Mexico City, June 16 (teleSUR-RHC)-- A Mexican judge seeking asylum in the United States has revealed a new version as to what happened in Iguala, in the southern violent state of Guerrero, the night of September 26th last year when the 43 Ayotzinapa students were forcibly disappeared that suggests federal and military officials were directly involved in the case.
The Attorney General's office (PGR) made public a criminal report into the disappearance of the 43 students, assuring that only municipal police were involved and that after having placed the students in detention at the local jail, corrupt officers handed them over to the local drug cartel Guerreros Unidos, who burnt them at a local garbage dump and threw their remains in a nearby river.
But Ulises Bernabe, a judge in charge of administrative procedures at Iguala's police station, told critical Mexican magazine Proceso and the investigative journalist of the University of Berkeley, that the students were never taken to jail. Bernabe also spoke of an army official he identified as “Capt. Crespo” and five soldiers who went to the police station looking for the students. Bernabe says the army captain was there for about 15 minutes and later left. Bernabe added that the state deputy Attorney General Victor Leon Maldonado arrived at the police station just after the captain and his men had left and he took control of the facility until 8:00 a.m. of the following day.
The former judge explained that federal police and the army were patrolling the streets of Iguala when the PGR has stated that the events took place, which suggests that these federal security forces were aware of what was happening to the Ayotzinapa students and were somehow involved in their disappearances.
According to the Bernabe's accounts, the captain and his men later went to the Catalina Hospital in Iguala, where some of the students had gone to have their injuries treated. Once there, Capt. Crespo threatened the students and told them they would be arrested, but given the amount of people at the hospital he refrained from taking the students with him.
Ayotzinapa students who survived the tragic night of September 26th, have given their testimonies regarding the events and they coincide with the Bernabe's accounts.
In November, Bernabe rendered testimony at the PGR and was later threatened to death, which is why he fled to the United States fearing for his life. The investigative piece published by Proceso was co-signed by Anabel Hernandez, a respected Mexican journalist, and Steven Fisher of the University of Berkeley.
Hernandez and Fisher looked into Bernabe's statements and identified Capt. Crespo as Jose Martinez Crespo, who is in fact an army official assigned to the 27th battalion in Iguala. According to both journalists, the PGR has issued an arrest warrant against Bernabe alleging he possibly participated in the enforced disappearance of the Ayotzinapa students along with the Guerreros Unidos.
