Oaxaca: Former State Police Commissioner Arrested for Nochixtlan Case

Operation in Nochixtlan (@La Jornada)

On February 9th, the former commissioner of the Oaxaca State Police, Froylan Carlos Cruz, was arrested and sent to informal preventive detention at the Federal Center for Social Readaptation (CEFERSO) Number 13, in the municipality of Miahuatlan, for his participation in the operation that was carried out to evict the blockade of teachers who were protesting on the Oaxaca-Mexico superhighway over the implementation of the educational reform, on June 19th, 2016 in Asuncion Nochixtlan. More than 400 members from various bodies participated in said operation that left six people dead by gunshots and 198 wounded, according to data from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).

This arrest is added to other arrests, carried out in September 2021, of Juan PA, who was director of the State Police Special Forces Division in 2016, and of Carlos GR, a member of the Federal Police and one of those that were at the forefront of the eviction in Asuncion Nochixtlan.

The leader of the June 19^th Committee of Victims for Justice and Truth (COVIC), Santiago Ambrosio, said that the capture of Froylan Carlos Cruz is progress. However, “we do not take our finger off the pulse: not only the police officers and managers responsible for the operation should be punished. The investigation must reach those who ordered the eviction.”

For his part, the legal adviser of the COVIC affirmed that “the Committee’s demand is that the investigation continue, that this entire line of chain of command be exhausted in order to prosecute not only the police commanders, but also the political commanders; among them is former President Enrique Peña Nieto, former Secretary of the Interior Miguel Angel Osorio Chong and former Governor Gabino Cue Monteagudo.”

For more information in Spanish:

Vincularán a proceso a exmando policiaco detenido por caso Nochixtlán (NVI Noticias, 11 de febrero de 2022)

Encarcelan a ex jefe policiaco por la represión en Nochixtlán (La Jornada, 10 de febrero de 2022) Detienen a excomisionado de la Policía de Oaxaca por desalojo violento en Nochixtlán (Proceso, 9 de febrero de 2022)

Detienen a ex jefe de la policía estatal por operativo en Nochixtlán en 2016 que dejó 8 muertos (El Universal, 9 de febrero de 2022)

For more information from SIPAZ: