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Mexico (AFP) – Mexican soldiers are responsible, for their actions or omissions, in the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa normal school in 2014, according to a report by a government commission released this Thursday.
“Their actions, omissions or participation allowed the disappearance and execution of the students, as well as the murder of six other people,” said Alejandro Encinas, Undersecretary of the Interior (Interior), when presenting the report in a public act.
“An action of an institutional nature was not proven, but there was clear responsibilities of elements” of the Secretaries of Defense and the Navy stationed in the area at the time of the events, added the head of the Ayotzinapa Truth Commission, who did not detail if those agents are still active.
Encinas clarified, however, that it is necessary to continue investigating the extent to which the military participated in what he once again classified as a “state crime.”
On March 29, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that members of the Navy were being investigated for allegedly having tampered with evidence during the first investigations, specifically in a garbage dump where human remains were found, including those of the only three students identified so far. .
“The instruction was given to investigate the Navy chiefs who participated in that operation and all those who participated have already declared before the Prosecutor’s Office,” said the leftist president, who created the commission to clarify the case.
infiltrated soldier
The disappearance of the 43 students occurred between the night of September 26 and the early morning of September 27, 2014, when they were on their way to the city of Iguala (state of Guerrero, south) to get hold of buses in which they intended to travel to Ciudad de Mexico to participate in some protests.
This episode constitutes one of the worst human rights violations in Mexico and generated strong international condemnation.
Encinas assured that the Army had even infiltrated a soldier in the school, who was reporting student activities and whose whereabouts have also been unknown since September 26, when he sent his last report.
“It is confirmed that the military commanders in the region did not take action to protect and search for the soldier,” he said.
About 20 people who gave information about the case have been killed since 2014, according to the document.
The responsibility of members of the Armed Forces was not included in the so-called “historical truth” proposed by the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).
According to that version, the young people were arrested and handed over by local police to drug traffickers from the Guerreros Unidos cartel when they were mistaken for members of an enemy gang.
After being shot, their remains were incinerated and thrown into the Cocula dump, according to the same thesis, rejected by relatives of the victims, the López Obrador government and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
no signs of life
As part of the investigations, the Peña Nieto government accepted the creation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) by agreement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
In its third report last March, this group denounced the manipulations in the garbage dump and accused the authorities of having hidden key information from the day the events occurred.
According to the GIEI, some institutions – which it did not identify – are reluctant to deliver the information necessary to advance the investigations, including intelligence data.
He also maintained that members of the Army followed the movements of the normalistas two days before their disappearance, so they knew “what was happening.” Despite this, these data were not delivered for the investigations.
Encinas reiterated what the GIEI said that there are no indications that the young people are alive, but pointed out that the 43 never got back together after leaving school and therefore the search for the remains should continue in other sites.
The report was presented this Thursday to López Obrador and relatives of the students, who are reluctant to admit that they are dead. It was a “very painful” meeting, Encinas said.
The undersecretary also said that the Prosecutor’s Office will determine the extent of the responsibilities, when questioned if they could reach Peña Nieto.
The highest level official who is wanted in this case is Tomás Zerón, who was head of the Criminal Investigation Agency and is accused of kidnapping, torture and manipulation of evidence.
Zerón, who alleges political persecution, is in Israel, where he has requested asylum, and Mexico manages his surrender based on a legal collaboration agreement.
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