Captain José Martínez Crespo was arrested for his alleged link to the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa. He is the first military officer arrested in this investigation and is charged with the offences of “organized crime for the purpose of committing crimes against health”, “homicide” and “forced disappearance”, according to the magazine Proceso.
The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center also confirmed the capture without delving into further details.
Read more Ayotzinapa report: 80 detainees, 30 search actions and a identified remainder
The officer was one of the commanders of the 27th Infantry Battalion in Iguala, Guerrero, the night of the normalists’ disappearance.
⚠️ The arrest of an element of the Army for alleged links to organized crime, in the context of the #Ayotzinapa case, is a very relevant development.
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— Prodh Centre (@CentroProdh) November 13, 2020
The soldier was arrested in prison attached to the 1st Military Region located at Military Camp No. 1-A in Mexico City.
On Thursday, November 12, his preparatory declaration took place in criminal case 5/2020. The case is in the hands of the Second Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings with residence in Toluca, State of Mexico. The arrest was in charge of the Subsection of Judicial Injunctions of the Military Ministerial Police, attached to the Ministry of Defense. Now the judge has until the 18th of this month to issue a car.
On September 26, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that arrest warrants had been issued against the military for his participation in the Ayotzinapa case.
According to the federal government, the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) has made available information on battalions 27 and 35 Battalion in Iguala, Guerrero, to investigate their possible participation of their elements in the disappearance of normalists.
So far they have handed over military backgrounds, logs, communications, battalion structure, base of operation, photos and videos.
On the part of the Secretariat of Public Security and Citizen Protection, he said, the Monitoring Committee was formed in the Iguala case, which initiated administrative processes against 14 elements: of which 4 were removed after an administrative sanction process, 3 were de-serviced, 2 were temporarily suspended and 5 more were investigated.
34 new detainees
Encinas detailed that from March to date 34 new people involved in the disappearance of the 43 normalists of Ayotzinapa have been arrested, already adding 80 arrests, including members of criminal groups, police and public prosecutors.
He highlighted the arrest warrants against Tomás Zerón, former head of the Criminal Investigation Agency and the arrests of Carlos Gómez Arrieta, former head of the Federal Ministerial Police and Alicia Bernal, a former Public Prosecutor responsible for legalizing the so-called historical truth.
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