Former attorney Bátiz endorses suicide of former Pemex director

Mexico City. The former Attorney General of the country’s capital, Bernardo Bátiz Vázquez, stated that in the case of the death of Carlos Fernando Márquez Padilla, on October 7, 2004, “the preliminary investigation was not modified” and it was “concluded that “It was a suicide” by the former husband of the president of Mexicans Against Corruption, María Amparo Casar.

In interview with The Day, Bátiz Vázquez, who now works as a counselor in the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF), spoke about what the then Attorney General’s Office of the Federal District (PGJDF) did regarding the death of Márquez Padilla:

“What the PGJDF did was initiate a preliminary investigation into violent death. It was a case of a fall from a very high and fatal floor, that of Mr. Márquez Padilla.

“The preliminary investigation was initiated by the prosecutor’s office of the (then) Miguel Hidalgo Delegation. Experts and the Public Ministry agent became aware of what happened; They surrounded the scene and did their job.

“The Public Ministry agent, as in any other case of a violent death, whether accident or homicide, took the necessary measures to find out what happened, he verified the data that the experts provided with what he himself saw. That was the job of the prosecutor’s office under my charge, to investigate what happened.

“I can say that the previous investigation ruled out that it had been a homicide. According to the expert reports, it was concluded that the person voluntarily deprived himself of his life. The experts determined that there were no signs of struggle or disorder in the office where the window from which the person was thrown was located. (Márquez Padilla’s) desk was clean, and a sheet of paper was found containing the telephone numbers of his relatives.

“The experts said there was no violence here. Examination of the body and clothing also established that there were no signs of a struggle. The blow he received when he fell was fatal, since it occurred on the head,” said Bátiz Vázquez.

He reiterated that he did not have all the details of the case in his memory, but he reiterated “the conclusion reached by the Public Ministry was suicide.”

Regarding an alleged alteration that would have allowed María Amparo Casar to collect the pension from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and also life insurance, the former capital attorney pointed out that “the attorney general’s office does not keep minutes, and integrates previous investigations (now called files of research), I think something they are referring to is the death certificate.

“When I was attorney I did not allow any of the previous investigations to be altered because someone put pressure on me, I would not have allowed it.

“Regarding the death certificate, this depends on the Civil Registry, since there they only state the cause of death, and the relatives are the ones who process it with a medical certificate, which perhaps was given by a medical expert, I no longer know the details of that.

“What I can comment is that the preliminary investigation was not modified then or now, because I have already spoken with those who manage the file and they tell me that everything is intact.”

In this case, in recent days the director of Pemex, Octavio Romero Oropeza, reported that the criminal complaint is advancing to seek reparation for the damage for 40 million pesos, after which the procedures were altered to expedite the payment of the pension and the insurance of life for the death of Carlos Fernando Márquez Padilla, although both benefits were inadmissible because it was a suicide.