Friday, July 18, 2025

COVID roundup: numbers continue to show decreasing rates of new infections

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Residents with face masks make their way through downtown Hermosillo, Sonora.
Residents with face masks make their way through downtown Hermosillo, Sonora.

The federal Health Ministry reported 7,613 new cases and 514 additional COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, increasing Mexico’s accumulated tallies to 3.71 million and 281,121, respectively.

There are 48,706 estimated active cases, a 1.6% increase compared to Wednesday.

The average number of new infections has been decreasing for 12 consecutive days, according to the Reuters COVID-19 tracker.

An average of 6,144 cases and 516 deaths were reported each day over the past week compared to daily averages of 10,394 and 606 in September.

In other COVID-19 news:

• The director of the Pan American Health Organization said Wednesday that Mexico is recording a “jump” in new cases but official data doesn’t support her claim.

“For the last month we have seen COVID infections drop throughout the region, even if cases remain high. Over the last week nearly 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and 24,000 COVID-related deaths were reported in the Americas. In North America, while cases are down in the U.S. and Canada, Mexico is reporting a jump in new infections,” Carissa F. Etienne said, although average daily case numbers in Mexico declined 22% in the first week of October compared to the last week of September.

“But national data doesn’t tell us the whole story. If we look deeper we see that local trends remain worrisome,” she said, before citing Alaska and western Canadian provinces as examples.

• Mexico has been removed from the United Kingdom’s COVID red list for incoming travelers. The change, which takes effect Monday, means that travelers arriving in the U.K. from Mexico who are fully vaccinated with U.K.-approved vaccines (Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) won’t have to go into mandatory 10-day hotel quarantine at their own expense.

In a Twitter post, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard thanked British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for her involvement in the decision to remove Mexico from the red list.

• After one and a half years of coronavirus restrictions, President López Obrador believes that the time is nigh to allow the resumption of mass gatherings. He intends to hold a rally in Mexico City’s central square, the zócalo, on November 20 to celebrate the 111th anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution.

He said Thursday he will encourage only fully vaccinated people to attend. However, it’s “prohibited to prohibit,” he said, suggesting that there will be no requirement for attendees to prove they are fully vaccinated.

People who have only received one dose should watch the rally on social media or television, López Obrador said, adding that people sick with the virus should stay at home.

The president also said he intends to hold rallies in other states later in the year.

• López Obrador called for universities to resume in-person classes. “Why are universities delaying the return to classes? For what reason?” he asked Thursday.

Schools across Mexico reopened at the end of August 17 months after closing due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Campeche, 45 teachers have died from COVID since the resumption of in-person classes, according to a state leader of the SNTE teachers union. Moisés Mass Cab said it was unclear whether the teachers were infected at school or elsewhere.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Wednesday that Mexico had donated 150,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Paraguay. It said it made the donation in its capacity as pro tempore leader of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and that it complies with López Obrador’s directive to cooperate with and show solidarity toward other nations of the region.

• Mexico received an additional 1.5 million Sputnik V vaccine doses on Thursday. It has now received 8.4 million doses of the Russian-made shot. Mexico has also used the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, CanSino, Sinovac, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to inoculate adults, more than 70% of whom have received at least one shot.

• One thousand adolescents from Nogales, Sonora, were vaccinated Thursday in Nogales, Arizona, after being bused across the border. An additional 1,000 minors aged 12-17 will receive shots in the same city on Friday.

Nogales Mayor Juan Gim said the Pfizer vaccines used for the youths were donated by the United States government. He said the aim is to vaccinate 10,000 adolescents via the cross-border scheme.

With reports from Animal Político, Milenio and Reforma 

At 6%, September inflation exceeds target for 7th consecutive month

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National Consumer Prices Index rose 0.62% over its August level, ended a four-month streak of decreases to the annual inflation rate, INEGI reported.
The National Consumer Prices Index rose 0.62% over its August level, ending a four-month streak of decreases to the annual inflation rate, INEGI reported.

