Two suspects have confessed and led Mexican authorities to the Cocula municipality waste dump where the missing Ayotzinapa students were killed and burned.
By H. Nelson Goodson
November 7, 2014
Mexico, D.F. - On Friday, Jesús Murillo Karam, Mexico's Federal Attorney General during a press conference confirmed that two suspects, Jhonathan Osorio Gómez, aka, "El Jona" and Agustín García Reyes, aka, "El Chereje" have confessed that the 43 Ayotzinapa missing students had been murdered on September 26-27. Both suspects and Patricio Reyes Landa, aka, "El Pato" say, that the missing students were taken to Cocula by members of the Iguala municipal police and were handed over to Cocula municipal police. The corrupt Cocula police handed the students to members of the Guerreros Unidos (GU), a criminal organization.
The students were transported to the Cocula municipal waste and garbage dump where most were murdered. Gómez and Reyes told investigators that 15 of the students arrived dead because apparently they were strangled to death while being tortured. The rest of the students, 27 of them were then tortured, executed and burned at the dump. The killers threw the bodies from a ledge of a hill to a lower section of the dump where rocks, plastic bottles, wood, tires, diesel and gasoline was used to burn the bodies for more than 15 hours. The fire to burn the bodies was started after midnight on September 27 and lasted until 5:30 p.m., according to the suspects.
Afterwards, the killers took their clothing off and burned it to get rid of the evidence. Once the fire subdued, the killers were ordered to gather all the asses and to crush any bones that were left over. The asses were placed in black plastic garbage bags and thrown in the San Juan River.
Authorities recovered some of the bags from the river and one closed garbage bag with bones and asses. In the process, one of the federal soldiers drowned in the river gathering evidence, Karam said.
The evidence will be taken to Austria for DNA testing. The human remains were so badly incinerated that it would take some time to see, if any DNA will be recovered to identify the remains. Some teeth were found, but were intensely burned that if touched would discompose like powder, according to Karam.
Karam said, that the characteristics and information provided by both Gómez and Reyes indicate that the student were killed and efforts by the GU to hide their crime was evident.
Karam confirmed, that the federal government will continue to investigate the case as missing students until DNA evidence indicates the identity of the students killed. The missing students case will remain open until DNA can confirm the students were actually killed.
Karam said, that another suspect David Hernández Cruz, aka, "El Chino" the Iguala police communications operator confirmed that former Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez had given the order to stop four student buses coming into Iguala and indicated for the corrupt members of the Iguala municipal police to use whatever means to detain them.
On September 26, the Igual municipal police blocked and fired at the buses when they reached the city. Three students from Ayotzinapa, another student from a different area and two other people were reported killed.
Karam says, the federal investigation has arrested 74 suspects and 10 others are being sought in connection with the massacre of the students.
Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, the leader of the GU and Salomón Pineda, aka, "El Molón" have been arrested. Salgado ordered his men to killed the 43 students, according to some of the suspects in custody.
Cocula Mayor César Miguel Peñaloza Santana was also arrested in connection with the missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos school in Ayotzinapa.
On Thursday, Abarca Velázquez, the former Mayor of Iguala was charged with multiple federal counts for murder, kidnapping and organize crime along with his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa for the September 26-27 murders of six people, including 4 students, 25 injured students and with the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students. Abarca Velázquez and Pineda Villa are facing between 90 to 190 years in prison, if convicted on all counts.
Both Abarca Velázquez and Pineda Villa were taken into custody by Federal Police in a modest home on Tuesday in Mexico, D.F. where they had been hiding in the Tenorios neighborhood in Iztapalapa district.
Noemí Berumen Rodríguez was also taken into custody and has been charged with harboring both Abarca Velázquez and Pineda Villa who were wanted on federal warrants. Rodríguez has been released on bail.
Abarca Velázquez was paid in bribes between $2M to $3M pesos ($15K to $230K U.S.) monthly by the GU, which Pineda Villa's family was involved and operated.
While being questioned by the federal prosecutor's office for organized crime, both Abarca Velázquez and Pineda Villa did not reveal the whereabouts of the missing students.
Abarca Velázquez has been also charged with the 2013 homicide of Arturo Hernández Cardona. He is accused of personally killing Cardona, the leader of the United Popular organization from Guerrero in late May to early June 2013, according to a notarized affidavit from Nicolás Mendoza who witnessed the cold blooded murder by Abarca Velázquez. Abarca Velázquez shot Cardona in the face and chest while saying "I'm going to have the pleasure of killing you" as Felipe Flores Velázquez, Iguala's Secretary of Public Safety watched, according to Mendoza. Félix Rafael Bandera Román and Ángel Román Ramírez were also killed. Román attemped to escape and was fatally shot and Ramírez tried to run from another location where the remaining five kidnapped victims were taken to be executed. The victims had been tortured and beaten for several days. Abarca Velázquez and Flores Velázquez were never charged for the murders in 2013 until last October. Flores Velázquez remains at large and is wanted by both the federal and the state of Guerrero.
Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office (PGRF) is offering $111K U.S. ($1.5M pesos) for each missing student or $4.7M U.S. ($64.5M pesos) for information leading to the whereabouts of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa.
Cocula's Municipal waste and garbage dump.
