Mexico City.- Just 39 days after being arrested, Sergeant Santiago Muñoz Pilo left Military Camp Number One last night and will continue on provisional release in the trial that was initiated against him for his alleged involvement in the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa normal students.
The sergeant achieved his provisional release in record time, because, before him, the defendant who had spent the least amount of time in jail for this matter was General Rafael Hernández Nieto, former commander of the 41st Infantry Battalion of Iguala, who was imprisoned only 75 days.
Raquel Ivette Duarte Cedillo, Second District Judge in Federal Criminal Proceedings of Toluca, canceled the preventive detention imposed on the member of the 41st Infantry Battalion and granted him provisional freedom upon payment of a guarantee of 50 thousand pesos.
He also imposed as precautionary measures that he must appear in court every 15 days to sign the book of defendants, the prohibition of leaving the country and the prohibition of living together and approaching the victims and protected witnesses, even by electronic and telephone means.
“The duration of the measure imposed on Santiago Muñoz Pilo will be in force for the entire duration of the process, unless the conditions that justified its imposition vary objectively,” says the agreement dictated by the judge.
Because the sergeant lives in Iguala, Guerrero, Duarte Cedillo granted the soldier the facility to sign the book of defendants every two weeks in a District Court on duty in that town, the resolution of the justice provider states.
The judge also instructed to report this determination to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that it can order the General Directorate of Delegations to restrict the issuance of a passport to Muñoz Pilo.
Additionally, in order to monitor compliance with the prohibitions, the judge issued instructions to the National Guard to commission the federal agents who will render reports on the defendant.
Neither former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam nor any other defendant in the Ayotzinapa case has achieved what this member of the Army achieved, being provisionally released in 39 days.
The defendant who until yesterday had the record for the shortest time in prison was General Rafael Hernández Nieto, who was arrested on June 6, 2023 in Puebla and was released from military prison on the following August 20.
In contrast, Sergeant Muñoz Pilo was arrested on May 10 and left Military Camp Number One last night.
Born on December 17, 1969 in the town of Xilocintla, Huitzuco municipality, Guerrero, Muñoz Pilo is one of the soldiers accused by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) of being involved in the disappearance of the 43 normal students from Ayotzinapa, which occurred on September 26, 2014 in Iguala.
The FGR investigation indicates that Muñoz Pilo was one of the members of the Army who tried to take the students admitted to the Cristina Hospital on the night of the events in Iguala, without achieving their goal.
Apparently, that instruction was issued by the commands of the 27th and 41st Infantry Battalions, after being ordered to do so by the criminal group Guerreros Unidos, according to the accusation.
The soldiers allegedly chosen for that task were the then Colonel Rafael Hernández Nieto, commander of the 41st Infantry Battalion, and the Infantry soldiers Ramiro Manzanares Sanabria, Juan Sotelo Díaz, Eloy Estrada Díaz, Enrique Martínez Chávez, and corporals Roberto de los Santos Eduviges and Santiago Muñoz Pilo.
“Each and every one of them was chosen to take the students who were at the Cristina Hospital, as can be seen from the document ‘Fatigue manifested by the troop personnel who were performing the prevention guard service on the date’ and ‘ role of services’ that do not justify the presence of military elements in the conduct attributed to them,” states Tania Villa Matías, FGR prosecutor, in the file presented before the judge.
“However, since there are perfectly identified witnesses who would give an account of their act, they decide to leave, returning later to fully comply with the order to ‘break their mother,’ but the students sheltered in the aforementioned hospital had already left. “.
There are 4 fugitive soldiers left
Of a total of 20 soldiers against whom arrest warrants were issued for their alleged involvement in the Ayotzinapa Case, 16 were detained and of them, 15 were prosecuted and only one was released due to lack of evidentiary elements.
Of the 15 who are subject to trial, 10 have already obtained provisional release and only 5 remain interned in Military Camp Number One. Only 4 soldiers are fugitives from justice.
Those who have been released are General Rafael Hernández Nieto, former commander of the 41st Infantry Battalion, as well as Gustavo Rodríguez de la Cruz, Omar Torres Marquillo, Juan Andrés Flores Lagunas, Ramiro Manzanares Sanabria, Roberto de los Santos Eduviges, Eloy Estrada Díaz, Uri Yashiel Reyes Lazos, Juan Sotelo Díaz and now Santiago Muñoz Pilo.
Those interned in the military prison are General Brigadier José Rodríguez Pérez, former head of the 27th Battalion; Captain José Martínez Crespo; Second Lieutenant Fabián Alejandro Pirita Ochoa and First Infantry soldiers Eduardo Mota Esquivel and Francisco Narváez Pérez.
The only one who has been released to date due to lack of evidence is former military man Ezequiel Carrera Rifas, who was arrested last March and left prison six days later.
Today the only fugitives are the soldiers Óscar Cruz Román, Joel Gálvez Santos, Felipe González Cano and Enrique Martínez Chávez.
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