Annual inflation rose to 6% in September, the national statistics agency INEGI reported Thursday, a figure that is double the central bank’s target.

It was the seventh consecutive month that annual inflation exceeded the Bank of Mexico’s target of 3% give or take a percentage point, and the highest rate since April, when inflation reached 6.08%.

INEGI said the National Consumer Prices Index rose 0.62% over its August level, a jump almost triple the size of the increase in September last year. The increase ended a four-month streak of decreases to the annual inflation rate.

Among the drivers of inflation in September were LP gas – despite government price controls – as well as tomatoes and onions.

LP gas prices rose 4.7% compared to August while consumers paid 13% more for tomatoes and 27% more for onions.

Alejandro Saldaña, an economist at the financial company Ve Por Más, said the recent spike in coronavirus infections affected global supply chains, causing prices to go up. He warned of a possible energy crisis at the end of the year due to low oil and gas inventories and higher demand for those fuels in winter.

“… In an extreme case the shortage of energy sources will lead to new bottlenecks, greater shortages [generally] and as a result increases in prices for goods and services,” Saldaña said.

Gabriela Siller, director of economic and financial analysis at Banco BASE, said there is a risk of stagflation, a situation in which inflation and unemployment are high and economic growth slows.

“In the 1970s, stagflation was caused by [high] oil prices due to a lack of supply. It could occur now due to the shortage of energy sources, interruptions in supply chains and high transport costs,” she said.

Marcos Daniel Arias, an analyst at Monex, said the  financial group had revised its end-of-year inflation forecast to 6.5%, up from a previous prediction of 6.05%, while the Bank of México is forecasting that inflation will not return to its target range until 2023.

With inflation currently high, most analysts believe the central bank will once again raise interest rates the next time its board meets. The bank’s benchmark rate is currently 4.75% after a 0.25% hike last week.

The announcement of the September inflation rate on Thursday put additional pressure on the peso, which lost ground for a fourth consecutive day. According to central bank data, the peso depreciated 0.41% on Thursday to 20.66 pesos to the US dollar.

With reports from El Economista and El Financiero 

22-year-old dies after body fat removal treatment in Nuevo León

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The clinic where Cinthia Vega had gone for fat removal treatment.
The clinic where Cinthia Vega was being treated.

The death of a young woman after undergoing a form of liposuction treatment in Monterrey on Tuesday has sparked a state investigation.

Cinthia Vega Chapa, 22, arrived at the Elohim Clinic the same afternoon for an “Aqualipo Full Body” treatment, but during the procedure her blood pressure spiked and she was taken to the Camino Real Medical Center. But when she arrived at the medical center, she had no vital signs.

An unnamed woman who drove Vega to the hospital told doctors that Vega had undergone an aesthetic procedure and then “her health worsened.” After delivering Vega to the medical center, the woman said she had to go and quickly left.

The Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the case.

Vega’s death recalls the case of 23-year-old influencer and athlete Odalis Santos, who died after an aesthetic treatment in July. A Guadalajara clinic hired Santos to undergo a treatment to reduce underarm sweating, which she was later to promote to her social media followers. The treatment did not go as planned: Santos had a reaction to a local anesthetic and died of anaphylactic shock.

The clinic disavowed all responsibility, saying that Santos had neglected to inform them of certain substances she had consumed, including anabolic steroids, leading to the deadly reaction.

Guillermo Flores Tovar, the director of special investigations for the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office, said that Santos’ autopsy results were consistent with the clinic’s claims, but there would be an investigation into whether medical negligence was a factor in Santos’ death.

With reports from El Universal

Scholar says ‘underestimated’ Mexica writing system deserves respect

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author Gordon Whittaker
Author Gordon Whittaker is an emeritus anthropology professor at the University of Gottingen.

A chile pepper floats on top of a body of water. A hummingbird perches on a set of human teeth. Two tamarind plants sprout from the nose of a human face. These are the hieroglyphs that Aztec (who called themselves Mexica) scribes designed to depict, respectively, the towns of Chilapan, Huitzillac and Huaxyacac (present-day Oaxaca city).

