Justice for the emblematic Ayotzinapa crime in Mexico in a race against time
Justice remains slow to address the question of the 43 missing persons
Originally published on Global Voices
Image by Artefacto, used with permission.
Story written by Roberto Diaz in Artefacto, republished and edited by Global Voices under a media agreement.
September 26 marked 10 years since the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ School, in the Ayotzinapa municipality in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. A decade of investigations searching for the final whereabouts of the remains belonging to the 43 students continues. They had been arrested by members of the Iguala police by the command of former mayor, José Luís Abarca, and subsequently handed over to the Guerreros Unidos Cartel, which, with the support of the Mexican army, kidnapped and forcibly disappeared them.
The parents of the 43 students created a social movement that reached former president Enrique Peña Nieto, infamously known for his corrupt administration. The latter assigned the Attorney General of the Republic, Jesús Murillo Karam, who was arrested in 2022, for creating a narrative known as “La Verdad Histórica” (“The historical truth”): an “official” version of the Iguala events that did not involve the participation of the army and sought to defame the students. This story was crafted through false confessions extracted under torture by the former head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, Tomás Zerón, who is now in asylum in Israel.
In 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) became president, and committed to delivering justice for this crime, to which end he created the “Comisión para la Verdad y Acceso a la Justicia del Caso Ayotzinapa” (“Truth and Access to Justice Commission for the Ayotzinapa Case”), led by Undersecretary of Human Rights Alejandro Encinas. In 2022, a first report was released, confirming the involvement of the Mexican army in the disappearance of the 43 students; more shockingly it revealed that an undercover soldier who was among the group of students also went missing that night. And the army knew about it and did nothing to find him.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) experts suggested that the students were likely kidnapped due to the presence of drugs in one of the buses they were traveling in, without their knowledge. Investigations have also revealed connections between a local cartel and government officials in the state of Guerrero at the time.
A race against time
In this state crime, there are three fronts: the judicial, the military, and the criminal, the latter associated with the cartel. In the case of the judicial front, 132 people have been arrested: 71 police officers and 41 members of Guerreros Unidos. However, the negligence and incompetence of the judiciary, which exonerated some of those involved, makes it impossible to locate the remains of the students.
On September 6, the Mexican Prosecutor's Office surprised the public by arresting Gildardo “El Gil” López, a protected witness who had until then been cooperating with the investigation.
It is also worth noting that, in AMLO's view, if the president requested information, the army would cooperate. In practice, it turned out to be more complicated: the army only agreed to disclose information — 800 files are still missing — that would not implicate high-ranking officials involved in the state crime.
A column by reporter Peniley Ramírez in September 2022 revealed sensitive information that compromised ongoing lines of investigation around the case. In particular, she published a series of WhatsApp messages between members of Guerreros Unidos, confirming that the narcotraffickers murdered and dismembered the students, divided their remains among different groups, and buried them.
However, in September 30, 2014, six students were still alive, held in custody by the Mexican army in a warehouse in the state of Guerrero, where they were later executed by the military. To reinforce the “historical truth,” the bodies of the students were exhumed, their remains scattered, and then moved to the 27th Infantry Battalion Military Base in Iguala.
While there have been advances in the case, they have not been sufficient to bring to justice the judges, police officers, generals, and secretaries involved. The parents of the students share this view and have distanced themselves from AMLO. In March of 2024, a group of students knocked down the door of the National Palace to hold a meeting with the president. They were contained by the police force.
In the latest twist, the Mexican government is requesting the extradition of José Ulises Bernabé, a judge who was stationed at the municipal police base in Iguala, Guerrero, whose testimony could allow the investigation of 15 military officers. He is currently in asylum in the United States.
Lastly, the front linked to organized crime cannot be overlooked. The average life expectancy of a hitman is short, so many of those involved in the disappearance will eventually perish in shootouts between cartels and with the Mexican army. Thus, Ayotzinapa becomes a race against time, ultimately revealing the colossal nature of corruption in Mexico.