HomeNewsBriefIs Mayor's Wife 'Chief' of Guerreros Unidos Criminal Group?
BRIEF

Is Mayor's Wife 'Chief' of Guerreros Unidos Criminal Group?

ELITES AND CRIME / 3 FEB 2015 BY KYRA GURNEY EN

Mexico's attorney general has identified Maria de los Angeles Pineda, the wife of the former Iguala mayor and a possible accomplice in the disappearance of 43 students, as one of the leaders of the Guerreros Unidos criminal group.

During a private meeting with senators from the ruling party, Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam referred to Maria de los Angeles Pineda as the "head of the gang," reported Reforma. The attorney general told senators that since Pineda had been protected as part of the Guerreros Unidos leadership, it had been difficult for investigators to find the evidence necessary to charge her with organized crime.

"However, we did an investigation that included prisons in the United States, where we were able to obtain testimonies that clearly and directly link [Pineda] with the management of the Guerreros Unidos group," Murillo reportedly stated.

The attorney general also reportedly identified Pineda's husband, Jose Luis Abarca, as the second-in-command, and linked Pineda's parents and siblings to the group.

InSight Crime Analysis

Although Excelsior and Reforma have interpreted Murillo's comments to mean that Pineda is the main Guerreros Unidos leader, it is not entirely clear from his statement whether she is the head of the group or simply part of its leadership structure. Pineda -- who has been charged with organized crime but not in the murder of some 43 students who were allegedly killed last September at the hands of the criminal group and at the behest of Pineda's husband -- had previously been identified as the gang's main political operator.

However, Murillo's statements do not mark the first time Pineda's family has been associated with the Guerreros Unidos. In October, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia stated that Pineda's brother Salomon Pineda Villa, alias "El Molon," took over the leadership of the organization after founder Mario Casarrubias Salgado, alias "El Sapo Guapo," was captured in April 2014.

SEE ALSO: Mexico News and Profiles

Murillo's comments should be treated with caution because he likely has a vested interest in making Pineda appear to be a powerful underworld figure and in further separating the administration from the bloody event that has upended the Mexican government. By his own admission, the Attorney General's Office has had a difficult time finding sufficient evidence to charge Pineda with organized crime, and it appears that prosecutors have thus far been unable to make charges related to the students' disappearances stick. If Pineda really was the group's commander, these problems might seem more understandable.

In a January 27 press release, the Attorney General's Office explained that the Guerreros Unidos had a clear hierarchal structure in which subordinates received orders directly from their immediate superior -- who was usually referred to using only his or her alias -- to prevent lower-level members from learning the identities of the group's leaders.

Pineda and her husband were captured in Mexico City in early November after Murillo identified the couple as the intellectual authors of the September disappearance of 43 student protesters. (For a full recap of the missing students case, click through InSight Crime's timeline below.)

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 19 OCT 2021

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro's aggressive reaction to the extradition of accused money launderer and ally Álex Saab – who appeared…

COCAINE / 23 JUN 2023

A look at former candidate Carlos Pineda Sosa, a popular outsider who was recently disqualified from Guatemala’s presidential race.

ELITES AND CRIME / 19 JUL 2023

Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli was sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering, putting him closer than ever…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…