All reflect the depth and creativity of the Aztec writing system, which is explored in a new groundbreaking book — Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs: A Guide to Nahuatl Writing by Gottingen University emeritus anthropology professor Gordon Whittaker.

As Whittaker explained in a Zoom interview, the book is the first-ever to discuss the ancient people’s written language and its Náhuatl-speaking population.

“It’s an amazing language, highly sophisticated,” he said. “The language of a civilization, an empire. It’s been underestimated by many.”

Scribes used hieroglyphs to report on the life of a civilization, from its rulers to its battles — even its taxes. They conveyed this information in a both creative and accessible way, through vibrant color and vivid imagery of people, animals and places.

Codex Mendoza
From the Codex Mendoza, depicting tributes to the Mexica from the ancient Tuchpa province, represented by the animal figure at top. INAH website

The hieroglyphs populating the book include representations from sources such as the Codex Mendoza, written around 20 years after the conquest by indigenous authors and depicting Aztec history, society and daily life before Spanish colonization. That’s where Whittaker found the glyph for Huaxyacac, as well as a separate one depicting an atempanecatl, or a high official, who is shown with a set of human lips floating above his head. “Aztec names in Náhuatl, in general, for places and people were extremely creative and colorful,” he said.

He includes the Aztecs’ writing system among the great writing systems developed by ancient civilizations, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform and Japanese calligraphy. Yet he laments that they have been overlooked in much scholarship on the evolution of writing.

“A couple of books mention the Aztecs in one line,” he said. “A couple of others have one page or two [on] the subject. They do not really deal with the subject at all. [They think] Aztec writing was not really writing at all, something before that level. Basically, the whole field of the comparative study of writing systems ignores everything except Mayan writing in Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica has not been considered or treated well until very recently, and Aztec writing not at all.

“It’s one of the driving reasons I wrote the book … Not only was [their script] a true writing system, it was even highly sophisticated.”

Scribes built upon systems from previous Mesoamerican civilizations, including some based in the first cities of the Western Hemisphere, such as Teotihuacán and the Mayan stronghold of Chichén Itzá. The Náhuatl vocabulary eventually numbered tens of thousands of words. Whittaker notes that the writing “was not pure text; it was more like comics, comic books,” but adds, “I do not mean [it] to sound unsophisticated.”

It consisted of hieroglyphs and “annotated, pictorial representations or symbolic representations of things,” he said, such as “a tax list for the empire, all the various products that had to be sent from a province to the capital” of Tenochtitlán.

When Whittaker was growing up outside Sydney, Australia, a comic-book version of a classic of world literature introduced him to the Aztecs: his father, who served in the Australian Navy, brought home a gift from a stop in California, a children’s illustrated edition of Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s account of the conquest.

“I was just overawed by the beauty of the land and culture,” he remembered.

While Díaz del Castillo also wrote about human sacrifice, “We are kind of biased against the Aztecs and Mesoamerican people,” Whittaker said. We have a fascination about human sacrifice and ignore almost everything else.”

Whittaker became fascinated by Náhuatl while still a teenager. He tried to learn it on his own before seeking guidance from experts in Mexico. He wrote to the scholar Ángel María Garibay who, it turned out had recently died.

However, the young letter-writer received a response from one of Garibay’s students, the now-celebrated scholar Alfredo López Austin.

“He was very kind,” Whittaker recalled. “He inspired me to continue. I first got the idea that maybe it could become my life’s work.” He has been learning the language “for the better part of 50 years.”

Gordon Whittaker workshop on Nahuatl language
Whittaker giving a workshop on Náhuatl at the Institute of Latin American Studies in London. He’s studied the language much of his life.

After Whittaker landed a book contract with the British publisher Thames & Hudson in 2014, he examined how other ancient writing systems were explained to nonacademics. These included those of Egypt and China, as well as of the Maya, although he cautioned that Mesoamerican writing systems should not be assumed to be identical.

