Published by infobae. Read the Spanish version here.
Who was Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre, the Ayotzinapa normalista whose remains were identified by the FGR
The young man liked folk dance and wanted to be a vet
July 8, 2020
The remains of Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre were identified five years after the disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, by the specific Unit for the case of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR).
Christian was the only son of Clemente Rodríguez and Luz María Telumbre and he also has three sisters with whom he grew up in the Santiago neighborhood in Tixtla, Guerrero, according to Ayotzinapa 43 días por los 43 created in the Marchando con letras campaign.
When he disappeared on September 26, 2014, he was 19 years old. He was a tall, dark-haired and black-eyed young man who was enthusiastic about continuing his career in dance, since he has practiced the discipline since he was a child.
Patricia Sotelo narrates that Christian rehearsed in white shoes in the living room of the Casa de Cultura de Tixtla on a wooden floor. He participated in the Xochiquetzal folkloric dance group and his colleagues remember that “he came to rehearsals eating corn and with his beige backpack with a long strap across his chest.”
His acquaintances called him "Clark," a nickname attributed to him in reference to Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent. But in High School 29 they called him "Soncho" and in rural Ayotzinapa they called him "Hugo" because he liked Hugo Boss shirts.
The teachers who taught him consider him to be a serious and accomplished student. He graduated from high school with an average of 8.74 and hoped to become a vet or special education teacher, but the rural normal was his only option because his family could not afford the costs of a university tuition.
Omar Gómez Trejo, head of the Ayotzinapa Unit, revealed that his skeletal remains were found in the Cocula ravine. These were sent to the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
At a press conference, the official reported that before disclosing the finding to the media, the family was informed of the status of the investigation.
“As EAAF, we support the results sent from the University of Innsbruck. These results are extremely painful for the relatives of the young Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre and for the families of the other students," indicated Mercedes Doretti, founding member and director for Central and North America of the EAAF, at the beginning of the month.
Furthermore, the remains were also analyzed by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, whose results also agreed that they belonged to a "lower extremity" of the young man.
Gómez Trejo reported that after receiving information about the whereabouts of the students and verifying their veracity, from November 21 to 29, 2019 he carried out a search at a point located in the municipality of Cocula, Guerrero, known as Barranca de la Carnicería.
"This place is not the Cocula Dump, since the Barranca is more than 800 meters away from where the narrative of the 'historical truth' was created, the official version of the previous Government."
Previously, he said, this location was known, but the lines of investigation were not completed.
In the current investigations, 15 articles of evidence were recovered, which were initially analyzed by FGR experts, accompanied by family members.
"After carrying out the respective analyzes on the bone pieces sent, one of them corresponds to the student Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre, one of the young normalistas who disappeared on September 26, 2014."
He explained that, for greater certainty, the results were also analyzed by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which completed its review on July 4, "concluding collectively."