“I tell you today also for the people of Guanajuato that Alvar and Zamarripa will not continue in my government (…) I give you my word that it is the most valuable thing I have, I have told you and if I am telling you today it is because that is how it will be,” were the words with which the then candidate for the governorship of Guanajuato, Libya Dennise Garcíacommitted to renew the ownership of the Secretariat of Security and the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE).
With one million 250 thousand 109 votes, the standard bearer of the PAN – PRI – PRD coalition consolidated itself as the winner of the electoral elections held in Guanajuato on June 2, which marked the beginning of the end of the three-decade trajectory that Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre built as a public servant.
Two months after her victory, Libyan Governor Denisse García reported through her official account x that last September 27 the state prosecutor presented his resignation after spending 15 years in office between criticism and results that led Guanajuato to top the list of entities that accumulate the highest number of homicides in Mexico.
The departure of Carlos Zamarripa from the FGE of Guanajuato
The security results that Guanajuato obtained during the management of Carlos Zamarripa consolidated the state in recent years as one of the most violent in the Mexican Republic.
Faced with the discouraging panorama, part of the people of Guanajuato and the local political sphere requested his removal from office on several occasions, but not only that, it was even the former president himself. Andrés Manuel López Obrador who joined the petition after the Salvatierra massacre that occurred in December 2023.
“That’s why my respectful insistence that the prosecutor be changed which has been around for 13 years and has enormous political strength. It has a lot of protectionas if he were the governor,” mentioned the Tabasco politician during one of his traditional morning conferences.
Since 2021, Andrés Manuel López Obrador recommended the former governor of the entity, Diego Sinhuedismiss the state prosecutor considering that “he was not acting well.”
“I cannot remain silent, it would be complicity and I am the representative of the State, I have to serve all Mexicans (…) The facts are showing me that we are not acting well. (…) I do recommend that there be renewal because things do not improve, we already have the National Guard and we have elements of the Army and the Navy, we are supporting but We do not see that it is the same in terms of the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office“criticized the then leader of the Executive.
Although the former Tabasco president acknowledged that he respected the autonomy of the prosecutor’s offices, His insistent recommendation did not take effect until the arrival of Libia Dennise García to the governorship of Guanajuato.who fulfilled his campaign promise by presenting the resignation of both Carlos Zamarripa and the now former head of the State Security Secretariat, Alvar Cabeza de Vaca.
“His departure is finally announced for January 1st of next year but there was a high cost to pay (…) He assigned himself a luxury pension where he will have a salary of 146 thousand pesos“, he commented in an interview with MILLENNIUM public security analyst, David Saucedo.
In addition to increasing retirement benefits by 30% for his own benefit, the security expert told this medium that Carlos Zamarripa left the position of prosecutor after ensuring that some of his immediate family members assume public positions.
“It was designated prosecutor’s wife as a magistrate of a Court of Justice of the State of Guanajuato and his daughter was also hired in the government. There is a whole Zamarripa family organization chart, a Zamarripa familiogram holding positions in the state government. That was the cost to pay, it seems to me that it is an acceptable cost,” emphasized David Saucedo.
The departure of Carlos Zamarripa from the FGE of Guanajuato was controversial, however, and in the words of the interviewee, it was necessary to prevent conflict scenarios between the governor and a prosecutor not appointed by her.
Massacres: the violent legacy of Carlos Zamarripa in Guanajuato
Just one day after Libya Denisse García announced the resignation of the attorney general of Guanajuato, five people were killed during an armed attack perpetrated in a Salamanca annex.
one day before cFour members of a family were shot by armed men who broke into his home in Lion and ten days before, an armed attack caused the death of five other people in Yuriria.
These violent episodes attracted media attention, however, they only ended up join the list of constant massacres that the Secretariat of Security and FGE of Guanajuato have not been able to stop.
Fact:
What is a massacre?
The civil organization Common Cause defines a massacre as the murder of three or more people. According to an analysis of atrocities carried out through media reports, from January to December 2023, 447 massacres were recorded in Mexico.
