“ El Cabo Gil” Released from Altiplano Prison

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Televisa y Proceso

"El Cabo Gil", Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, was arrested in 2015

"El Gil" is released, one of the main defendants of the Ayotzinapa  case.

"El Gil" would have given the order to liquidate the 43 students confusing them with members of the rival criminal group of "Los Rojos"

A judge from the state of Tamaulipas released Gildardo López Astudillo , alias “El Gil” , considered by the  PGR, as one of those responsible for the disappearance of the 43 normalista students of Ayotzinapa, which occurred in September 2014.

Gildardo López Astudillo, “ El Cabo Gil” , designated by the authorities as head of the Iguala de Guerreros Unidos plaza, was released last Saturday from the Altiplano prison in the State of Mexico.

Gildardo López Astudillo, "El Gil" or "El Cabo Gil" , one of the alleged leaders who would have ordered the disappearance of the 43 normalists of Ayotzinapa, regained his freedom since last Saturday after a federal judge dismissed a third of the evidence presented by the then Attorney General's Office (PGR).

The determination was made by the First Judge of the District of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the State of Tamaulipas, according to file number 66/2015, which determined to grant "El Gil" freedom along with three subjects more related to the case.

"Those accused of repairing the damage are acquitted," said the order issued by the judge, which resulted in his release from the Altiplano prison, in the town of Almoloya de Juárez, in the State of  Mexico.

According to the court, "El Gil", who was designated as the second in command of the Guerreros Unidos criminal group, considered that at least 81 of just over 110 pieces of evidence presented against him were illegally collected.

A consulted source indicated that torture weighed on the judge's criteria, which is why 44 others have already been released in the case. "There is no place to admonish the accused or suspend their political and civil rights," reads the minutes that granted the provisional release.

On September 16, 2015, López Astudillo was arrested in the city of Taxco, Guerrero, while in criminal flagrance for carrying weapons and having a false identification. Almost four years ago, on September 18, 2015, the PGR announced on its Twitter account the apprehension of "El Gil."

López Astudillo was admitted to the Altiplano prison three days later, from which the Third District Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the State of Mexico, headed by Raúl Valerio Ramírez, in support of the First Judge of the Federal Criminal Procedure District in Tamaulipas , opened the criminal case 66/2015 and issued a formal prison against "El Gil".

According to the PGR, "El Gil" was the one who informed Sidronio Casarrubias on the night of September 26, 2014, then chief of the Guerreros Unidos, about the alleged existence of an armed conflict in Iguala of the municipal police, by Felipe Flores , with alleged members of the Los Rojos criminal gang.

In support of the municipal forces, Casarrubias would have ordered the disappearance of the students with the help of the municipal police of Iguala. The fact was documented in the so-called “historical truth” of the Ayotzinapa case, where federal authorities maintain that, after being kidnapped, the students were burned in the Cocula dump.

With this release the doors are opened so that the case built by the PGR , who was then in charge, Jesús Murillo Karam (PRI), as well as Tomás Zerón Lucio, head of the Criminal Investigation Agency at that time, continues to deteriorate.

"El Gaby" Executed:

"El Gaby", executed outside the Estrellos de Oro Bus Terminal in Cuernavaca, Morelos, 5am Mon

"El Gaby" , executed prior to the release of "El Gil"; was the target of the attack at the Cuernavaca Bus Station in the early hours of this past Monday.

Only a few hours after the release of López Astudillo, violent events continue to occur related to the Ayotzinapa case.

On the morning of Monday, September 2, Gabriel León Villa, " El Gaby",  was killed at the Estrella de Oro bus station in Cuernavaca Morelos. According to the State Attorney's Office, León Villa was identified as the regional leader in Iguala de Gente Nueva, alleged successor criminal group of the Guerreros Unidos. Note: See my Post from Monday on details of that. "El Gaby" had not been identified or were his companions as of yesterday.

The victim who died along with four other people is related to the Ayotzinapa case in two ways: he was responsible for replacing López Astudillo when he fell into the hands of federal forces in Taxco, Guerrero, and was arrested in Iguala for his alleged participation in the disappearance of the 43 normalists. He was released in 2018.

The Attorney General of the State of Morelos, explained that the alleged aggressors had been waiting for him from 3:00 am outside the Estrella de Oro terminal of Cuernavaca to assassinate the drug trafficker and his companions.

The first judge of the district of federal criminal proceedings in Tamaulipas rejected 81 of the charges of evidence presented by the then PGR, against one of "El Gil" one of the main operators of the criminal group of Guerreros Unidos, considering that the evidence was illegally collected, the judge considered that with what the elements collected, they could not accuse him of the crime of kidnapping against the 43 Normalistas of Ayotzinapa.

In addition, the current attorney general's office forgot that last March was the closing of the trial against “El Gil”, and he could still present evidence against him, but he did not. Therefore, the judge decreed the acquittal.

Almost a year ago, the Gil had already been acquitted of the crime of organized crime.

“His release was due to two things. First a bad investigation of the PGR and second that it went to illegal methods of investigation that is the arbitrary detention and the torture. This is another tangible example of how the official case theory is falling apart through the judicial process, ”said Mario Patron, director of the PRO Center.

López Astudillo is credited with the material authorship of the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa, once the municipal police handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos  on the night of September 26, 2014.

According to the investigations, he would have given the order to liquidate the students of the Normal Rural Isidro Burgos , confusing them with members of the rival criminal group of "Los Rojos."

Along with Gilberto López Astudillo, 44 others are accused in the case of the disappeared student normalistas.