‘El Cepillo’, allegedly involved in the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, is re-arrested

Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, alias “El Cepillo” and identified by the then Attorney General’s Office (PGR) as one of the perpetrators of the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students, was re-arrested last Friday, September 20.

According to the National Registry of Arrests, Rodríguez Salgado was arrested at 12:30 p.m. in the municipality of San Marcos, Guerrero.

The arrest was carried out by agents of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and as of Saturday he was in the Acapulco branch of said institution.

Who is “The Brush”?

“El Cepillo” was a key piece in the narrative of the so-called “Historical Truth.” At that time, the PGR identified him as an alleged hitman for the criminal organization calling itself Guerreros Unidos and the material author of the Ayotzinapa case.

According to this version, Rodríguez Salgado would have taken and executed the students in the Cocula garbage dump on the orders of Gildardo López, alias “El Gil”, lieutenant of the leader of Guerreros Unidos, Sidronio Casarrubias.

However, a few years later it was proven that these statements had been obtained through torture. In a video broadcast in 2020 by Milenio Televisión, “El Cepillo” could be seen in a room, sitting in a chair, shirtless, handcuffed and with a black cloth covering his head while Tomás Zerón, former director of the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), asked him questions about the whereabouts of the normalistas.

“Tell me everything you know about the students. The first lie you tell me is the end of the topic and we begin. You tell us how you want us to move forward. You are not going to be the exception, so don’t make it difficult for yourself,” Zerón told him.

On September 27, 2018, “El Cepillo” was released along with seven other suspects in the case due to “lack of evidence.”