Overview

• Judge Mariana Vieyra Valdez ruled that prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to prove Vallarta’s role in six alleged kidnappings, resulting in a formal acquittal.
• Vallarta spent almost two decades in preventive detention at Altiplano prison without ever facing a trial or receiving a sentence, exposing chronic judicial delays.
• His December 2005 arrest alongside Florence Cassez at Rancho Las Chinitas was later revealed as a staged reenactment orchestrated by the now-defunct AFI under Genaro García Luna.
• The UN Committee Against Torture and Mexico’s Federal Public Defender’s Office documented procedural irregularities and health risks, prompting judicial reviews of his detention.
• The attorney general’s office retains the right to appeal the acquittal but cannot block Vallarta’s immediate freedom from the maximum-security facility.