The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has broken the silence after three weeks of doubts and inconsistencies regarding the capture of Ismael The May Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López in the United States, and the murder of Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa. The ministerial authorities indicated this Thursday in a statement that their American counterparts have not shared key elements to clarify how El Mayo and Joaquín Guzmán López’s son were killed. El Chapo Guzmán were detained in the United States, as well as information on the aircraft that transported them, the pilot and the official procedures that allowed their landing at a rural airport in New Mexico. The FGR also exposed errors and omissions in the investigation carried out by the Sinaloa Prosecutor’s Office to clarify Cuén’s murder, regarding the autopsy, the investigations at the crime scene, the preservation of the body and the video that has been presented about the alleged attack against the politician, one of the main pieces of evidence for state authorities.
This is the most complete statement that the FGR has published since both events occurred on July 25. The Federal Public Ministry explained that its investigation seeks to clear up the unknowns that prevail around the arrest of Zambada and Guzmán López, criminal leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, especially what happened in Mexican territory in the hours before it was announced by the United States. The Mexican authorities put on the table that they are not convinced by the explanations offered by Washington, which maintains that it was taken by surprise after the bosses appeared at the Doña Ana airport, on the outskirts of the border city of El Paso.[Las pruebas fundamentales] They are directly linked to an illegal flight; to a plane with a cloned registration; and to the absolutely irregular conduct of the person who piloted that plane and who concealed all information about his flight in Mexican territory, until he reached the border, where he only gave notice of his approach and landing in United States territory, where they were already waiting for him,” the statement concludes.
That evidence is still in the hands of the United States, the FGR says. The Mexican agency reported that it carried out ministerial and police investigations at the Doña Ana airport, as US ambassador Ken Salazar had already announced, but admitted that “the necessary data was not obtained to establish the responsibilities already referred to.” The Attorney General’s Office said that other efforts, led by its intelligence agencies, have managed to determine “the location of the runway near the city of Culiacán; the clandestine and unreported takeoff and flight within the national territory; as well as the approval that said aircraft obtained to land in US territory.” This is the first precise information that the governments of the United States and Mexico have given about the departure point of the aircraft. The US Embassy had said last Friday that “we are of the understanding that the flight began in Sinaloa.” The FGR promised to give the exact location as the investigations progress.
The FGR is demanding that the United States provide 11 pieces of relevant evidence. Five are related to the procedures that the aircraft carried out to arrive in New Mexico: the authorization from the CBP (the US border patrol) for the arrival flight of El Mayo and Guzmán López; the passenger record that must be submitted to immigration authorities before takeoff (Advance Passenger Information, API); the report from the US radar security system; the immigration documents of the pilots and passengers, such as their visas and passports, as well as the customs record on the people who were on the plane and their belongings.
The US Department of Justice is also being asked for identification data on the pilot and the aircraft, such as its registration, serial number, flight history and legal documents that support that its registration is in order with the United States authorities and international agencies. The FGR is also asking for a formal explanation of the irregularities regarding the registration that Washington provided in the hours following the arrest of both drug lords: “If the serial number that appears on the door of the aircraft, as well as the registration number N287KA, are legal; and if historically they correspond to that aircraft today, or if there is any irregularity in this regard.”
It is the most detailed public account ever made of what the FGR is demanding from the White House to determine whether crimes such as illegal flight and kidnapping were committed in Mexico. The Prosecutor’s Office also explained why the crime of treason is included in the investigation file, a point that was also controversial, and implied that the accused of that charge is Guzmán López and not Zambada. “He who illegally deprives a person of his freedom in the national territory, to hand him over to the authorities of another country or transfer him out of Mexico for that purpose, is responsible for that crime,” the statement reads. El Mayo claims that his godson betrayed him and kidnapped him. If it is proven that El Chapo’s son sold his former partner in the United States, can be formally charged in Mexico. The penalties range from five to 40 years in prison. “That is the priority reason for the investigation that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office started regarding the Ismael ‘N’-Joaquín ‘N’ case,” he said.
The controversial murder of Hector Cuen
At least two versions have emerged following the murder of Cuén, former mayor of Culiacán and one of the most controversial figures in Sinaloa politics. The Sinaloa Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the 68-year-old politician died in an attempted robbery of his truck. El Mayo said in a letter that he was killed after being summoned to a meeting with him and the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha. State authorities say that two men shot him at the La Presita gas station, 12 kilometers from Huertos del Pedregal, the place where Zambada says they met. The capo claims that the murder occurred at eleven in the morning; prosecutors announced that the time of death was twelve hours later, according to their medical records. Rocha, Cuén’s political adversary, denied being involved in either case, having attended the meeting or having ties to drug trafficking.
The FGR has detected errors and inconsistencies in the state prosecutor’s proceedings. “The autopsy does not correctly establish the immediate cadaveric signs, temperature, thanatological signs, lividity, nor the correct description and evolution of the body,” it says. Federal authorities say that the protocols and measures to preserve Cuén’s body were not followed, and that his body should not have been allowed to be cremated before the crime was solved.
Regarding the body, the FGR said that there were four shots in the legs, as the Sinaloa Prosecutor’s Office had already announced, but also “a strong hematoma on the head.” State authorities support the robbery theory based on the testimony of a former collaborator of Cuén, who said that he was driving his vehicle and had been an eyewitness to the shooting. On Monday, they released a video that supports this theory, captured by the security cameras of the La Presita gas station. But the images left public opinion with doubts because they are not conclusive in showing the alleged robbery, nor the shots or who was inside the truck or if it was, in fact, the victim’s vehicle.
“The gas station video has sound and only one shot can be heard,” reveals the FGR, which took over the murder investigation this week. “The three gas station employees do not report hearing shots,” it adds. Another finding by the federal authorities is that there were blood stains on the bed (the rear part or box) of the truck and that, despite this, “there are no expert reports or determinations in this regard.” “The scene of the crime was not processed criminalistically, nor was the vehicle,” reports the Prosecutor’s Office. Nor was a mechanics of the events presented, a criminalistic study detailing how the crime happened step by step.
Three weeks later, state authorities have not been able to give a convincing explanation about who killed Cuén and why, and they have blamed the media blow of El Mayo’s letter, which links the murder with his own arrest and has put federal and Sinaloa authorities to work overtime. The FGR’s position has given official status to the unknowns that have marked both cases and represents a blow to the credibility of the Sinaloa Prosecutor’s Office.
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