The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) continues to avoid investigating the massacre in Allende, Coahuila, despite having repeatedly committed to it.
The last one occurred in March 2019, when it was eight years since the events in which Los Zetas hitmen razed the municipality and kidnapped and murdered a still undetermined number of people. Then, the delegate of the federal government in Coahuila, Reyes Flores Hurtado, told relatives of victims and civil society organizations that the Prosecutor’s Office would attract the case of Allende and that of the Piedras Negras prison, strongly linked. He set a deadline: one month at the latest. Almost three years have passed and there is still not a single folder attracted.
Animal Político requested for transparency from the FGR the files of the investigation of the massacre, which took place between March 18 and 20, 2011. “It was not possible to notice documentary expression with the characteristics of an investigation file in charge of this Attorney General’s Office, initiated by the events that occurred March 18 to 20, 2011, in the Municipality of Allende, State of Coahuila, and that have been classified as serious violations of human rights,” the FGR responded. which indicated that the investigation is in the hands of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Coahuila (FGE), as stated in recommendation 10VG/2018 of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
Animal Político consulted with the FGR and the State Prosecutor’s Office, but at press time it had not received a response.
See also: Mayor of Allende knew about the massacre that The Zetas would do, says the Attorney General’s Office of Coahuila
In recent years, several authorities raised the possibility of federal investigators taking over the file, but to this day that has not happened. In fact, in August 2019 there was a meeting in which the Undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, was present, among others, in which the commitment of the attraction was also reached, without results so far.
The closest thing for the FGR to lead this investigation was the opening in 2018 of a folder in the former Seido, the prosecutor’s office specializing in organized crime. This is the folder FED/SEIDO/UEIDCS-CDMX/0000624/2018. However, it did not go beyond receiving the recommendation of the CNDH and there is no record of major movements.
The families of the victims have been asking for years that it be the FGR that attracts the file since they consider that the authorities of Coahuila are not qualified to investigate some facts that dot former officials. “There is progress, with arrest warrants and sentences. But it is contaminated,” said Ariana Denisse García Bosque, legal representative of the association Familias Unidas en la Búsqueda y Localizar de Personas in which relatives of some of the people disappeared in those events are integrated.
At the moment, the investigation has pointed to members of organized crime, specifically Los Zetas, and municipal police of Allende, as well as custodians of the Piedras Negras prison. However, the investigation into the chain of command and the political responsibilities of those events, which took place during the government of PRI member Rubén Moreira, remains pending. “There is a conflict of interest in the investigation,” he says.
In addition, the investigations are plagued by irregularities, according to García Bosque, who believes that state authorities are not qualified to investigate their own negligence.
The lawyer recalls how the families were given urns with ashes and then the governor himself acknowledged that it was not possible to find remains. “It was the land of the scene,” he explains.
The last meeting held between authorities and families took place on December 3. In it, however, there was no news about progress in the investigation or in the reparation of the victims, another matter that is still pending.
The massacre took place between March 18 and 20, 2011 in the municipality of Allende, Coahuila. That day, hitmen aboard pickup trucks stormed the municipality to raze it as punishment for a betrayal that led the DEA to approach some of its leaders. They destroyed homes and an unknown number of people (between 45 and 300, according to reports) were disappeared.
The victims link these events with the Piedras Negras prison, which has been converted into an extermination center run by los Zetas. Currently there are 7 arrest warrants to be executed and some of those responsible have already been convicted. However, the investigation into political responsibilities remains pending. The FGR committed to the families but, to this day, it still does not start investigations.
What we do at Animal Político requires professional journalists, teamwork, dialogue with readers and something very important: independence. You can help us keep going. Be part of the team.
Subscribe to Animal Político, receive benefits and support free journalism.#YoSoyAnimal