While Mayan writing predated that of the Aztecs, the Maya ended up having a give-and-take relationship with a writing system that arose around A.D. 400 in Teotihuacán, which Whittaker contends is the ancestor of the Aztec system.

“There was likely one continuous system, first developed in Teotihuacán, with an understanding of Mayan writing, that continued on to be part of all the political rises and falls over the centuries, right down to the Aztec period, the expansion of the Aztec empire,” he said.

The book identifies general principles of Mexica writing, from nouns to verbs to numbers to the calendar, all illustrated by specific hieroglyphs, some of which were direct representations of a word, such as “sun” and “tree.”

Others are composites, such as that for Chilapan, which literally means “on the chile waters.” As the book explains, chīl- means “chile” and -āpan means “on the waters of.” There’s even a hieroglyphic representation of an entire sentence — about the construction of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán in A.D. 1487.

While Aztec writing did not end with the Spanish conquest, it suffered catastrophic losses.

“All sorts of papers and books were destroyed,” Whittaker said. “They were easy to burn, not like a clay tablet. … They were gone forever from Mesoamerica. There are just four Mayan books. How many Aztec books? None. All books of Aztec writing after the Spanish conquest [were destroyed], with one possible exception.”

This resulted in mistakes by later scribes that went uncorrected. According to Whittaker, the name of the ill-fated emperor who met with Hernán Cortés was not Montezuma but Motecuhzoma. The name of the final emperor, Cuauhtémoc, has become mistranslated.

“Cuauhtémoc’s hieroglyph shows an eagle descending, swooping down,” he said. “It’s often translated as ‘descending eagle.’ That’s not what it means at all.  [It means] ‘he has descended like an eagle, swooped down like an eagle.’ It’s very symbolic.

“He would not have been given the name for that reason but he was the last emperor, who took over at a time when the Aztec Empire was in its gravest crisis and eventually defeated.”

He reflects, “It’s understandable if people who don’t know Náhuatl copy what somebody else has written or said and don’t check to see whether it’s accurate or not.”

Yet new developments augur hope for Aztec writing, Whittaker said. “There’s a huge field of scholarship devoted to Náhuatl and Aztec studies. It’s getting better all the time,” he said.

Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphics by Gordon Whittaker
Whittaker contends that the Mexicas’ writing system had ancestral roots in the ancient city of Teotihuacán.

“It has an influence on Mexican society as a whole. People are reading these kinds of books — above all, indigenous people, people who are descendants of the Aztecs and their neighbors, who are also interested in the cultures of their forefathers and are reading the literature to get ideas and inspiration from that.”

Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.

Mexico’s happiest citizens live in Hidalgo; Coahuila offers best quality of life

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Hidalgo is Mexico’s happiest state, while residents of Coahuila are most likely to be satisfied with their quality of life, a survey indicates.

The firm Arias Consultores polled 15,635 Mexicans via social media in late August, asking them to rate their happiness, quality of life and wellbeing.

When asked to consider all aspects of their lives, almost seven in 10 Hidalgo residents – 69.1% – said they were happy, a higher percentage of residents of any other state. Only 2% of hidalguenses said they were unhappy, while the remaining 28.9% described their state of mind as “neutral.”

The percentage of happy hidalguenses rose 11.7% compared to the previous poll conducted a month earlier but Arias Consultores gave no reason for the spike. However, happiness levels may have dropped in September because parts of the state suffered severe flooding. Results of the firm’s September survey haven’t yet been released.

The second happiest state was Durango, where 64.2% of residents declared themselves happy. Tamaulipas, a state better known for violence than happiness, ranked third, followed by Tlaxcala and Sinaloa. More than 60% of poll respondents from each of those states said they were happy.

Mexico’s least happy state, the poll found, is Nayarit, where just 34.5% of residents are happy. Puebla, Morelos and San Luis Potosí were the only other states where fewer than 40% of respondents said they were happy.

Among all poll respondents, 49.5% said they were happy, 42.7% said their state of mind was neutral and 7.8% said they were unhappy.

