Mexican federal judge orders release of Juárez crematorium owner, where nearly 400 bodies were found

JUÁREZ, Chihuahua (KVIA) -- A Mexican federal judge ordered the immediate release over the weekend of José Luis A.C., the former owner of the infamous "Crematorio Plenitud," where approximately 386 bodies were found in Juárez last year.

Judge Luis Eduardo Rivas of the Seventh District Court granted an injunction to the crematorium owner, a decision described by family members as an "atrocity that tears apart the social fabric."

ABC-7 reported last June that local, state, and federal authorities in Mexico discovered the 386 bodies and that proper funeral services had not been provided to the families who had paid for services at the 'Plenitud' crematorium.

The Chihuahua Attorney General's Office (FGE Chihuahua) held a press conference over the weekend, during which Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui Moreno demanded an immediate review of the injunction after the owner, José Luis A.C., was released from state custody in Juárez.

ABC-7 spoke today with a representative of the group of victims' family members and with the spokeswoman for the 'Colectivo Justicia para nuestros dedudos,' Dora Elena Delgado, after the decision was made last Friday.

"It saddens me because I am from Chihuahua, because I am a Juárez resident by choice, that an institution has these deficiencies, this lack of credentials, and that this lack of credentials affects more than 1,500 families, whose lives were somehow changed by a piece of news. Right?" said Delgado.

"We don't want to be part of that index (of unsolved cases in Mexico), those statistics, those numbers, because of the lack of justice, because of the lack of effectiveness of the A.G.'s office," Delgado added. "I mean, this is a national and international issue. Imagine the real shame. Beyond the indignation, the anger, the frustration, the disappointment we feel seeing in the press that no governing body has been appointed to address the cover-up, the fraud committed by this man, all of that; it's shameful, I find it shameful."

The Chihuahua Attorney General's Office said they will be demanding a review of the case following Arellano's release and will file an appeal, and complaints will be filed with the judges of the Federal Judiciary and the Oversight Bodies to overturn the injunction and review the judge's actions.

Chihuahua Attorney General Jáuregui recalled that a similar request for an injunction had previously been received in that same court on behalf of the same person, but with a different judge; however, it was denied because the bodies had been piling up for months without proper handling, under unsanitary conditions, and in a state of decomposition, which posed a risk to the Juárez community.

“What have we proven? That there were 386 corpses without proper treatment, that they had been in that place not for days, not for months, but for years, under the most unsanitary conditions, and we proved that the families were given funeral urns containing remains that did not belong to their loved ones,” A.G. Jáuregui said.

Attorney General Jáuregui also explained that the Federal Judge who granted the injunction focused on two issues, namely the verbs that define the crimes, which are “to conceal” and “to preserve,” which he considered did not apply in this case, since the bodies "were not hidden."

FGE stated that the evidence points to clear intent in the accumulation of the bodies, since the families who paid for the service were not receiving the ashes of their loved ones.

“Faced with such a ruling, there is no option but to fight it; the A.G.'s Office will immediately file two appeals: an appeal for review before the judges of the Federal Judiciary, so that they may overturn this injunction and return things to their current state; and, secondly, a complaint before the Oversight Bodies of the Judiciary itself, so that the judge's actions may be reviewed,” A.G. Jáuregui added.

Delgado states that the prosecution demonstrated great incompetence in this case, as she believes that Arellano's release should not have happened in the first place.

"I was talking about the incompetence of a weak institution (FGE), but there's also a word that we shout in the slogans of the demonstrations we do: corruption, we think of corruption; that is, you have to have money for justice to solve your problems?" Delgado added. "This case of the Plenitud crematorium is a brutal institutional silence and the institutional silence is also insulting."

"Y yo creo que las instituciones deben de estar fuertes, pero para que las instituciones estén fuertes, las personas tienen que ser no corruptas, que no permitan la impunidad,

The Chihuahua Attorney General's Office has identified 191 of the 386 bodies found last year, of which only 185 have been returned to their families; 152 DNA tests have been carried out, the results of which will be received in the coming days, the FGE said in a statement.