Translated for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article by Otis B Fly-Wheel
Rafael Caro Quintero |
A year and two months after the First Chamber of the Supreme Court reversed the amparo that freed Rafael Caro Quintero , the first Collegiate Criminal Court of the Third Circuit, that the boss of narco trafficking in Mexico , in the decade of the eighties is criminally responsible for the kidnapping and killing of the agent from the DEA Enrique " kiki " Camarena and his driver Alfredo Salazar.
The Collegiate Tribunal also found responsible for the same crimes , Ernesto Rafael Fonesca Carillo " Don Neto " , founder with Caro and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo the cartel of Guadalajara.
However , it asked the Second Unitary Court of the Third Circuit to decide on the replacement of imprisonment for security measures , because of the senility and precarious health of Don Neto.
In the case of Caro Quintero , the Collegiate Tribunal , had to modify the amparo , which he had granted to him in 2013 , after which the First Chamber of the Court refused to intervene in the case , for the sake of independence of the Judges.
The Tribunal decided that Caro should be protected by the amparo because of violations in due process in the case of Camarena and because he had already completed his sentence for other crimes.
Caro Quintero left prison on the 9th of August of 2014 , but three months after , before the scandal and pressure from the United States to the Federal Attorney Office ( PGR ) , the First Collegiate Tribunal , retraced their steps and ordered the First Appellate Court to review their resolution to deny the amparo to him.
That's what the Judges did. Now he was declared criminally responsible for the crimes of unlawful deprivation of freedom , in the form of kidnapping and murder of Enrique Camarena Salazar and Alfredo Zavala Avelar.
They resolved that they should identify the penalties for the crime and where appropriate , order the re-arrest , which ratified that the ex capo is a fugitive , since the Ministers of the First Chamber voted against the amparo granted to him.
They also ratified the crimes against health , in the category of cultivating , packaging and possession of Marijuana , for the intent of trafficking , at the El Bufalo ranch.
The new resolution confirmed the stay of proceedings of the crimes of homicide , and the illegal deprivation of peasants working in ranches located in the Municipalities of Coyame , Jimenez , Julimes , Chihuahua.
It also exonerated him of crimes against health in the cases of the ranches Los Juncos and Montesco, as well as the crime of criminal association.
Original article in Spanish at Proceso.com