by John Gibler
On January 19, 2001, Joaquín Loera Guzmán was either smuggled out in a laundry cart or simply walked through the door of the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in Jalisco. Either way, he left without leaving a trace.5 And then, of course, he would be recaptured in February 2014 and once again exit a maximum-security prison, the impenetrable Almoloya in Mexico State, on July 11, 2015. This time he either climbed down a sixty-foot-deep hole from the floor of his cell-room shower—just out of a twenty-four-hour surveillance camera’s angle of vision—and then rode his makeshift underground motorcycle railcar down a mile-long tunnel and climbed back up into a shoddy, unfinished cinderblock house built a year before, apparently for the express and sole purpose of receiving just this visit, or, again, maybe he just walked out the door.6
And, well: On May 16, 2009, some twenty armed men with Federal Preventive Police and Federal Investigative Agency uniforms and vehicles released fifty-three prisoners—all caught smiling by the surveillance cameras—from the Cieneguillas prison in Zacatecas, Mexico.7 On March 26, 2010, forty-one prisoners escaped in Matamoros. Twelve escaped in Reynosa on April 2, 2010, and another twelve escaped on July 7.8 In September 2010, another eighty-five prisoners escaped in Reynosa, and in December 2010, 141 prisoners escaped in Nuevo Laredo.9 Journalist Luis Carlos Sáinz counted 451 prison breaks with 1,512 escaped prisoners between 2000 and 2011.10 In September 2012, 132 prisoners escaped from the Piedras Negras prison in Coahuila. They dug a tunnel from the prison’s carpentry workshop and walked out into the street at 2:15 p.m.11 Or maybe not? Some say that the 132 prisoners walked out the front door.12 Did they?
Omar Guerrero Solís, better known as Comandante Ramiro of the Insurgent People’s Revolutionary Army (ERPI), escaped twice. Once when federal police were taking him to the state prison in Acapulco: As they were driving over a bridge, Ramiro—handcuffed—managed to open the car door, dive out, and jump off the bridge into the Balsas River, swollen with recent heavy rains. He swam away. The government caught him again years later and put him in jail in Coyuca de Catalán, brutally torturing him for days on end, urinating on his beaten face. But in time he organized the prisoners there, slowly wresting control of the place from the warden and the guards. So they moved him to a large, rough prison in Acapulco—beating him throughout the car ride—and arranged to have him killed by other prisoners. That day he looked his killers in the eyes and said: “The first one to make a move is coming with me.” His killers paused. And then they listened. Commander Ramiro organized the prisoners there and held a series of protests. Local reporters went to the prison to cover the story. The warden called him to his office and asked what would shut him up. Ramiro said he had planned to denounce the prison guards’ drug dealing racket, but would be content if the warden granted three demands: one, no guards would enter his cell; two, give the prisoners tools to create a woodshop and allow them to sell their wares to visiting family members; and three, remove the guard from the tower overlooking his cell. That, he said, would keep him quiet. The warden said, “done,” and granted all three demands. Ramiro called off the protests and, together with some of the prisoners first hired to kill him, over the course of several months dug a twenty-meter-long tunnel under the Guerrero State Prison in Acapulco through which he crawled out into the sunshine on November 28, 2002.13
THE BROTHERS
THIS IS WHAT THE POLICE said: the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) officers José Antonio Palacios Beristáin and Roberto Armenta Romero were traveling along México-Veracruz Highway 150-D between Orizaba and Fortín when they saw a car parked on the shoulder of the highway “partially invading the right traffic lane, without any kind of warning flags.”1 It was 10:30 in the morning.
