Mexico Sees Army Role in 2014 Case of Missing 43 Students María Verza - The Washington Post
go to original August 20, 2022

A woman carries a banner that reads in Spanish “We are missing 43,” referring to the 43 missing students from a rural teachers college during a march in Mexico City. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP)

Update: Mexican Court Issues 83 Arrest Warrants Related to the Disappearance of 43 Students (CNN)

The Truth Commission established to clear up the 2014 disappearances of 43 students in southern Mexico said Thursday the army was responsible at least for not stopping the abductions because a soldier had infiltrated the student group and the army knew what was happening.

On Sept. 26, 2014, local police from the town of Iguala, members of organized crime and authorities abducted 43 students from buses. The students were from a rural teachers’ college called Ayotzinapa elsewhere in Guerrero state and they periodically commandeered buses for their transportation.

The administration of then-President Enrique Peña Nieto presented as the “historic truth” that the students were turned over to a drug gang who killed them, incinerated their bodies at a dump in nearby Cocula and tossed the burnt remains into a river.

Investigations by independent experts and the Attorney General’s Office, and corroborated by the Truth Commission, have since dismissed the incineration at the Cocula dump, although recovered burnt bone fragments have been used to identify three of the missing students.

Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who leads the commission, said Thursday it was a “state crime,” in which officials from all levels of government were involved.

He said the army is responsible, “for action, omission or negligence.”

One of the abducted students was a soldier who had infiltrated the school and yet the army did not search for him even though it had real-time information about what was happening, he said. Encinas said the inaction violated army protocols for cases of missing soldiers.

The defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

Related: Mexico President Urges Justice in Disappearance of 43 Students (Barrons)

Related: Mexico Arrests Ex-attorney General in Missing Students Case (Associated Press)

Related: Mexico’s President Vowed to End the Drug War. Instead He’s Doubled the Number of Troops in the Streets (Los Angeles Times)

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