AG To Congress: Chavarría is not Legally Dead

(Chilpancingo, NA 29 April) Yesterday state attorney general Alberto López Rosas appeared before a plenary of the state legislature in response to a request from the lawmakers. His appearance was delayed for two hours, for lack of a quorum. On the second roll call, only 15 were present. Finally on the third roll call, a quorum was reached. López Rosas said, “To this moment, the homicide of Armando Chavarría Barrera has not occurred, legally speaking. The removal of the case to the federal level does not justify the complete disappearance of all the records.” The attorney general added that the state does not have any record that the case was forwarded to the federal level or that it was received there.

Several legislators called for issuing a summons to former governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo and all others involved in the case. The PRD legislators seemed to take it for granted that senior officials of the previous administration were involved in the killing.

The political opposition also used the event to try to win some debating points. The leader of the PRI faction in the legislature complained that the Attorney General was “confusing the issue,” saying “what we want is punishment for those who committed the crime, not a lot of worry about who stole the files.” López Rosas responded, “It would créate more confusión to be silent about it. It would be more confusing to hide the truth.”

One lawmaker criticized the AG for making the matter public. López Rosas answered, “In my office we do not accept manipulation and disinformation. Not to inform the public would be to resort to laziness.”

In his statement the Attorney General said that he had conducted a conversation with the federal attorney general about the Chavarría matter and also about drug interdiction in Guerrero. He also had asked the federal assistant attorney general for Guerrero, Estela Cadena Ascona, if she had retained the dossier on the murdered legislative leader.