"El Cachas" The Monster Of Puente Grande: Jalisco

 "Ivan" for Borderland Beat

GRILLONAUTAS2

Gerardo Botello Rosales, known as "El Cachas," is one of the main leaders of the CJNG. He is being held in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco and was responsible for the rape of four prison guards.

Botello Rosales is head of CJNG criminal group

His given name is Gerardo Botello Rosales, but in the criminal world he is known as "El Cachas. Originally from Michoacán, the 46-year-old is one of the main leaders of the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG) and although he has been in prison since 2018, he continues to operate and command his troops from there, spreading violence and terror in the states of Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Puebla and Nayarit, according to intelligence information from the Ministry of the Navy to which I had access.

"El Cachas" was arrested at his home on May 18, 2018 in Zapopan, Jalisco, at a residence within the modern Natura Bosque Residencial subdivision in possession of drugs and weapons, according to the arrest report of which I have a copy. With him was a woman, who he said was his wife, three minors and another elderly woman who he said was his mother-in-law. He was accused by the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR) of crimes against health and possession of weapons, cartridges and magazines for the exclusive use of the army.

He is the right-hand man of Juan Carlos Valencia González alias "3" or "03", stepson of Nemesio Oceguera "El Mencho", leader of the CJNG. Born in the United States on September 12, 1984, in California, Juan Carlos is the procreated son of Armando Valencia alias "El Maradona" - leader and founder of the Milenio Cartel - and Rosalinda González Valencia, whose brothers were associates of "El Maradona".

"El Mencho" began his criminal career as a hitman in the service of Armando Valencia. Over time he became one of his main operators. And in the end he ended up staying with Rosalinda and the criminal organization, as it is from the Milenio Cartel that the CJNG emerged.

After the marriage between "El Mencho" and Rosalinda, the now CJNG leader took in Juan Carlos as his own son. The couple procreated their own children: Ruben, alias "El Menchito" (extradited to the United States), Jessica Johana (who was arrested in 2020 in the United States and released in March 2022) and Laisha Michelle, all three with the surname Oseguera Gonzalez.

According to Navy intelligence information, "El Cachas" was an bodyguard for Rosalinda González Valencia, whom the Mexican government calls "La Jefa." She was also arrested in 2018 in Zapopan, Jalisco for money laundering. She was placed on probation and was re-arrested in 2021 for not coming to sign in court, as she was required to do.

Infamy in Puente Grande

When "El Cachas" was arrested in 2018, the then Secretary of the Interior Alfonso Navarrete Prida in the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto catalogued the CJNG member as dangerous: "this subject is probably responsible for the commission of various homicides against police authorities and members of antagonistic criminal groups."

Currently, the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) has listed Botello Rosales as "Regional Chief of the Jalisco New Generation Criminal Group in Morelia, Michoacan, and Leon, Guanajuato," according to a profile prepared in June 2022 by the 16th Military Zone, a copy of which I have a copy (see below) and which is part of the official documents hacked by Guacamaya Leaks.

Despite this and the serious crimes imputed to him by the FGR in Criminal Case 344/2018, instead of Botello Rosales being sent to a federal maximum security prison, since 2018 he has been held in the state prison in Puente Grande Jalisco, administered by the government of Jalisco.

For years, this prison has been known for the corruption that prevails there. In 2020, civil organizations reported that inmates from the Puente Grande women's state prison were taken to the men's prison to a party and were prostituted. In 2021 the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission (CEDHJ) issued a recommendation to the government of Jalisco, headed by Enrique Alfaro, after discovering that on at least 23 occasions female inmates were taken by security personnel themselves to three male prisons that are part of the Puente Grande prison complex.

"El Cachas" "gives away" four guards

Last February 10, inmates of the prison where "El Cachas" is imprisoned raped four female guards. This was denounced at the time by the National Organization for Human and Labor Rights of Mexican Police Officers (Organización Nacional de los Derechos Humanos y Laborales de los Policías de México). The same organization that in 2021 filed the first complaint before the CEDHJ for the illegal transfer of female prisoners to a male prison; a fact that was later corroborated by the Commission itself.

According to the complaint, male prison guards illegally allowed prisoners to enter the area where the female staff was located during working hours.

"In the place where they are, in the security towers, it is not so easy for a detainee to reach the place, many security filters have to be violated and only the service supervisor or the head of surveillance has keys to enter those towers and the heads of surveillance opened the towers to the detainees. There they entered and raped our comrades," denounced Juan Manuel Mercado Gómez, representative of the Organization, according to local media reports.

"The information we have is that there was a party with drugs and alcohol and the security chiefs sold the compañeras to the organized crime guys who are there... they raped them, and now they and their families are threatened with death if they denounce it".

According to SEMAR intelligence information to which I had access, the events did occur. And the organized crime leader who planned the aggression against the four women was Gerardo Botello Rosales, "El Cachas". "He gave the custody of the prisoners as a gift," according to intelligence information from the Secretary of the Navy. It is striking that Jose Antonio Perez Juarez, director of Prevention and Social Reinsertion, an official of the Jalisco government, did not even initiate an investigation into the aggression. For us the issue of custody is a non-existent issue, it is an idle issue, it would be like wasting our time," said the official, according to a textual quote from the newspaper El Informador published on March 27. The justification for his argument is that no one filed a complaint.

Criminal active from prison

According to SEMAR's information, "El Cachas" is the boss in the prison with the knowledge and complicity of prison authorities. Thanks to this, behind bars he continues to carry out his functions within the CJNG for "Cero 3" and "El Mencho. And under his command, violence is increasing in Guanajuato and Zacatecas, two of the states with the most violent homicides in the country.

According to the sentence of January 31, 2020, "El Cachas" was sentenced to less than seven years in prison, and although strictly speaking he has two years to serve, there is concern that he may be granted some benefit, or that he could even escape given his ability to co-opt those responsible for prison security.

The Attorney General's Office opened a new criminal case 595/2020 against him for money laundering, but not even the new charges will get him moved to a more effective prison.

While Botello Rosales commands his sinister kingdom from Puente Grande, the US justice system has a pending indictment against him for the murder of 53-year-old Angel Carlón Silva, which occurred on December 15, 2002 in Oregon.

Anabel Hernández, Mexican journalist and author of this column

DW MADE FOR MINDS.