Asked to rate their quality of life, 63.1% of Coahuila residents said it was good, a 15.2% increase compared to the previous poll.

The only other states where at least six in 10 residents said their quality of life was good were Durango (61.6%) and Oaxaca (60.4%). Ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, were Tamaulipas and Hidalgo, where just under 59% of respondents said they had good quality of life.

At the bottom of the list was Chiapas – Mexico’s poorest state – where just 29.2% of respondents said quality of life was good. Other states where fewer than 35% of residents said they had a good quality of life were Puebla, México state, Zacatecas and Nayarit.

Across Mexico, 43.9% of respondents said they had a good quality of life, 48.7% said it was regular and 7.4% said it was bad.

Finally, Arias Consultores asked Facebook users to rate their general wellbeing. Querétaro came out on top with 62% of residents saying it was good. Sinaloa ranked second at 59.9% followed by Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Sonora, where more than 55% of residents rated their wellbeing as good.

Just 30.2% of respondents from both Zacatecas and Nayarit described their wellbeing as good, the lowest rates in the country. Puebla had the third worst rate at 33.1% and Guerrero and Morelos ranked fourth and fifth last, respectively, with rates in the mid-30s.

Across Mexico, 44.3% of respondents described their wellbeing as good, 48% said it was regular and 7.7% said it was bad.

Published earlier this year, the United Nations’ World Happiness Report said Mexico was the 46th happiest country in the world, a decline of 23 places compared to the previous report.

Mexico News Daily 

6 dead after latest round of flooding in Querétaro

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Emergency personnel
Emergency personnel recover the body of a victim of flooding in Querétaro.

The number of people killed by flooding in Querétaro has risen to six as more bodies continue to be found.

Initial reports indicated four flooding deaths but on Wednesday morning, a fifth body — that of a woman who was swept away by floodwaters — was found in the community of Santa Teresa in Huimilpan. And in the state capital, the body of one of two occupants of a car that fell in a sinkhole was found on Thursday morning.

In total, at least six people were swept away in the flooding in three municipalities, reported the newspaper Milenio.

Floods affected at least 70 neighborhoods in 11 municipalities, causing property damage and putting residents at risk. The greatest impacts were seen in San Juan del Río, Tequisquiapan, Querétaro city, Corregidora and El Marqués.

Residents of La Rueda near the San Juan River reported that the water level rose so fast — reaching homes in just two hours — that they did not have time to save their pets or belongings. In response to the disaster, Governor Mauricio Kuri said that the neighborhood “should never have existed,” given the flood risk.

“It is going badly for more than 3,000 houses; there have been 10 floods in a month,” adding that the state would analyze the possibility of relocating affected citizens.

With reports from Milenio and El Economista

In 11 years, 10,000 unidentified bodies buried in mass graves in Baja California

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A man's name written in marker on the white cross that adorns a mass grave
A man's name written on the white cross that adorns a mass grave. Even when victims are identified, exhuming the body for separate burial can be prohibitively expensive for families.

More than 10,000 unidentified bodies have been buried in mass graves in Baja California since 2010, official data shows.

Between January 2010 and June of this year, 10,122 unidentified corpses were interred in 13 cemeteries, according to the state government.

More than 1,000 of the mass graves are located in cemetery No. 13 in Tijuana, Baja California’s largest city and Mexico’s most violent. Each is marked with a white, wooden cross.

Authorities have continued to bury unidentified bodies in such graves in recent years despite the practice being outlawed in 2015, the newspaper Milenio reported.

Angélica Ramírez, a member of a collective of family members of missing people, told Milenio that up to 20 bodies are buried in a single grave.

Many of the graves haven’t been completely filled in, meaning that plastic bags containing body parts are visible. Medical refuse such as latex gloves and face masks used by forensic investigators often end up in the graves with the nameless victims of violence.

“For us, this is shocking,” said Ramírez, adding that it is unfortunate that Baja California authorities don’t respect laws designed to protect unidentified victims.