The police saw five men inside the vehicle, a 2001 Volkswagen sedan with Veracruz plates. The police stopped and approached the driver, who identified himself with his Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) identification card under the name Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile. The driver also handed over his vehicle registration card and told the police:
[The car was] broken down with a mechanical failure (overheated motor), for which reasons the officers [offered to] help pushing the automobile off of the pavement surface using their patrol car for the safety of the people in the car and those traveling on the highway, after which they asked the driver where the men were heading and who were the other people in the car, the driver stated that he did not know the passengers and that he was only giving them a ride, in this moment two passengers got out of the car and said they were going to buy water in town and walking quickly they went into the population center of Buenavista, Veracruz, that is located there near the highway, continuing the interview, the passengers who remained were MR. GUSTAVO ROBLES LÓPEZ, 29-year-old Mexican [ . . . ] and a man who identified himself as JORGE MARCIAL TZOMPAXTLE TECPILE—being the brother of the driver—a 36-year-old Mexican, and who has the same address as the driver in Astacinga, Veracruz, and who did not offer any identification.*
The police ordered the remaining three men to get out of the car and interrogated them separately. The police claim that the men contradicted each other, with one man saying that they were going to “the ‘SORIANA’ shopping center, this being false as in said city there is no such shopping center of that company.” Another of the men said, the police claim, that they were on their way to Córdoba “to screw some broads [sic] and then go back to Orizaba.” As a result of these contradictions, the police searched the car:
finding five cellular telephones, a photography camera and a video camera, in the vehicle’s trunk five backpacks containing various articles of clothing and shoes were found, bandannas were found in one of the backpacks—one of them camouflage. For this reason backup was sought from the shift and patrol manager to conduct a more exhaustive search of the vehicle and its occupants.
Five PFP patrol cars with eight officers of various ranks arrived. The police report continues:
Upon conducting a more thorough search, agents found inside one of the backpacks—of blue color and the brand NICKS CLUB [sic]—a notebook-style datebook inside of which different meetings and activities in Guerrero and Veracruz states were handwritten, on one page dated November 2005, located in Guerrero state, the handwriting says:
“[ . . . ] we have followed the developments of the past months closely. Events in which you all participated. For which reason, considering the possibility of you all receiving my modest [ . . . ]
“First to tell you all that I do not have knowledge as to the arguments and strategy you all used to carry out some of the activity [sic] and thus I can resort to mere speculation clearing this up concerning the above; I move on the next issue.
“You all carry out the oak tree action, and that much is fine. And it is here where I ask myself some questions. Why did you not claim responsibility for said action as such and you pull some unknown logo out of your sleeve? And then the communiqué as LPEP. Was it necessary to say that there was a list of “candidates” condemned to the maximum punishment? And on the other hand in that moment of vendettas between the drug cartels the action is perceived (at first) as a result of the fighting between mafias.
“Later on a series of bickering between you all and the hawkish ones, owing on the one hand to the elimination of ‘x’ whom we all know was a problem for everyone in the movement.”
The police report continues as follows:
Asking the driver MR. GERARDO TZOMPAXTLE TECPILE what the written notes meant he answered that he would give us all the money he had with him if we let them go on their way—because he couldn’t talk about the content of the datebook—that he had about $4,500.00 (four thousand five hundred and 00/100 pesos in national currency). MR. GUSTAVO ROBLES LÓPEZ offered the amount of $2,500.00 (two thousand and 00/100 pesos in national currency) as well because we let them go and MR. JORGE TZOMPAXTLE TECPILE, who also offered the amount of $2,000.00 (two thousand and 00/100 pesos in national currency) for which reason, for this we took them to the police station office
s in Orizaba, we communicated via telephone with Mr. Ramiro Espinosa Jiménez, regional sub delegate of the National Center for Investigation and Security (CISEN) in Guerrero state to ask for his help in the investigation of the above mentioned people.
The police also called the CISEN director in Veracruz to inform him of “the situation of the people and the documents found in the automobile so he would be able to carry out the corresponding investigation.”
On the next page, the police report mentions an annexed document “that in the fourth paragraph establishes the relationship between these brothers in direct line of action to the so-named combatant Rafael from the Popular Revolutionary Army, (EPR).”
