Three days after the attack in San Miguel Totolapan, which left at least 20 dead — including the mayor, his father and city hall workers — the name of Saúl Beltrán Orozco resurfaced in this town of Guerrero, where for years he was singled out for his alleged links with the criminal group Los Tequileros, considered responsible for the massacre.
Residents, Guerrero authorities and even alleged criminal leaders have accused Beltrán Orozco of having a close link with this armed group that violently broke into San Miguel Totolapan on October 5.
Beltrán Orozco was mayor of San Miguel Totolapan, for the PRI, from October 2012 to 2015. During his administration, the population denounced the increase in violence, mainly homicides and kidnappings.
The former mayor himself even denounced the forced displacement of families in 2013, noting that 1,300 people, including 217 children, sought refuge in the church of San Miguel Totolapan; he said then that those people were provided with medical care and food by the city council.
According to the Amapola Periodismo media, it was during the PRI administration that Los Tequileros, allegedly led by Raybel Jacobo Dealmonte, became known in the region, committing mass kidnappings, extortion and murders.
The criminal boom of Jacobo Dealmonte and his group was between 2013 and 2016 in the municipalities of San Miguel Totolapan, Ajuchitlán del Progreso and a part of the municipality of Arcelia.
For 2015, Beltrán Orozco won a local deputation, also for the PRI. However, the violence remained in San Miguel Totolapan, where Juan Mendoza Acosta, who was also killed in Wednesday’s massacre, along with his son and who was the mayor until that time, Conrado Mendoza Almeida, remained as municipal president.
The violence gave rise to the San Miguel Totolapan Peace Movement, which began publicly singling out Saúl Beltrán Orozco as responsible for protecting Los Tequileros and their criminal leader.
On January 12, 2017, residents of San Miguel Totolapan took to the streets to demonstrate for peace and to demand the arrest of Raybel Jacobo Dealmonte, the Tequilero.
“Saúl Beltrán Orozco provides information about the government’s strategies, economic support and logistical advice so that the criminals of the Tequileros gang can avoid capture,” said one of the leaders of the movement with his face covered to avoid being identified.
The compadre of the Tequilero
On January 16, 2017, the news program En Punto, hosted by journalist Denise Maerker, released a document that directly links Saúl Beltrán with Jacobo Dealmonte, being godfather of the baptism of Marisol Jacobo Castillo, daughter of the alleged criminal leader and Victoria Castillo Amaya, according to the book of the parish of San Miguel Arcángel.
The news contacted the former deputy to know his version, who at that time acknowledged being the godfather of the girl, but refused to have a close relationship with the Tequilero.
“I have no relationship with him. I saw that they say I have direct contact. I have no relationship with him, that is… I greet everyone but to have some relationship with Nadia,” he said.
“Didn’t you baptize Raybel’s daughter?” they asked.
“From a lady who lived with him 8 years ago,” he replied.
Almost a year earlier, in June 2016, the Investigative Journalistic Agency of Guerrero published part of a ministerial statement by the former municipal police of San Miguel Totolapan Perla García Navarro, who maintained that former mayor Saúl Beltrán ordered them to kidnap the priest José Ascensión Acuña in September 2014, for problems he had with the municipal president.
“This municipal president had and maintains to date good relations with the criminal group that operates in that town, it was also one of the bosses another named Raybel Jacobo de Almonte, alias el Tequilero, I even realized that these people worked for the municipal president, who gave them legal and police protection, “I even realized that these people worked for the municipal president, who gave them legal and police protection, ” the statement reads.
According to the research he released Exactly, the priest José Ascensión Acuña was the same one who celebrated the baptism where Jacobo de Almonte and Saúl Beltrán became compadres.
“The president ordered that we lift the priest, because of problems he had with him and we went to take him out of the church, on September 22, 2014,” said the municipal police, who until 2017 remained detained.
“He says there that I paid him as an informant but that’s a lie. We can all make unfounded statements, can’t we? I’m not crazy to make those decisions,” was the only thing the former mayor responded after the publication.
Despite the accusation, they let him flee
On May 31, 2017, a video was released where former Guerrero prosecutor Xavier Olea warns that Saúl Beltrán Orozco is a criminal leader and that he enjoys protection.
“I have the X-ray perfectly, and I already told you, the number one tequila maker is called Saúl Beltrán Orozco. Point. But he has jurisdiction!” says the prosecutor.
At the beginning of 2017, the Prosecutor’s Office of Guerrero had already requested the trial of removal of immunity against the then deputy Saúl Beltrán Orozco, having an arrest warrant against him, since he was accused of being the alleged intellectual author of the murder of José Antonio Zeferino Gil, a Cadastre worker of the Municipal Presidency of San Miguel Totolapan.
José Antonio Zeferino disappeared in September 2014 when Saúl Beltrán Orozco was municipal president of San Miguel Totolapan, Guerrero.
According to the news program En Punto, the Movement for Peace of this municipality said that Zeferino was ordered to be killed for witnessing the uprising of the priest José Ascención Acuña, who days after his disappearance appeared dead.
After the accusation, Saúl Beltrán Orozco requested leave as a legislator for “indefinite time”, because he argued that he wanted to clarify his legal situation. He was granted the license however, the trial of removal of immunity was frozen.
#Video Saúl Beltrán said that it is a temporary permit to @congresogro, not a definitive resignation. (Part Two) pic.twitter.com/e2mSeKbTxN
— API GUERRERO (@APIGUERRERO) May 4, 2017
Beltrán Orozco, in the eye of crime
After the massacre in San Miguel Totolapan, Juan Hurtado Oloscuaga, identified as el Fresa, alleged leader of La Familia Michoacana, published a video where he says that he and the mayor were the target of the attack.
Juan Hurtado affirms in the video that all the authors of Wednesday’s attack are already dead, that in the attack they were going for him, for the mayor and his father, that when he arrived at the meeting they “ate the cravings” and “they did not let me go down”, that is, they attacked him before entering, which is why, he says, he escaped.
In the video, which is analyzed by the Guerrero Prosecutor’s Office, the alleged leader of the Familia Michoacana warns El Vago, La Mula and Saúl Beltrán that he is going for them.
So far, the location of Beltrán Orozco, who was last seen on a walk through the zócalo of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, in June 2018, is unknown.
There, he told the newspaper El Sur that his case “was already closed,” without ruling out his return to politics.
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