If a body buried in a mass grave is later identified, the victim’s family can hire a gravedigger to exhume the remains. However, the cost – as high as 80,000 pesos (about US $3,900) – is prohibitive for many. The Baja California government doesn’t make any contribution to the cost.

Ramírez said families who can’t afford to pay exhumation costs often approach collectives such as Una Nación Buscándote (One Nation Looking for you) for help.

She said that collective members on one occasion exhumed seven bodies, including the son of a woman who approached the collective.

Many bodies have been buried in mass graves shortly after they were located and before they were identified because there wasn’t enough space to store them in government morgues. In 2019, one morgue in Tijuana was compared to an extermination camp in 1940s Nazi Germany after a photograph that circulated on the messaging service WhatsApp showed a pile of naked and bloody dead bodies on the floor.

In December 2017, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) threatened to shut down the same morgue after it was discovered that it was storing blood, body fluids and other medical waste in its parking lot.

With reports from Milenio

New Franz Mayer exhibition showcases artistic perspectives on the Spanish conquest

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Artistic Accounts of the Conquest
Artistic Accounts of the Conquest features 81 pieces.

A new show at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City invites viewers to reexamine the conquest through the art of the 16th through 18th centuries. The exhibition, “Artistic Accounts of the Conquest,” brings together for the first time a number of important works belonging to the museum and other organizations.

The works show the conquest from various perspectives, including European and New Spanish, according to a museum press release.

The exhibit tracks the fall of the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlán and the subjugation of Mexica lords by the Spanish invaders. Through paintings, sculpture, textiles, furniture, books and more, the show reveals “the political, philosophical and theological imaginaries” of past centuries with respect to the conquest.

The show includes 81 works, 66 of which belong to the Franz Mayer Museum. The remaining 15 belong to the National History Museum, the Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca and others.

The exhibition, which opened September 29, can be viewed during museum hours Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is 70 pesos, and children under 12 enter for free.

Starting on October 20, the museum will also host an exhibition for the National Design Award, with winners in five categories: products, digital design, experiences and interiors, visual communication and fashion design. The exhibition will present recent trends and explore the theory, practice and technique behind contemporary design.

Mexico News Daily

Foreign tourists must show immigration document to buy a bus ticket

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Autobuses de Oriente buses
If you plan to travel by bus in Mexico, you'll have to prove you're legally in the country.

A group of national bus companies now requires that foreign passengers wishing to buy bus tickets show immigration documents in accordance with a request from the National Immigration Institute (INM).

“Based on the request from various state, federal and [INM] authorities and in the face of the extraordinary situation of the flow of migrants currently crossing the country, we would like to inform you that this protocol will be implemented,” Autobuses de Oriente (ADO) wrote on Twitter.

The company apologized for the inconvenience and emphasized that it was complying with a government request. It also recommended that anyone with questions about acceptable documentation contact the INM.

Other companies that will require immigration documents include Autobuses TAP, Enlaces Terrestres Nacionales (ETN) and Grupo Flecha Amarilla, which includes Primera Plus and Coordinados. Some companies specified that they would also require an official form of identification from Mexican customers.

The announcement followed a request by President López Obrador, who asked transportation companies not to serve migrants.

“We are asking them to help us … We are talking about Mexico’s national transportation companies, the companies make it their business to move migrants,” the president said.

With reports from Reforma and LatinUs

Former Ayotzinapa suspect says feds offered 4mn pesos for false testimony

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Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, an alleged gang leader, was acquitted of involvement in the Ayotziniapa case in 2018.
Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, an alleged gang leader, was acquitted of involvement in the Ayotziniapa case in 2018.

A high-ranking federal security official offered a suspect in the case of the 43 students who disappeared in Guerrero seven years ago 4 million pesos to give false testimony to support the previous federal government’s so-called “historical truth,” the latter claims.

Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos crime gang who was acquitted of involvement in the Ayotziniapa case in 2018, told journalist Anabel Hernánedez that Tomás Zerón, former head of the now-defunct Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), visited him in the Altiplano federal prison to try to bribe him.