The media mostly followed the police description of the events that day on the highway in Veracruz. On January 13, 2006, Iván González from Noticieros Televisa published an article with the headline: “PFP arrests three alleged members of the EPR.” The article begins like this:
The Federal Attorney General’s (PGR) office is investigating three alleged members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) arrested this Wednesday by Federal Preventive Police officers in Veracruz.
The men in question are Gustavo Robles López, alias Commander Robles, and the brothers Gerardo and Jorge Marcial Tzompaxtle Tecpile. The men were arrested due to their suspicious attitude on kilometer 28 of the México-Veracruz highway, between Orizaba and Fortín.
According to the police report to the federal prosecutors, the PFP found the men in possession of subversive material, such as communiqués from Commander Rafael of the EPR, photographs and a datebook with telephone numbers written in it, five backpacks with bandannas and military-style uniforms, as well as cellular telephones.
The PGR is investigating the possible participation of the men arrested in the June 2003 kidnapping of Veracruz Congressman Mario Zepahua.
The article concludes by stating that the three men were being held in Orizaba waiting for a possible transfer to Mexico City.
That same day, January 13, Juan H. Santos published an article on the website Orizaba en Red with the headline: “CISEN confirms that Gerardo Tzompaxtle is actually Commander Rafael” and two subheadings: “Yes, the men arrested in Orizaba are connected to the EPR” and “SIEDO [former acronym for the federal anti–organized crime investigative task force] agents will transfer the arrested to Mexico City.” The article begins with this line:
Speaking unofficially, an agent from the National Center for Investigation and Security (CISEN) confirmed, this Friday afternoon, that Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile, from the nearby community of Astacinga, in the Zongolica mountains of Veracruz state, is known in the subversive movement of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) as Commander Rafael.
The reporter includes information about Gerardo Tzompaxtle’s date of birth and school records provided by the PGR. He then writes:
CISEN corroborated unofficially [sic] that Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile, Commander Rafael, escaped from a military base in Mexico City; moreover, his cousins Jorge and Gaspar are members of the PRD in the Zongolica region.
Also on that same day, January 13, a letter signed by the “Tzompaxtle Tecpile Family” arrived at various media outlets. The letter stated the following:
The family of brothers Jorge Marcial and Gerardo respectfully address you all in order to clarify the facts about the arrests.
Yesterday, Thursday, January 12 of the current year, Jorge and Gerardo were traveling from Astacinga to Córdoba to shop at the Aurrerá supermarket. It is well known that our family owns and operates a store. However their car broke down near the pedestrian bridge Buena Vista over the Orizaba-Córdoba highway. They were traveling in Gerardo’s gray 2001 Jetta with Veracruz license plate number YCD-19-41. A Federal Preventive Police patrol car, far from offering help, addressed them arrogantly, humiliating them. They tried to defend their human rights, leading the police to begin to threaten and blackmail them and to begin “planting evidence” such as the farce published today in the media, all of this a true act of calumny.
Our family members are being arrested, we insist, arbitrarily since the supposed “proof” could be found in the files of any police department and the rest is information that appears in print and online media. Thus we categorically deny all the charges made against them. We also state that it is customary for the police to charge any innocent citizen with a thousand crimes that as time passes all get dropped and their innocence proven with barely an apology. And who will repair all the damage done? We also demand that their properties be respected and their vehicle returned.
It is impossible that in less than twelve hours the police could develop a supposed “investigation” built on twenty years’ work, when none of the arrested have any criminal record. The police present landscape photographs like that of the Citlaltépetl volcano or photographs of historic monuments like the iron palace in Orizaba which, according to the police farce, could be used to plan “attacks.” Only a perverse mind could make up such a cock-and-bull story. Over the following days we will disprove with facts all of these calumnies.
We repeat: our family members are being taken as scapegoats. The police arrest and jail anyone who takes their picture, but does nothing against the real criminals.
Thus we respectfully and humbly ask the human rights defense organizations to assist our family members, not to let them go undefended, as they are surely being physically and psychologically tortured. We also ask lawyers aware of these dynamics to offer the necessary pro bono legal assistance.
