Pages

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado's Legal File and Preliminary Statement Hand-Delivered to Guerrero State Superior Court

La Jornada: Sergio Ocampo Arista

Chilpancingo, Guerrero - On Saturday, the team of attorneys for Nestora Salgado García, former commander of Community Police in Olinalá, delivered to Guerrero Superior Court, seated in this city, the legal file which includes the defendant's preliminary statement. The Superior Court will distribute the file to the appropriate state district [first-level] courts.

It is expected that the rogatory [court papers] will be distributed no later than Sunday or Monday to the courts of Tlapa, Huamuxtitlán and Ayutla de los Libres. Amanda Rivero, a member of the Strategic Defense of Human Rights law firm, explained that
"the [delivery] time begins the 72-hour deadline within which the legal status of the Comandanta of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities Community-Police (CRAC-PC) is to be resolved, and the release order or formal arrest warrant is issued." 
The lawyer said that three release orders have already been issued for the three cases that had been pending against Nestora Salgado for over two years:
"But she has three other outstanding (judicial proceedings) for which arrest warrants had not been carried out against her."
Lawyer Rivero explained that the [Guerrero] courts now have the three processes for kidnapping, robbery and illegal deprivation of liberty, as well as murder and attempted murder. They sent a judicial request such that Salgado's preliminary statement might be taken at a court in Mexico City.
"And yesterday evening they took it."
MV Note: Nestora Salgado is being held in the Tepepan Women's Prison, Mexico City. The Guerrero courts have formally requested judicial assistance from a Mexico City court with regard to Nestora Salgado's case. Mexico's traditional criminal justice system is document-intensive; the entire proceeding is conducted by means of documents submitted to the court. (This is set to change in June when the new adversarial system of oral trials goes into effect.) Hence, the transmittal of court documents to and from the Guerrero courts reported here. 
Same Events as in First Case

Amanda Rivero noted that in the case of the new judicial proceeding for kidnapping,
"They are the same events of which she was accused (the first time). But now the release order has been issued and a judge has already decided on that situation, so we even offered (that decision) with regard to the new case. So if the court at Ayutla de los Libres wants to, the court can follow that criterion."
Regarding the indictment for murder and attempted murder, local press reported that at that day and time Nestora would meet with then governor, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, in Chilpancingo. In addition (Nestora) held a press conference in Tixtla:
"We offered these articles from the public [press] to prove that she was there [and hence not where the murder took place]."
For the theft and illegal deprivation of liberty, where she is accused of abducting municipal police, community members [not Nestora] detained them for participating in drag races, but they were then released, which "was proved in a note that was brought [before the court]."

Amanda Rivero declared that in the six judicial proceedings brought against Nestora Salgado,
"during the two years she has been detained, not one victim, not one witness, has been presented to support the allegations, much less to be confronted by Nestora face to face." 
MV Note: A face-to-face meeting attended by defendant, plaintiff(s) and witness(es) is part of the traditional criminal justice procedure. Failure of witness(es) to attend this meeting is taken as legal proof of defendant's innocence.
Issuance of a release order, Rivera said, for Salgado Garcia could influence the judicial proceedings for other leaders of the CRAC-PC [Regional Coordinating Committee of Communal Authorities-Community Police]. Spanish original

For more on this story, see Nestora Salgado.

Related MV Translations: