Mexico: the former attorney general arrested for the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa

Mexican federal police officers guard the entrance to Mexico's attorney general's office, where Jesus Murillo was being held and heard by the courts in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, in Maxico, August 19, 2022. © Luis Cortes / Reuters

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3 mins

After a report by an official commission calling the case a " 

 ", Mexican justice on Friday August 19 arrested the country's former attorney general and ordered the arrest of 64 police and military personnel for the disappearance in 2014 of 43 students from the normal school of Ayotzinapa (south).

This is the most important personality arrested in the case, which started from scratch after the arrival to the presidency of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.

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On Friday evening, former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam was arrested at his home in Mexico City for " 

 ", and did not put up any resistance, said said the prosecution in a press release.

The latter later announced that arrest warrants had been issued against 20 army officials, 44 police officers and five civil servants for their alleged involvement

, which had caused deep shock in Mexico and abroad.

These 64 police officers and soldiers are wanted for “ 

 ”, specified the prosecution.

The identities and rank of those sought were not specified.

Former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam had served under President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and had led a controversial first investigation into these disappearances.

He is a former heavyweight of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who ruled Mexico for 71 years without interruption until 2000.

Investigation restarted from scratch under the presidency of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador

This is the most important personality arrested so far as part of these investigations, which had restarted from scratch

.

The prosecution has also issued arrest warrants against 14 members of the "Guerreros Unidos" drug trafficking cartel, who also participated in the massacre, according to the report released Thursday, August 18.

On the night of September 26-27, 2014, a group of students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training school in the southern state of Guerrero traveled to the nearby town of Iguala to " 

 ” buses in order to go to Mexico City for a demonstration.

According to the investigation,

local police in collusion with "Guerreros Unidos", then shot and burned in a dump for reasons that remain unclear.

Only

.

Falsification of evidence by the military

According to the commission, Mexican soldiers have a share of the responsibility: " 

 ", had declared the undersecretary to the Interior Alejandro Encinas, during the public presentation of the report.

Another commission, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which was created under an agreement between the Peña Nieto government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), maintains that soldiers falsified evidence found in the dump where the bodies were burned.

“ 

 ” and “ 

 ”, Andrés Lopez Obrador said on Friday.

He said he would insist on the extradition of the former head of the Attorney General's Office's Criminal Investigations Agency, Tomas Zeron, who fled to Israel.

(with AFP)

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• Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador