In a surprising turn of events, a Mexican federal court has dismissed some of the charges filed against the former First Lady of the town of Iguala. She is believed to have been one of the masterminds in the kidnapping and execution of 43 education students last year.
Maria De Los Angeles Pineda Villa – along with her husband former Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca – have been in police custody awaiting trial on multiple charges. They allegedly ordered the local police to kidnap a group of students travelling to a protest last September.
Late last week, a Mexican court dismissed the charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and money laundering against Pineda, due to her ties with the drug cartel Guerreros Unidos. The charges had been filed last year, Mexico’s Proceso Magazine reported. She is still facing the lesser charge of bribery.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, Mexican authorities claimed that the local police handed the students over to Guerreros Unidos operatives. They then butchered the students and incinerated their remains, disposing of the ashes in a nearby river.
Soon after the case, a number of forensic scientists began challenging the integrity of the evidence and theories of the crime provided by the Mexican government. These scientists alleged the DNA testing had been fabricated, and that based on the evidence left behind, it would have been impossible to incinerate 43 bodies in that particular open air pit, as Breitbart Texas previously reported.
The decision to dismiss the charges comes after the Mexican Attorney General’s Office spent months last year publicly blaming Abarca and his wife for the murder. However, there does not appear to be sufficient validated evidence linking her to the crime. According to the new federal court ruling, Pineda was never given the opportunity to present her side of events, as Proceso’s article revealed.
The Mexican magazine also points out a series of inconsistencies regarding the arrest of the Abarcas. Mexican authorities claim they were arrested in a residence near Mexico city last November; however, Proceso points out that in some documents, the couple is noted as having been arrested in a taxi cab. Such discrepancies suggest the charges were trumped up, in an effort to have a case highly damaging to public perceptions of the Mexican government simply go away.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.