Saturday, January 21, 2023

US hands over to Mexico suspect in missing students case

Relatives and classmates of the missing 43 Ayotzinapa college students, march in Mexico City, Sept. 26, 2022, on the anniversary of their disappearance in Iguala, Guerrero state. U.S. authorities handed over a key suspect, Alejandro Tenescalco, in the 2014 disappearances, after the man was caught trying to cross the border Dec. 20, 2022 without proper documents. 
(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File) 


FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ
Thu, January 19, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. authorities handed over a key suspect in the 2014 disappearance of 43 college students to Mexico, after the man was caught trying to cross the border Dec. 20 without proper documents.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute identified the man only by his first name, but a federal agent later confirmed Thursday that he is Alejandro Tenescalco. The institute said he failed to qualify for asylum in the United States.

Tenescalco was a police supervisor in the city of Iguala, where the students from a rural teachers college were abducted by municipal police. Investigations suggest corrupt police turned the students over to a drug gang, who killed them and burned their bodies.

Alejandro Encinas, the head of the government Truth Commission, has called Tenescalco “one of the main perpetrators” of the crime.

He faces charges of kidnapping and organized crime. The Mexican government had offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest.

In 2022, the Truth Commission declared the disappearances a “state crime,” because authorities at all levels of government were involved in the disappearances and cover-up.

The investigations resulted in the arrests of three soldiers, including a now retired general who had been the army commander in the area when the abductions occurred. Also, then federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam has been accused of inventing the government’s original account based on torture and manipulation of evidence.

But some charges against dozens of other suspects have been tossed out because of tainted evidence.

Man arrested in Santa Teresa tied with kidnapping 43 students in Mexico



Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times
Fri, January 20, 2023 

A man wanted in connection with the 2014 kidnappings of 43 college students in Southern Mexico was extradited to Mexico after he was arrested in Santa Teresa.

Alejandro Tenescalco-Mejia, 41, was turned over to Mexican authorities Wednesday at the international boundary at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

Tenescalco-Mejia, of Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico, allegedly illegally entered the U.S. on Dec. 14 by climbing over the border wall near Santa Teresa. He was then arrested by immigration officials and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations officers.

He remained detained at the El Paso Processing Center until his removal on Wednesday, officials said.

Tenescalco-Mejia was wanted in connection with the Sept. 26, 2014, disappearance and abduction of 43 college students in Southern Mexico. The students - all men from a rural teachers' college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico - went missing when they were traveling on a bus, officials said.


Alejandro Tenescalco-Mejia, 41, was wanted in connection with the 2014 kidnappings of 43 college students in Southern Mexico .


According to Mexican court documents, Tenescalco-Mejia is one of several suspects wanted in the case.

"ERO made good on its promise to protect the American people by removing a suspected violent criminal back to his home country," Mary De Anda, field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations in El Paso, said in a statement. "The ongoing cooperation between ICE and our Mexican counterparts resulted in holding another fugitive accountable for his actions, highlighting the critical public safety role ERO plays in the community."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories in the 2022 fiscal year. The people arrested had a total of 198,498 associated charges and convictions, officials said. The charges and convictions included 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.

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