He spoke to Hernández, a well known investigative reporter who writes about drug trafficking and organized crime, in January 2019 but the contents of the telephone interview weren’t published until Thursday.

Rodríguez, also known as “El Cepillo,” said Zerón visited him twice in February 2015. During the first visit, the then AIC chief – who the government is trying to have extradited from Israel to face torture and tampering with evidence charges – offered him 4 million pesos (US $194,000 at today’s exchange rate) to incriminate former Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca and three other Guerreros Unidos leaders: Mario Casarrubias Salgado, Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado and Gildardo López Astudillo.

According to the previous government’s official version of events – the so-called historical truth – Abarca, who remains in prison awaiting trial, colluded with Guerreros Unidos leaders to abduct, murder and incinerate the bodies of the Ayotzinapa students, who disappeared on September 26, 2014.

Tómas Zerón, former head of the now-defunct Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), will face charges of torture and tampering with evidence if he is successfully extradited from Israel.
Tómas Zerón, former head of the now-defunct Criminal Investigation Agency, will face charges of torture and tampering with evidence if he is successfully extradited from Israel.

The previous government said the students, traveling on a bus they commandeered to go to a protest in Mexico City, were intercepted by corrupt municipal police who handed them over to members of the Guerreros Unidos who subsequently killed them, burned their bodies in a dump in the municipality of Cocula and disposed of their remains in a nearby river.

Rodríguez told Hernández that he rejected the offer from Zerón, who subsequently told him to think it over. He said the then security official offered to assist him with his legal process if he agreed to cooperate, telling him he would arrange lawyers for him.

“I told him no because I didn’t have anything to say because I had been tortured. Everything I … [confessed to] was part of that. So he said to me, ‘Think about it and I’ll come back in five days.’ And he left.”

Rodríguez is one of scores of Ayotzinapa suspects who were released from prison after it was determined they were tortured, including in the presence of Zerón.

The judge who freed him after almost four years’ imprisonment ruled that without the confessions obtained through torture, authorities had insufficient evidence to prove he was a Guerreros Unidos leader and involved in the students’ disappearance.

The former suspect, who was 25 at the time the students disappeared, told Hernández that Zerón returned to the Altiplano prison eight days after the initial visit. He arrived at the México state prison by helicopter and was accompanied by an army officer and his mother. Zerón’s goal, Rodríguez said, was to get his mother to convince him to accept the 4-million-peso agreement.

But “El Cepillo” once again refused to cooperate. “… I said no because I had no reason to accuse people I don’t know,” he said.

Rodríguez said he told his mother not to pay any attention to people she doesn’t know. “Go home and stop doing this,” he said he told her.

In response to his refusal to cooperate, Rodríguez said Zerón warned him he would be killed if he spoke about the 4-million-peso offer. In his interview with Hernández, published Thursday in the newspaper Milenio, the former suspect denied any involvement in the students’ disappearance.

He said that Zerón, who along with former attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam is considered a key architect of the historical truth, was the only official who tried to persuade him to incriminate the former Iguala mayor and the alleged Guerreros Unidos leaders.

Rodríguez also said he met on one occasion with the lawyers for the missing students’ families, whom he told how sorry he was about what happened to the 43 young men. He said he also told them that he wanted the truth about what happened to come out so that his name would be definitively cleared.

Just over seven years after the students disappeared, no one has been convicted of the students’ disappearance and presumed murder and the current federal government has not divulged its own version of events despite launching a new investigation almost three years ago and rejecting its predecessor’s historical truth. The remains of just three students have been found and formally identified.

The federal Interior Ministry released a document last week that included a transcript of a text conversation between Gildardo López and a deputy chief of the Iguala municipal police that partially supports the previous government’s conclusion as it indicates that at least 38 students were handed over to the Guerreros Unidos by corrupt police.

The army has long been accused of involvement in the case but a document recently released by the federal Attorney General’s Office containing testimony from soldiers was so heavily redacted that it was illegible.

With reports from Milenio