The count made by Common Cause Throughout 2023, it located Guanajuato as the state in which the highest number of massacres in the year with 57. They are followed by Guerrero (46), Zacatecas (41), Baja California (30), Morelos (27), Chihuahua (26), Nuevo León (25) and Veracruz (24).
In August 2024, according to figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), Guanajuato once again topped the list of the states that accumulate the greatest number of intentional homicides.
“Guanajuato is the state in the country where the most intentional homicides are committed, homicides of minors, homicides of women. Also police killingsthere is an increase in violence in different regions of the state (…) there was the murder of candidates for popularly elected positions, Investigation folders for drug dealing increased“a complete disaster,” he described for MILLENNIUM the security analyst, David Saucedo, regarding the management of Carlos Zamarripa as state prosecutor.
The uncontrollable war of cartels in Guanajuato
The figures that consolidate Guanajuato as one of the most violent entities in the country have part of their origin in the inability that state authorities have had to stop disputes that criminal organizations They argue for state control.
Although various criminal groups have a presence in the demarcation, they are the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL) those who have led an intense battle for control of different criminal economies in Guanajuato.
Carlos Zamarripa He assumed the position of head of the then called Attorney General’s Office of Guanajuato during the mandate of the former PAN governor. Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez. He remained in office for the six years of the mandate of Miguel Marquez Marquez and later in the six-year term of Diego Sinhue.
Throughout that time and under the gaze of state authorities, A local criminal organization was created in Guanajuato who saw in the theft of fuel – commonly called huachicol – a lucrative business that later extended to extortion, drug dealing and theft from transporters.
He Santa Rosa de Lima Cartelheaded by José Antonio Yépez Ortiz -alias The Brown– took over the tranquility of the inhabitants of the state, building a criminal empire that prevails.
“He Santa Rosa Cartel moved freely in the statewas not bothered by the Attorney General’s Office or the Ministry of Public Security. According to statements by José Antonio Yépez himself, alias The Brownleader of this criminal organization, He bribed the prosecutor’s office, directly to the prosecutor Carlos Zamarripa. In a video that went viral and that circulated on his social networks, he stated that he had had agreements with the prosecution to be able to carry out these criminal activities,” explained analyst David Saucedo in an interview with MILLENNIUM.
According to the expert, the alliance between the CSRL and the state authority It was broken with the emergence of the CJNG in Guanajuato then, in the words of members of the criminal organization that led The Brown, Carlos Zamarripa’s FGE began to operate in favor of the four letters cartel.
This premise is based on the fact that, to date and while José Antonio Yepez He remains imprisoned in a federal prison in Guanajuato. There has been no relevant capture of a CJNG leader operating in the statesince the actions deployed to stop organized crime have been directed solely to stop the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL).
Despite this, after the attack that Omar García Harfuch -now head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC)- suffered in 2020 and which was attributed to the CJNG, the federal government gave instructions to fight the criminal organization in all the states where they have a presence.
Upon realizing that in Guanajuato the government was also fighting them, the cartel headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes –El Mencho– launched commando attacks to assassinate the elite group of the FGE who sought to combat them.
“The The prosecution has helped between the attack on one criminal group to leave another criminal group behind and vice versa,” explained David Saucedo about the criminal dynamics that permeated Guanajuato.
It was during the time that Carlos Zamarripa was at the head of the FGE that said war between cartels was hatchedleaving behind an incessant wave of violence for Guanajuato but also a clear example of how the figure of ‘carnal prosecutor‘didn’t work for provide independence to prosecutors both at the state and federal level.
Until the moment this note is written, it is unknown who will replace Carlos Zamarripa, however, and although the law was modified so that it could be someone from another state, hope remains latent for the ownership of the FGE to be assumed. a person with capacity, experience and moral solvency to mitigate the damage left behind by the controversial ‘carnal prosecutor’ of Guanajuato.
ATJ
