The president of the Federation of Guadalajara Students (FEG) has been implicated in the killing of four students and one parent by four teenagers who were forced to dig the victims’ graves on the union premises.
Testifying before the State Attorney General’s office (PGJEJ) on Tuesday, 19-year-old Gerardo Godoy alleged that FEG President David Castorena Peña was responsible for the killing of Armando Gomez, 56, his son, Francisco Ismael Gomez Salcedo, 21, and three other teenage students. Godoy’s testimony was supported on Wednesday by three teenage students who helped bury the five corpses.
The bodies were found on the grounds of the FEG headquarters on December 14 and 15. The killings followed a dispute between Armando Gomez and the unofficial student union over fees for his churros (snack) stand outside the school grounds at La Normal.
It is believed that either Gomez did not want to pay increased fees being charged by the FEG, or that he had been helping them collect payment from others but had pocketed the money himself.
A coordinator for the FEG, Godoy said he saw Gomez arguing with caretaker Gerardo Flores Gomez, alias “El Tatuadao,” outside the union headquarters. The pair then entered the building and were taken to the office of Castorena, who recently became president of the student body.
According to Godoy, the only people in the room were Castorena, the caretaker, Gomez and his son.
The only others present in the building were Castorena’s staff, who were trusted not to divulge what happened. This included the unnamed trio, aged 13, 15 and 17, who testified on Wednesday.
The witnesses heard two shots fired, before Castorena emerged to make several phone calls. The bloodstained carpet from Castorena’s office was removed immediately, they said. Castorena then forced them to dispose of the bodies on the union grounds.
Having been tied up and gagged in an office adjacent to Castorena’s, three students who had accompanied Gomez and son to the FEG headquarters were also killed to ensure there were no witnesses to the crime. They were stabbed to death at the foot of the rudimentary graves that had been dug for them.
The four witnesses are among 18 members of the FEG who have been ordered to present themselves before the PGJEJ. Also wanted are former President Israel Mariscal, the caretaker and Castorena, whose current whereabouts are unknown.
“In the coming days we will present reliable results with arrests and presentations of those who have refused to come before the authorities, some of whom are student leaders, as well as people living in the building occupied by the FEG,” said Thomas Coronado Olmos, the head of the prosecution.
With the murder investigation now said to be 90 percent complete, the state government and the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) are at odds over ownership of the property where the bodies were discovered.
UdeG rector Marco Antonio Cortes Guardado said a new preparatory school should be opened on the property “to expand the supply of high school education.” He also claimed rights to the property because part of the building was built using university funds, but said they will wait to see what the state government does before deciding whether to take legal action.
Governor Emilio Gonzalez had said the state government would take ownership of the FEG building, located in the Miraflores neighborhood. Gonzalez stated it would not be handed over to the university, but will instead be used to benefit young graduates through the Ciudad Creativa Digital project. Yet it is now thought this project will be based in Parque Morelos.