerrero Attorney General's office requested that the Mexican Federal Police, their investigation notes, hand over extensive documentation related to the potential participation of federal police agents, including the exact registries of when agents clocked in and out while on the job the night of the attack. However, the investigation added that since the Peña Nieto's administration took over the investigation this past October 4, the requested documentation was never handed over to the Guerrero office.

“It is clear that the PGR has been manipulating the case, that the federal government has been manipulating the case, and that now, the official version of the case has been shown to not be trustworthy,” Hernandez passionately asserted during the extensive interview, adding that in subsequent conversations with government officials, none of their allegations were officially denied to either of the reporters.

Investigation Points to a Number of Implications

Considering the many contradictions between the investigation and official accounts , many questions can be asked. Since Mexican officials have long claimed that Warriors United was the group which took custody of the students from local police authorities who had initially detained them, have there been any false arrests among the 74-some people that have been rounded up since September 26?

The accused leader of Warriors United, Sidronio Casarrubias, is among the many detained, which include an array of local law enforcement officials. Casarrubias has since revealed to officials the kind of relationship he had with Abarca while he was mayor, but it is not clear whether or not he was among the five people tortured in Herandez and Fisher's account.

“Warriors United has sewn a web of complicity with several mayors and above all with security officials,” Murillo previously told the press. “In Iguala, the complicity was between the authorities, the local police and the Warriors United,” Murillo added.

If there is one official acknowledgment which Hernandez and Fisher do not dispute, it is the systematic relationship that exists between drug cartels and the Mexican state. It is that very relationship which has served as a spark plug to a nation that has undertaken a significant amount of resistance since September 26.

Nation-wide Movement Continues to Wage Protest

The revelations by Herandez and Fisher come at a time that the nation's ire was already raised to a feverish boiling point. In one of the largest countries and economies of Latin America. Mexico has witnessed near daily and nation-wide actions of resistance.

Since the disappearance of the “normalistas” on September 26, the country has been brimming with mass marches, candle-light vigils, university-campus and labor-union-led strikes, occupations of official and university buildings, riot police-led arrests of demonstrators, property destruction of official buildings, sit-ins, panels ruminating over the ills of narco-state violence and international bridge closings.

Most recently, at least 22 people were injured this past Sunday during protests in Chilpancingo, Guerrero which featured police opening fire on demonstrators. TeleSUR English reported that three parents of the forcibly disappeared, a journalist, a student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a member of an education union were among those injured.

The violent law enforcement response to the protests, specifically that of Sunday's occurrences, prompted the National Human rights Commission to demand that authorities conduct themselves within the law.

The disappearance clearly served as the catalyst for the movement's inception, much of the country has long been weary of the systematic problem of disappearances and the eery official impunity which has often surrounded them. Nothing less than some 22,000 disappearances, over the course of the last three years alone, account for official estimates. Other analysts estimate the actual total as being higher than that.

Mass Graves Point to Narco-State Crimes

The disappearances of the normalistas are emblematic of a long-running problem in Mexico: thousands upon thousands of cases of disappearances, many of whose investigations were found 'inconclusive' and long ago closed, exist throughout the country. Some estimates range as high as 24,000 disappearances having occurred since 2011 alone, the overwhelming amount of which were “unsolved” and/or “closed” cases.

In another case of official law enforcement involvement in a crime, 22 alleged kidnappers were summarily executed by Mexican soldiers in Tlatlaya in June 2014. A federal judge recently charged three soldiers with murder and four others with abuse of authority and other charges in relation to the massacre.

At least a dozen mass grave sites have been discovered since the time of the Ayatzinapa disappearances. Meanwhile, movement activists and organizers alike have alleged that many more mass grave sites exist than what has been officially acknowledged.

Regardless of the actual total of mass grave sites, their undisputed existence still point to a problem more familiar to locals and residents of the area: Guerrero is not only a drug war-torn state, but a complex nexus of corruption and corroboration between local, regional and state authorities and their allies in street gangs and powerful drug cartels. Even federal officials have since admitted that the disappeared students pointed to a larger, narco-state reality.

While the troubles of living under a narco-state is one which local residents of Guerrero have long been familiar, in the wake of what seemingly is a never-ending case of the disappearances of the Guerrero students, it has now become a reality with which the whole nation of Mexico, and well beyond, are becoming familiar with as well.

But now, in light of the explosive allegations revealed by Hernandez and Fisher, it will become yet a more complex reality with which the nation will have to come to grips and to which the government may have to provide yet more answers during tiring press conferences