AMLO Reveals There is a Witness to the Ayotzinapa Kidnapping Detained in the US

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President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) made a surprising revelation at his morning press conference on May 28 2021 when he revealed the file his administration had recently requested and received from the United States government was that of a detainee who witnessed the events of the forty three missing students of Ayotzinapa Teachers College. This revelation came as follows: 

QUESTIONER: President, I would like to ask you about the file sent by the United States, which is linked to the Ayotzinapa case. Does this have to do with the arrests of members of Guerreros Unidos carried out in the United States? And also to ask you, at this moment who has this file? Does the Presidency have it? Does the Attorney General's Office have it? Does the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts also have it? Who already has this file, President? 

AMLO: Well, it is a file of a person detained in the United States linked to these events. I am not judging. We do not know if he is responsible or not. He is a witness. And Encinas already has the file, Alejandro Encinas, Undersecretary of the Interior. And it will also be at the disposal of the prosecutor's office, which was integrated for the purpose of finding out where the young people from Ayotzinapa are. And also the group of advisers who are helping to learn the truth about these unfortunate events.

QUESTIONER: Was this witness, President, at the events of September 26 and 27?

AMLO: I have no further information and I do not want to be reckless in this case. The matter is very delicate, you know, and we are doing well in the investigation, very well. So, I want to give the prosecutor's office it’s place. They can report at the appropriate time.

QUESTIONER: Do you trust that this file can greatly clarify the prospect, President, of this Ayotzinapa case?

AMLO: Yes, it is a part of an entire investigation, which has many components. Something very professional is being done and the most important thing is that it is acting with rectitude, without hiding anything, without impunity or the desire to protect people. We will get to know what happened and we will inform you when the investigation is more advanced.

Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who was mentioned by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), is in charge of restarting the investigation into the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa students.

Four days earlier, AMLO teased this revelation saying he had a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and "We were dealing with other issues, but the human rights commission in charge of investigating the Ayotzinapa case asked me to work with the U.S. government to obtain a file that the U.S. authorities have… I asked the Vice President to help us. I want to thank her because she already sent me part of the file. I can't say more, but we already have the answer." 

Borderland Beat Analysis

The questioner from today’s press conference mentions the “arrests of members of Guerreros Unidos carried out in the United States”, which may allude to the Guerreros Unidos members who were arrested in Chicago, Illinois, in late 2014 for heroin distribution. The cartel members have had a long and protracted legal battle since 2014, but there has been lots of progress recently in their trial. 

Among the Guerreros Unidos (GU) members arrested in Chicago was Pablo Vega, the leader of the regional cell and a major heroin distributor for the United States. As part of the DEA’s investigation into Pablo Vega, they recorded calls and covertly intercepted messages between Pablo Vega and his GU collaborators in Mexico.

Photo of Pablo Vega, from Guerreros Unidos.

A US indictment of Vega revealed that in these calls and messages the men spoke of drug shipments from Mexico that were being made using line buses, much like the buses the forty three Ayotzinapa students had taken. Ever since 2015, the human rights council has demanded the Mexican government request all the call records and messages the US collected in their surveillance of the Chicago GU cell.

Much of the current buzz around the Ayotzinapa case has been tied to allegations that Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) leader El Cuini has been trying to make a deal with federal prosecutors that would prevent his extradition to the US in exchange for sharing intelligence the CJNG gathered on the Ayotzinapa case. 

However, it should be noted that El Cuini is alleged to have spoken with the aforementioned Alejandro Encinas, in charge of the Ayotzinapa investigation on May 12 2021. The request for the US file was made by AMLO to Vice President Kamala Harris on May 7 2021. 

Omar Gomez Trejo, Head of the Special Investigation arriving at El Cuini's prison.

That being said, Alejandro Encinas notified the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) that El Cuini was collaborating with testimonies of high value for the Ayotzinapa case on April 8 2021. After this notification, Cuini was transferred from the maximum security prison Altiplano to Santa Martha Acatitla, a medium security prison. 

The speculated connection between El Cuini and the file request relies on knowing at which meeting, if any, Cuini divulged information to prosecutors. There has been no information released to the press that clarify those details. So, as of today, what prompted the May 7 2021 file request, which has been petitioned by the human rights council since early 2015, is unclarified and unknown.

Sources for AMLO’s Comments: Direct Transcript of AMLO’s May 28 Press Conference, Milenio, El Universal, Proceso , ZETA Tijuana , El Heraldo de Chihuahua

Sources for Chicago Trial Connection: El Pais, La Silla Rota