Iván Mondragón Released From Prison in Cancún Child Abduction Case

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Iván Mondragón walked out of prison this week after a judge ruled he need not remain in preventive detention while authorities investigate him for allegedly abducting a three-year-old girl he helped move out of Cancún.

Mondragón had been held since Sept. 10, when he was arrested in Mexico City and accused of child abduction in the case of Emma Solís. The girl and her mother, Fátima Aldana, have not been seen since Aug. 15.

According to the case file, Mondragón gave Aldana and her daughter a ride from Cancún to central Mexico after Aldana said she was fleeing violence at the hands of the girl’s father, identified as Eliezer. The favor ended with Mondragón behind bars.

Investigators could not substantiate a charge of forced disappearance, and Mondragón was ultimately booked on the lesser count of child abduction. On Wednesday, a judge replaced his preventive detention with a ban on leaving the country — a decision that prompted the family of the girl’s father to protest outside the State Prosecutor’s Office in Cancún.

Emma’s relatives and the collective Madres Buscadoras A.C. criticized authorities for releasing the defendant while the girl remains missing, and said they were never notified of the hearing. They also pointed to allegations that Aldana violated an earlier order barring her from leaving the city.

Aldana has separately asked authorities for protection, saying she and her daughter do not feel safe after leaving Cancún, and accusing her former partner of violence.