Lucio for Borderland Beat
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A manta of a year ago signed by "El Gil", claimed Frederico Figueroa, brother of singer Joan Sebastian, was the founder of Guerreros Unidos.
Gildardo López Astudillo “El Gil” or “El Cabo Gil” a leader for Guerreros Unidos has been detained in Taxco, Guerrero. According to the Mexican Federal Police webpage page, he is identified as the one responsible for collecting, transporting and incinerating the normalista group on September 26-27, 2014.
He was apprehended in a home in the Colonia Taxco, in Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero. According to CISEN, El Gil had changed residences on at least three occasions since the normalistas massacre.
He also has warrants for drug trafficking, organized crime, and kidnapping.
PGR claims that several of the detainees pointed to Gil as the author of the normalistas attack and disappearance. Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, also named as a leader of Guerreros Unidos and involved in the crime, was arrested last October.
Manta of one year ago signed by El Gil
October 30, 2014, 34 days after the disappearance of the 43 normal school, a manta (banner) was hung in Iguala next to the 27thMilitary Battalion. It was signed by “El “who is a lieutenant of Guerreros, working under Sidronio Casarrubias. The message offers to surrender when 80% of G.U. is behind bars, because detaining a few including commander Casarrubias (apprehended before the manta) would do nothing to disrupt the group.
It states that Frederico Figueroa is one of the founders of the group. (Remember this is a manta hung just 4 weeks after the massacre) It claims the normalistas were still alive at the time of hanging the manta.
In the text of the manta, addressed to President Enrique Peña Nieto, a list of corrupt officials is named, including state, federal, and municipal mayors, that the message alleges work with G.U.
It also names the 27th battalion, as being on the payroll
"All received their payroll" in exchange for "disappearing people and kidnapping". Prompting the government to check, because there are fosas (clandestine graves) in all the municipalities. Aside from Iguala, it then names the cities of Taxco de Alarcón, Huitzuco, Tepecoacuilco, Apaxtla, Teloloapan and Cocula, saying the mayors and public security forces of those cities are on the payroll.
It names Casarrubias Salgado and Tilos as the chief commanders of Guerreros Unidos.
At the time of the manta, the federal government described “El Cabo Gil”" as the link between the police of Iguala and Cocula with Guerreros Unidos group.
This was according to the declaration of Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, who the government contends ordered the arrest of the normalistas in September, 2014.
Also according to PGR, (attorney general) Sidronio Casarrubias said in his declaration, that he received a message from one of his lieutenants nicknamed "El Gil," who told him verbatim "the ashes were made (of the normalistas) and dumped into the water, no one will ever find them.”