Ayotzinapa investigation would be being obstructed by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Army

First modification: 09/30/2022 – 04:33

The Mexican Army and the Prosecutor’s Office would be obstructing the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case, where 43 normalista students disappeared eight years ago. The complaint was filed by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, GIEI, of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR.

THE GIEI, which ends its work on September 30 and requested an extension to continue investigating, lamented the resignation of the special prosecutor in the case, Omar Gómez Trejo, who made the decision to withdraw after being cancelled, without prior notice from the Attorney General, 21 arrest warrants. Of these 16 were from the military.

The lawyer, Claudia Paz, who belongs to the GIEI, said that “it is not just her resignation, it is why she resigns, and it is due to undue interference in her work. And also to point out that not only he resigned, other prosecutors resigned, women, who also saw his independence and his professional actions trampled. So, under these conditions, it is definitely not possible to clarify a fact.”

The GIEI offered a press conference in which Ángela Buitrago also participated, denouncing that the Attorney General’s Office “has tried to stop the investigations, that orders have been given not to prosecute, even orders have been given not to go to hearings. ”.

Francisco Cox, from the GIEI, assured that “from the beginning, we observed and documented and pointed out in the report that is being made public today, report 3 of the GIEI, that there were initial obstacles,” he also accused the attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, of “break” the agreement with the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa Case (UEILCA), in force since 2019.

The Government’s Truth Commission recognized this August 18 that the disappearance of the 43 was a “state crime”, in which the military, police and civil authorities participated and would have helped with the cover-up.

The Commission considers the disappeared students dead. In March, the GIEI had revealed an investigation in which it accused the Army of intercepting the relatives of the victims, the Guerreros Unidos cartel and the authorities, while the crimes were taking place.

The GIEI also recognized that despite the efforts of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to order the review of files from the Secretary of National Defense and the Secretary of the Navy, the Armed Forces have shown resistance.

Buitrago made it clear that “the answers they give us to the GIEI is that there is no possibility of monitoring and interceptions, and they deny that they have done it, the Army in particular.”

According to Paz, the interceptions by the Army “show a close relationship between the criminal organization (Guerreros Unidos) and the military, with specific mentions of people who have already been consigned and others. The Navy is also mentioned, which should be investigated.”

Alive they took them, alive we want them

The GIEI categorically rejects the version of the “historical truth” made by former President Enrique Peña Nieta, who said that corrupt policemen detained the students and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, who were in charge of murdering and incinerating them.

The Truth Commission in its report states that it was impossible for them to have been burned in a garbage dump as the “historical truth” says and that it is possible that several of the students had been alive several days after their disappearance.

with EFE