On April 25, 2006, the PGR issued bulletin 535/06: “Preventive detention for three alleged members of EPR.” The bulletin begins:
The Third District Federal Court Judge in the Federal District issued an order for the preventive detention of Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile, Jorge Marcial Tzompaxtle Tecpile, and Gustavo Robles López, alleged members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) operating in the mountains of Guerrero and Veracruz, for violation of the Federal Law Against Organized Crime.
The bulletin states that the evidence was gathered by the SIEDO for the PGR. It then states:
The accused are said to be members of a criminal organization linked to subversive groups, to whom they lent their apartments to recruit new members, they also took care that trainings were going well and they spread the cause.
Last January 13, Federal Preventive Police officers arrested Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile, Jorge Marcial Tzompaxtle Tecpile, and Gustavo Robles López on the México-Córdoba highway, near the El Fortín tollbooth, in possession of propaganda documents alluding to the EPR, for which reason the officers turned them over to the SIEDO.
On September 30, Diego Osorno published an article in Milenio Semanal with the headline: “Revenge for Rafael’s Escape.” In the article, Osorno writes the following:
One of the Federal Highway Patrol officers who participated in the arrest confirmed that the capture of the alleged EPR guerrillas took place by accident. “The vehicle looked suspicious, so we approached it. A bit later we noticed that the people in the car were acting strangely, really nervous. We asked for their IDs and ran the names when we got a notice over the radio that the names corresponded to guerrillas.”
This is what Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile told me in an interview:
It was January 12, 2006. We left my hometown, Astacinga. We left at around six in the morning in my car. We went by the ADO bus station to pick up a friend of my brother Jorge, someone he’s known for a long time. Then we went to drink some juice here in Orizaba, near the technological institute. And there, as we were getting back in the car, two young guys asked me if I could give them a ride. And I said, “Sure, as far as Córdoba.” I thought they were students at the institute. I studied there. Then we went to the highway entrance near the University Chemistry Department in Orizaba.
I asked him if he could describe the two young men. “They seemed like college students, somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years old,” he told me, and then continued: “So then we got on th
e highway. And, what was it, maybe five kilometers? The car overheated and we pulled over. We got out to push the car to a safe place. A few moments later the feds arrived. They pulled up and stopped beside us and asked what had happened. ‘Well, the car was overheating so we’re pulling over.’ So they followed us, as if they were escorting us.”
Gerardo Tzompaxtle told me that the police officers were Federal Highway Patrol officers and that they never pushed his car with their patrol car. Rather, they pushed the car by hand. The police officers parked, got out of their patrol car and approached them. They looked over the five men, and then one of the officers said: “Okay, open the trunk.” Gerardo Tzompaxtle got out of the driver’s seat and opened the trunk with the key. At this moment the two young men said they were going to go for help. “Those guys wanted to help me out, they were being nice. There were some houses nearby. ‘We’ll go and see if they can give us some water or maybe help find a mechanic,’ they said.”
The two young men went walking along the shoulder of the highway. At the same time the police were looking through the things in the trunk. “They left without their backpacks,” Gerardo Tzompaxtle told me. “We had put them in the trunk. The police started searching through the backpacks. I think it was in one of their backpacks that they found a datebook with some notes in it. That’s when I realized that the police were calling on their radios, using police codes. About twenty or thirty minutes later more police started to arrive.
Before the other police officers arrived, the two highway patrol agents separated the three men who had stayed with the car—Gerardo, Jorge Tzompaxtle, and Gustavo Robles—and they started interrogating them. They asked Gerardo to identify himself and tell them where he was heading. “So I told them that we were going to Córdoba. They were really stubborn about asking why we were going to Córdoba and what were we going to do there. ‘We’re going to drink some beers, see some women friends, you know, hang out for a while.’ Then the cop asked us: ‘Whose datebook is this?’” Gerardo told him that the backpack where they found the datebook belonged to one of the two young guys.
