He spent 17 years in pretrial detention in Mexico. Now he has been arrested again: this is the case of Daniel García

Lawyer Daniel García poses for a photo at his home in Tlanepantla, State of Mexico, on August 25. Rodrigo Oropeza

Daniel García has returned this Monday to the Barrientos prison, in the State of Mexico, where he spent 17 years in pretrial detention, the longest time a Mexican has been in jail without a sentence.

So, it was the year 2002 and García was accused of ordering the murder of the councilor María de los Ángeles Tamés.

His case and that of Reyes Alpízar reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for having been detained without a warrant, tortured and prosecuted with fabricated evidence.

The resolution is just a few days away and everything points to the fact that the Mexican State is going to be sanctioned.

In this context, the State of Mexico Prosecutor's Office has once again arrested García, skipping the suspension granted by a federal judge and the country's commitment before the international court that they would remain free.

His lawyer, Simón Hernández,

At 1:00 p.m., ministerial police from the State of Mexico Prosecutor's Office executed a re-arrest warrant issued by a Tlalnepantla criminal judge and handcuffed lawyer Daniel García.

From there they have taken him to the Barrientos prison.

Her daughter Denisse Aribel García, who studied Law to defend her father in the previous process, has recorded him seriously entering jail.

Hernández fears that they are going to place García in the most complicated area of ​​the prison, where the convicts with a final sentence are already held.

For now, they have already notified the Inter-American Court of this detention, which they describe as "irregular."

The process that Daniel García and Reyes Alpízar went through has become an example of the judicial arbitrariness that operates in Mexico.

The two men were accused of participating in the murder of María de los Ángeles Tamés, in 2001. In a first version of the events, the Prosecutor's Office accused a man named Jaime Martínez of being the perpetrator, Alpízar of having accompanied him, and García of having paid both 300,000 pesos (about $15,000) for committing the crime.

When it was found that Martínez was being held in a Hidalgo prison when the murder was committed, the Public Ministry changed its theory and exclusively accused Reyes Alpízar of having shot.

This narrative did not have evidence, but was supported by the writings of a dozen alleged witnesses.

Despite the chain of irregularities, García and Alpízar were imprisoned for more than 17 years, without having received any sentence.

Thanks to the pressure of the UN working group and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which established torture and arbitrary acts in the process, the two men were released from prison in 2019. They were placed under house arrest with a bracelet electronic, which controls their location and prevents them from leaving the State of Mexico.

In May of last year, a court in the State of Mexico sentenced the men to 37 years in prison.

His lawyers appealed and that same court acquitted Reyes Alpízar a couple of weeks ago for lack of evidence, but upheld the sentence against Daniel García.

“There is no justification because there is no evidence, which is why Reyes was released.

We believe that it is a reprisal against Daniel for having been the main spokesman in the case, for having gone before the court, for exposing the way in which people deprived of their liberty live in Mexico.

There is discomfort on the part of the authorities of the State of Mexico and this is new evidence of the totally arbitrary actions of the case, using the most delicate measure, which is the deprivation of liberty, which is the center of this case”, explains his lawyer Simon Hernandez.

The defender explains that this arrest commits three offenses: on the one hand, a federal judge granted last week the provisional suspension of any act of possible deprivation of liberty within the framework of an indirect amparo.

"The precautionary measure is granted, for the sole effect that things remain in the state they currently have and the complainants Daniel García Rodríguez and Reyes Alpiza Ortiz are not deprived of their liberty, remaining at the disposal of this court as to their personal freedom is concerned”, says the federal document.

The judge notified the criminal judge.

In addition, in the case of a re-arrest warrant —Hernández specifies— it would be an execution judge who had to issue it, which has not been the case either.

Finally, as the Inter-American Court is analyzing the case of Daniel and Reyes, their legal team asked the high court for a provisional measure so that they would not be detained while the process was being resolved.

The Mexican State rejected the need for the measure and argued: "There is no reasonable probability that the deprivation of liberty will materialize," based on the fact that the direct amparo had to be resolved first.

"In short, they lied to the Inter-American Court," Hernández says.

For this reason, García's legal team has already contacted the high court to request that, now, it impose this provisional measure.

In addition, in the Mexican circuit the federal judge has been notified that the precautionary measure was not complied with.

The case of Daniel and Reyes has put one of the star figures of the Mexican judicial system on the ropes: the unofficial preventive detention.

This measure is imposed automatically, without being ruled by a judge, in a catalog of 16 crimes ranging from homicide to home robbery.

The defendants go directly to prison without having a sentence, just for the mere fact of having been accused, even if it is later proven that they are innocent.

The Mexican Constitution indicates that they can only be two years under this formula, but the reality is that the processes last for years.

García and Alpízar have so far the record with 17 years without conviction.

If the Inter-American Court agrees with the two men in their process, the high court could force Mexico to modify the Constitution to eliminate this controversial figure,

subscribe here

to the EL PAÍS México

and receive all the key information on current affairs in this country