Photo @SIPAZ
On 23 April, two police officers from the Ministerial Police of the state of Guerrero were released, having been incarcerated for the homicides of the students Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino, 22 years old, and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, 21, which took place on 12 December 2011. These murders took place amidst the violent operation undertaken by the federal, state, and municipal police to suppress a peaceful student march in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.
On 19 April, judge Arístides Marino Santos accepted the motion calling for the recognition of innocence of the two ministerial police held responsible for these acts, and he instructed the relevant authorities to release them within three days’ time. The release of the two police officers confirms the fears expressed from the beginning of investigations undertaken by the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights and the victims’ relatives, due to the fact that the first investigations were carried out by authorities themselves associated with the acts and experts who could hardly be said to be independent. Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, lawyer for Tlachinollan, who represents the Ayotzinapa case, noted that the release of these two police shows the high degree of impunity in Guerrero. “In grave cases like this one where there was a violent repression and excessive use of force, it is not possible to release these subjects, thus illustrating the prevalence of authoritarianism [in the state], especially given the repressive acts of the past.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Comunicado de prensa (Tlachinollan, 23 de abril de 2013)
Liberan a policías ministeriales por caso Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 23 de abril de 2013)
Liberan a los ministeriales acusados de asesinar a los dos normalistas (La Jornada de Guerrero, 24 de abril de 2013)
Liberan a policías ministeriales por caso de alumnos de Ayotzinapa (El Sur de Acapulco, 23 de abril de 2013)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Guerrero: normalists commemorate first anniversary of repression in Ayotzinapa (21 December 2013)
Guerrero: New aggressions against students in Ayotzinapa (26 November 2012)
Guerrero: “The Ayotzinapa case cannot remain in impunity” – OMCT (16 August 2012)
Guerrero: Ayotzinapa denounces impunity six months after the deaths of two students (17 June 2012)
Guerrero: CNDH confirms serious rights-violations against students of Ayotzinapa (16 January 2012)
Guerrero: Extrajudicial execution of students from the Rural Normal of Ayotzinapa (21 December 2011)
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