"El Gil" Taken Into Custody In Connection With 43 Ayotzinapa Missing Students

Mexican federal authorities arrested wanted fugitive on Wednesday in Taxco de Alarcón.

By H. Nelson Goodson

September 20, 2015

Mexico City, Mexico D.F. - On Friday, the federal Attorney General's Office (PGRF) in Mexico City announced that Gildardo López Astudillo, aka, "Gil" was taken into custody on Wednesday at Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero in connection with the 43 Ayotzinapa missing students. Astudillo was wanted for kidnapping and organized crime. He allegedly participated in the September 26-27, 2014 murders of six people, including 4 students, 25 injured students and with the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students.

Last November, Jesús Murillo Karam, the federal Mexican Attorney General (PGRF) confirmed that Astudillo had received orders from former Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez to eliminate the missing Ayotzinapa students. Astudillo texted Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, the leader of the Guerreros Unidos (GU), a criminal organization that the students detained by corrupt Iguala and Cocula municipal police were members of a rival crime group called, "Los Rojos." Salgado knew that Abarca Velázquez and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa wanted the students liquidated at all costs so, Salgado ordered his man to kill the students and to get rid of all DNA evidence.

Karam had claimed that the 43 missing students were tortured, killed and then burned at a Cocula municipal dump and their ashes discarded at a river nearby. The PGR's version of what happened has been disputed and local municipal police officers from Cocula and Iguala were arrested in the kidnapping, killing and missing of 43 Ayotzinapa students.

Karam stated in November that Cocula Mayor César Miguel Peñaloza Santana, former Iguala Mayor Abarca Velázquez, Pineda Villa, Salomón Pineda, aka, "El Molón" and Salgado were taken into custody, including 74 GU suspects, which 22 are Iguala municipal police officers and 14 other Cocula municipal police officers. Ten additional warrants were issued for other alleged criminals connected to the student massacre.
Former Governor of Guerrero Ángel Heladio Aguirre Rivero resigned in October 2014 after learning his political PRD party was moving to oust him in wake of the unrest and protests seeking justice for the missing students. Rivero's campaign for Governor was financed by the GU and was accused of attempting to cover up the student massacre. Rivero has not been charged of any crime.
The federal government investigation at the time indicated that the 43 missing students were turned over to the GU by corrupt Iguala and Cocula municipal police officers. Afterwards, they were taken to the Cocula municipal garbage dump and killed, then burned, according to three GU suspects, Jhonathan Osorio Gómez, aka, "El Jona," Agustín García Reyes, aka, "El Chereje" and Patricio Reyes Landa, aka, "El Pato."

New allegations have been raised that the Ayotzinapa students were ordered killed after they took a bus loaded with drugs or drug money from the Guerreros Unidos and local police along with members of the GU including Mexican military and federal police were involved in the murders, kidnappings and the disappearance of the students. So far, no federal police or military personnel have been taken into custody or connected to the missing students.

The latest allegation suggests that four laborers revealed that they were tortured by Mexican feds and forced to say that the 43 Ayotzinapa students were burned at the Cocula municipal dump, but evidence indicates the 43 missing students had to be cremated at a funeral home equipped with a crematorium.

The man made fire at the Cocula dump included garbage debris, tires and plastic bottles, which was not sufficient fuel to cremate the bodies as was reported by the PGR.