MEXICO CITY – The disappearance of 43 Mexican students in 2014 was a “crime of the state” involving all levels of government, an official investigation reported on Thursday, in deep admission. most brilliant to date on the government’s responsibility for one of the most notorious atrocities in Mexico’s modern history.
“At all times, federal, state and city governments have knowledge of student movements,” a government truth commission said in its preliminary findings. “Their actions, omissions and involvement have allowed the students to go missing and execute, as well as murder, six others.”
The violent abduction and disappearance of students, young man in teacher’s college in the rural town of Ayotzinapa, and a subsequent cover-up, which the committee confirmed extended to some of the nation’s highest-ranking institutions, has long been a source of national outrage, underscoring the destruction Cartel-fueled surveillance and hidden state corruption continue to pervade the country.
“What’s really important is that the government has put too much emphasis on this case because it’s so complicated; Maureen Meyer, vice president of programs for the Washington Office for Latin America, a research organization.
“But it’s important that the government also focuses on addressing the tens of thousands of other disappearances that have occurred across the country and ending the punishment that continues to help fuel these crimes.”
Digging into the student’s disappearance was a campaign promise by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who set up a truth commission to investigate the likely massacre and cover-up. as one of his first acts while in office.
Only rthree students have been identified. There was no indication that any other students were still alive, the investigation concluded. “All the testimonies and evidence prove that they were cunningly killed and disappeared,” Alejandro Encinas, the minister in charge of human rights, said at a press conference presenting the results.
The committee’s preliminary conclusion offers a faint hope that the country may be getting closer to solving a gruesome crime that has rocked the nation, even as doubts remain about the lack of progress. Meaning: To date, there have been no convictions related to the student’s disappearance. .
Mr. Encinas revealed that the government had issued arrest warrants for 33 former officials involved in the case, but he declined to name them, saying the investigation was underway.
On the night they disappeared, the students rode a number of buses – a tradition adopted by local bus companies – to ferry their friends to a rally in Mexico City in memory of a Another student tragedy: the 1968 Taltelolco massacre, when dozens of protesters were shot down by government forces.
But shortly after catching a bus in the town of Iguala in the state of Guerrero, south of Mexico City, the students were stopped by city police and other gunmen, forced them to get off the bus, and shot some of them. them and bring the rest into the house. night. After that, little is known about what happened.
Around 10:45 p.m. that evening, “after acts of violence and arrests, orders for the disappearance of the students were ordered,” the committee’s report said, without saying who gave the order.
Although law enforcement is known to be involved in the student’s disappearance, a local drug gang known as the Guerreros Unidos was also a major factor in the disappearance, according to authorities. with “a large number of sicarios” aka active assassins “with the support of various city police and state agents.”
The government also confirmed that a military informant was included among the students when they disappeared, meaning authorities had been monitoring their movements long before the attack. , which the local media had previously reported. That raises the possibility that the military knew at the time that something terrible had happened.
However, the military commander “didn’t take any action” to find the informant, who is still among the 43 missing students, Encinas said.
The military’s implications of the students’ disappearance, which human rights groups have long accused, come at a delicate time for López Obrador, who has placed more power in the hands of the military.
The president has deployed regular troops across the country to perform law enforcement functions, and he established the 100,000-strong National Guard, which is technically a civilian force. was included in the Ministry of Defense.
The military has also been deployed for a growing number of government missions, including building Mexico City’s new airport, building a cruise ship in the south of the country, and vaccinating in coronavirus pandemic.
The truth commission’s findings underscore the role the previous administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto played in trying to conceal the truth about the student’s disappearance and government involvement.
“This is a difficult case to deal with because of obstruction of justice and tampering of witnesses and evidence that occurred under the previous administration,” Ms. Meyer said. “This government is telling the public, through this committee, that the case may never be resolved.”
In 2015, after a few months of investigation, the Mexican attorney general reported that the students were arrested by city authorities on the orders of a local gang, then killed them and burned their bodies in a landfill.
But that conclusion has been mostly opposed by international experts, who have found many contradictions in the official conclusions.
On Thursday, Mr. Encinas doubled down on that criticism: That investigation “was a concerted act by an organized power apparatus from the highest levels of government that obscured the truth.”
Maria Abi-Habib contribution report.
