Expert Group Warns of Crisis in Mexico Missing Students Case

A team of international investigators looking into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students in southern Mexico issued a warning on Monday that an effort by the government to hasten the results has put the inquiry in "crisis" and threatens to erode public trust in the outcome.

The special prosecutor who had been in charge of the government's probe January 2019 quit in September due to what appeared to be interference from the attorney general, and the government then appointed a replacement who was unfamiliar with the case at a critical point. The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts claims that a government Truth Commission report from August muddied the waters by using questionable screenshots of chat exchanges as proof.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights established the team to look into the kidnapping and forced disappearance of students from the teachers' college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.

The experts stated in their statement that "losing the current capacity (of the seasoned prosecutor and others working with him) in such a crucial moment is a severe danger for the case and would have adverse consequences."

In Iguala, Guerrero, on September 26, 2014, local police removed the students from buses they had seized. Eight years later, the reason for the police action is still unknown, but investigators think drug trafficking was at least somewhat responsible.

The pupils' bodies have never been discovered, although three of the students' charred bone fragments have been identified.

The group of experts claimed that a forensic examination of screen shots of messages purportedly exchanged between parties involved in the students' kidnapping and disappearance could not be certified as legitimate and revealed a number of discrepancies.

Nevertheless, even in the absence of these messages, the experts insisted that there was still proof that several military personnel were closely monitoring the events of that evening but did not act to protect the students or even one of them who had infiltrated the school known for its left-wing activism.

In-depth communication between military personnel and Guerreros Unidos, the gang that allegedly received the students after they were taken into custody by the police, has also been revealed via phone intercepts that are part of a drug trafficking case in Chicago.

The experts claimed that they had once more requested that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador order the military to turn over all of its relevant case files, including any phone intercepts they claim to have from the time of the kidnappings. They also emphasised how crucial it is to keep the special prosecutor's independence.

Leonardo Octavio Vázquez Pérez, who was in charge of state security in Guerrero at the time of the students' kidnapping, was detained, according to a government announcement made on Sunday. A former police officer from Huitzuco, a town near Iguala, was arrested last week for his alleged involvement.

The group's mandate was due to end on Monday, but the experts said that they had suggested to the authorities that two of the group's members stay on for at least an additional two months as a temporary measure.

They claimed there was enough evidence to proceed with the prosecutions of 21 people — including 16 military personnel — for whom the Attorney General's Office had previously withdrawn arrest requests, and that they were already exchanging information with the new special prosecutor assigned to the case.

The type of nation that will be left to future generations is at stake, it added, adding that Mexico's system of inquiry and impunity needs to change.