Here you go.
Twelve years after the murder of Silvia Vargas, there is hardly one sentenced for the crime. The 18-year-old was kidnapped and later murdered in Mexico in 2007; her body appeared after 15 months.
More than 12 years ago, Silvia Vargas Escalera was kidnapped and later murdered in Mexico. However, of all those implicated in the crime, only one man has been sentenced and, just this Sunday, they arrested Iván Silvio Pissaco, an Argentine who supposedly rented the house where the body appeared.
The case dates back to September 10, 2007. The daughter of businessman Nelson Vargas and former head of the National Sports Commission (Conade) was on her way to her school, the Alexander Bain College, located in the Las Águilas neighborhood of the City of Mexico.
Around 06:45 (Mexico time), the 18-year-old was intercepted by “Los Rojos”, a gang led by brothers Miguel, Cándido and Raúl Ortiz. When he did not reach his destination, Nelson Vargas called his daughter's cell phone to find out the cause of her absence.
Silvia Escalera, mother of Silvia Vargas, and her husband organized campaigns to locate their daughter (Photo: Ricardo Castelan / Cuartoscuro)
The phone was answered by one of the kidnappers, who asked for USD 3 million to free her. One day after the kidnapping, Nelson Vargas reported the incident to the Kidnapping Investigation Unit of the Organized Crime Specialized Investigation Office (SIEDO) and the preliminary investigation was initiated.
After those, the businessman moved land and sea to find his daughter. He organized a campaign to obtain information in exchange for monetary rewards, remained in contact with criminals and was on the lookout for the authorities' investigation.
However, it was on September 27 when contacts with her daughter's kidnappers ended. One of the criminals told the former official that they were not going to give him a proof of life, that he was no longer interested in his money and that he would not call him again.
After months of disappearance, the Attorney General's Office (PGR), now the Prosecutor's Office, requested the Ministry of Public Security (SSP), through an official letter, to investigate the alleged participation of Óscar Ortiz González, former driver of the Vargas family, in plagiarism.
A month later, the agency headed by Genaro García Luna, who is now accused of corruption and ties to drug trafficking, responded to the PGR's request by means of an official letter. The SSP indicated that it had not found an element that linked the former driver of the Vargas Escalera family with illegal activities.
More than a year later, on December 5, 2008, the PGR reported that they had data that referred to the location of a home where, according to testimonies, Silvia Vargas Escalera was deprived of life. The information to get to that place was provided by an inmate in the Barrientos prison, in the state of Mexico, whose identity was not revealed.
With this information, the authorities obtained a search warrant to investigate the property. At the home, located in San Miguel Xicalco, Tlalpan, Mexican authorities found Silvia's body.
Two years after the kidnapping, on July 28, 2009, Cándido Ortiz González, alias “Comandante Blanco”, and his brother Miguel, nicknamed “Comandante Tigre”, alleged leaders of Los Rojos, were arrested in Veracruz. In addition, they arrested Luis Antonio Ricalde Murcia, “El Chabelo”, and José Antonio Estrada, “El queso de puerco”, who were identified as those in charge of caring for the victims.
Two days later, they captured Raúl Ortiz González, "El Azul," who allegedly negotiated and collected the ransom money. Likewise, Jorge Luis Terán Oela, “El Primo”, and Martín Enríquez Monroy, “El Chelas” were detained.
The latter was the one who guarded and fed Silvia Vargas, as well as led the authorities to where Silvia was buried under a tombstone. He is also the only one sentenced for the plagiarism and murder of Silvia. On May 27, 2014, a judge sentenced him to 52 years and six months in prison for the crimes of kidnapping and organized crime.
On November 16, 2010, Ramona Camacho Valle, 33, was arrested in Guasave for allegedly participating in the kidnapping, along with 10 other people. She said that she had been a sentimental partner of Jorge Luis Terán Olea.
Now, more than 12 years after the crime, the Interpol division of the Argentine Federal Police found Iván Silvio Pissaco, 49, an Argentine who allegedly rented the house where Silvia's body appeared. He found him in the small Cibeles hotel on Virrey Ceballos street in Montserrat, two blocks from the PFA headquarters, according to sources in the case confirmed to Infobae.
The man had arrived in the South American country at least since February 23 and intelligence data reported that he had arrived from Australia, with a stopover in Chile.
The red circular issued internationally by Interpol dated from mid-January last, with the signing of the Second District Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings of the DF for the crimes of "illegal deprivation of liberty in the form of kidnapping and organized crime."
They posted a guard on him Sunday morning, waited for him to come out, and arrested him. Pissaco did not use force, he did not react, he did not rebel. He let himself be handcuffed. The following morning, the PFA handed him over to the federal court, which must determine the terms of his extradition.
Regarding this arrest, Nelson Vargas assured that this man has a lot of information that could allow the nine people linked to the process to be sentenced. "This person has a lot of information, so it is necessary that they extradite him and provide data for the sentences of the detainees," he said.
In an interview with Milenio, he recalled that so far there has only been one sentence for the kidnapping of his daughter. “One has already been sentenced to 54 years. He is guilty because he was the one who made the tombstone to bury my little girl, but not all the Ortíz González brothers, there have been intentions for them to leave, but fortunately we have been very vigilant so that this does not happen ”.
Nelsón Vargas also said that one more person needs to be arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Silvia Vargas. A nurse who gave her an injection that killed her.