Quick Facts
Biography
María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa is the former first lady of Iguala, a city in Guerrero, Mexico. Pineda Villa and her husband, José Luis Abarca Velázquez were accused by Attorney General of Mexico Jesús Murillo Karam of the "probable masterminds" behind the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping and disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College. Pineda Villa and her husband fled hours after the reported abductions and were arrested by federal authorities on November 4, 2014. The prosecution's investigation indicates that Mayor Abarca ordered local police to stop the students from protesting a political event and speech Pineda Villa was scheduled to hold. The police allegedly attacked the students' buses when they entered Iguala and then delivered them to members of the local drug gang, Guerreros Unidos. Along with her familial ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, confessions by detained gang members and police officers have revealed Pineda Villa as the "principle operator" of the Guerreros Unidos.
Family and early ties to organized crime
María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa is the daughter of Salomón Pineda Bermúdez and Maria Leticia Villa Ortuño. She has four brothers: Julio Guadalupe, Mario Antonio, Salomón and Alberto.
Salomón, or "El Malon" and his brothers, Mario "El MP" and Alberto "El Borrado", have operated as drug traffickers in Guerrero and Morelos since 2002. After operating independently as drug dealers in Guerrero, the brothers formally joined the Sinaloa Cartel in 2002. Under the orders of Arturo Beltrán Leyva, they were placed in charge of operations in Zihuatanejo and other areas of Guerrero, as well as the state of Morelos. The Pinedas trafficked drugs, primarily cocaine, coming from Colombia and Venezuela to Guerrero. In 2005, under the instruction of the Sinaloa Cartel, the brothers formed a group of 200 hitmen called the "Los Pelones" to control Guerrero and defend against attacks by rival cartels, such as the Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana. The "Los Pelones" are believed to be the predecessor of the Guerreros Unidos.
In 2006, the Mexican Drug War began under President Felipe Calderón's administration, which involved a crackdown on drug trafficking organizations by Mexican authorities. In March 2009, Mexico's Office of the General Prosecutor (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) named Alberto and Mario Antonio Pineda Villa in their list of the most wanted drug traffickers. In May 2009, five members of the Pineda Villa family were arrested by the PGR in Morelos: Alberto, Mario, Salomón and their parents, Salomón and Maria. In September 2009, Alberto and Mario were murdered for their betrayal of Arturo Beltrán Leyva. In December 2009, kingpin Arturo Beltrán Levya was killed during a shootout with Mexican Marines in Cuernavaca, Morelos. His death caused the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel to break up into smaller independent organizations, led by former Betrán Leyva operators. This included the Guerreros Unidos, led by Salomón "El Malon" Pineda Villa, in the Guerrero and Morelos states.
Political history
María de los Ángeles Pineda and her husband, José Luis Abarca Velázquez, met in Guerrero and built their wealth selling gold and jewelry. After accumulating a number of local businesses, they came into contact with local political bigwigs in Iguala who then tapped Abarca to enter a mayoral contest. Despite having no previous political experience, the businessman won the election and became Mayor of Iguala in June 2012. Mayor Abarca and Guerrero's Governor, Ángel Aguirre, were both members of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in opposition to President Enrique Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
In 2013, Abarca was accused of killing a local community organizer and fellow PRD member, Arturo Hernández Cardona, and two fellow leftist activists the day after an argument at a city council meeting. Hernández's wife, Iguala city councilwoman Sofia Mendoza, gave a statement to state authorities, but they failed to investigate the allegations against Abarca.
Evidence suggests that state officials, namely Governor Ángel Aguirre of Guerrero, were aware of Mayor Abarca and Maria Pineda's criminal ties. On October 13, 2014, a video was posted online of a blindfolded and tied woman who identified herself as Maria Leonor Villa Ortuña, the mother of María de los Ángeles Pineda and mother-in-law of Mayor Abarca. Along with detailing her family's criminal history and ties to the Beltrán-Leyva cartel, the woman claims that her sons funded Ángel Aguirre's 2011 campaign for governor on behalf of the Beltrán-Leyva cartel.
While her husband held the mayoral position, many have claimed Pineda Villa's forceful presence at City Council meetings was evidence that she was the one "calling the shots" in terms of political decisions. In fact, at the time of the disappearances, she had already been tapped by Abarca's PRD party to run as the next mayor of Iguala. While the event scheduled on September 26, 2014 was supposedly to celebrate her role advancing Iguala's welfare program, many believe it was actually the unofficial start of her mayoral election campaign.
Iguala disappearances, investigation and arrests
On September 26, 2014, around 100 male student teachers from the round 100 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College travel by bus through the town of Iguala on their way to a demonstration in Mexico City. That night, municipal police in Iguala confront the students and open fire against them. Three students and three by-standers and killed and 43 students are forcibly disappeared as a result.
On September 28, 2014, Guerrero State’s Attorney General opens an investigation into the mass kidnapping and killings. Iguala authorities arrest 22 local police officers and name the cartel Guerreros Unidos responsible for the crimes.
On October 1, 2014, Mayor Abarca and María Pineda Villa go into hiding.
On October 17, 2014, Mexico's Attorney General Murillo announced the arrest of who he deemed the "supreme leader" of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado. In his interrogation, Casarrubias told authorities that Maria Pineda ordered the Guerreros Unidos to "make an example" of the missing students and identified her as the leader of the local police and the gang's highest-ranking member in government.
On October 23, 2014, following political pressure and international outrage over the disappearances, Governor Aguirre resigned.
On November 4, 2014, Major Abarca and María Pineda Villa are arrested in Mexico City and Abarca is sent to a maximum security prison.
On January 5, 2015, María Pineda Villa is transferred from house arrest to the maximum security prison of "El Rincon"in Tepic, Nayarit. She has been charged with federal crimes of organized crime and conducting operations with illicit funds.