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A decade-long quest for justice took a significant leap forward on Friday, as Mexican officials revealed the rearrest of a suspected cartel kingpin, implicated in the vanishing of 43 students in a case that sent shockwaves across the nation. The suspect’s release from prison in 2019 had sparked fierce criticism, but now, authorities have a second chance to bring closure to the victims’ families.
Notorious cartel figure Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, known by his chilling alias “El Gil,” has been identified as a top leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, implicated in the heinous disappearance and presumed murders of 43 students from Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in 2014.
In September 2015, authorities apprehended Lopez Astudillo in Taxco, a city in Guerrero state, nestled in the same region where the students vanished in Iguala, a coincidence that underscores the complexities of the case.
“Gildardo Lopez Astudillo was detained,” a federal security source with knowledge of the case told reporters Friday, asking for his name not to be used because he was not authorized to speak to media.
Lopez Astudillo had been transferred to the Altiplano maximum security prison in Mexico state, the source said
He was arrested on charges of “organized crime,” although the investigation could be expanded, the source said.
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In September 2014, the 43 students had been traveling to a political demonstration in Mexico City when investigators believe they were kidnapped by the drug cartel in collusion with corrupt police.
The exact circumstances of their disappearance are still unknown, but a truth commission set up by the government has branded the case a “state crime,” saying the military shared responsibility, either directly or through negligence.
Arrests have been made or ordered for dozens of suspects, including military personnel and a former attorney general who led a controversial investigation into the mass disappearance.
The remains of only a few of the victims have been identified.
In a controversial decision, Lopez Astudillo was set free in 2019, sparking outrage among the families of the missing students, after a judge ruled that the evidence used to incriminate him was tainted by illegal means.
As families and friends prepare to take to the streets to commemorate the somber anniversary of the students’ vanishing, Lopez Astudillo’s arrest brings a sense of tentative hope to a community still seeking closure.
