The FGR arrests Jesús Murillo Karam for the Iguala case

Gustavo Castillo Garcia

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 20, 2022, p. 4

The former Attorney General of the Republic Jesús Murillo Karam, the first person in charge of directing the investigations into the disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa and publicizing what he called “the historical truth” of the case, he was apprehended (according to the National Detention Registry) at 3:30 p.m. by a joint operation of the Federal Ministerial Police (PFM) and the Secretary of the Navy-Navy of Mexico (Semar) when he left his home in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.

There, the ministerial staff notified him that there was an arrest warrant for the crimes of forced disappearance, torture and against the administration of justice for the investigation of the disappearance of the students on September 26 and 27, 2014.

According to sources close to the official, the first head of the now defunct PGR to be brought before a judge accused of crimes classified as serious held several meetings with family and friends at his home yesterday morning.

Murillo Karam was wearing a black leather jacket, a blue shirt and dark gray pants. When federal agents and Semar personnel surrounded him, he remained calm and without putting up resistance accepted his transfer to the facilities of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), in the Tacubaya neighborhood, in what used to be the hotel El Sun.

At night, a video was released in which it can be seen when FGR personnel, accompanied by naval personnel, were outside Murillo Karam’s home and approached a person to ask if he was the former head of the PGR. Realizing this, Murillo Karam identified himself.

An agent from the Public Ministry walked towards him, while Murillo Karam closed the distance between them, putting his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. Around him were relatives of the former official and other people who recorded the moment in which the representative of the FGR informed him of the existence of the judicial order and of the charges for which he turned. The former prosecutor did not resist, he took a ministerial agent by the arm after hearing the accusations.

A young woman who claimed to be Murillo Karam’s niece and his doctor witnessed the scene. She asked if she could accompany her uncle and informed the ministerial agent that his lawyer was not there at the time. Murillo shook his head negatively and when he was about to get into the truck he told his niece not to accompany him.

Meanwhile, the doctor asked if he can accompany his patient and they say yes. The ministerials ask him to go in the passenger seat, while Murillo Karam voluntarily climbed into the back.

The niece of the former attorney asked: Can you tell me where they’re taking it, please? The representative of the FGR specifies: We’re going to a courthouse in the North Reclusorio. They can follow us, there is no impediment. To which she added: I order it from you a lot, because your health is delicate, please.

The news came out after four in the afternoon.

The FGR officially reported at 4:50 p.m. on its Twitter account that ministerial federal police completes arrest warrant against Jesús M. At 5:15 p.m., the institution headed by Alejandro Gertz Manero released more information.

On this day, FGR police personnel complied with the arrest warrant requested by this institution and granted by the control judge of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in Mexico City, based in the North Prison, against Jesús M, who was Attorney General of the Republic, for the crimes of forced disappearance, torture and against the administration of justice.

He indicated that the diligence was carried out outside the domicile of said person, without any problem, since he collaborated with the police authorities without resisting, once he was informed about the procedure that was being carried out.

He pointed out that The detainee has been transferred to the prosecutor’s office for the corresponding certifications, and will immediately be placed at the disposal of the judicial authority, in compliance with the aforementioned arrest warrant..

Before becoming head of the FGR, from December 2012 to January 2015, Murillo Karam, a 74-year-old PRI militant, served as federal deputy and governor of Hidalgo. Between October and November 2014, Murillo Karam and his team built the so-called historical Truth, which indicates that an undetermined number of students from Ayotzinapa were taken to the Cocula garbage dump and their bodies were cremated on the spot by order of the regional chiefs of United Warriors.

Among the main collaborators of Murillo Karam were the then head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, Tomás Zerón de Lucio, who fled Mexico and is hiding in Israel, and Gualberto Ramírez Gutiérrez, also a fugitive from justice. Both were issued arrest warrants for the crime of torture against those involved in the disappearance of the normalistas.

Until the closing of this edition, the FGR kept Murillo Karam in its facilities in the Tacubaya neighborhood, and the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) indicated that those responsible for the Criminal Justice Center of the North Prison They tell us that today will not be the hearing of the former prosecutor, initially because they have not made him available.

Finally, the CJF announced that the initial hearing in which the charges against Murillo Karam will be formalized before a judge is scheduled to start at nine in the morning.