IACHR insists that Mexico break “the pact of silence” that prevents resolving the Ayotzinapa case

This is how the IACHR commissioner for Mexico, Esmeralda Arosemena, expressed herself during a hearing of the organization in Washington where the relatives of the young people denounced that the investigation by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador “is going downhill” due to pressure from the Army.

“There is a pact of silence that has not allowed the Ayotzinapa case to develop to reach the truth and bring those responsible to justice even though the people have been identified,” Arosemena lamented.

The commissioner stressed that the resolution of the case requires an “express will” and “clear information,” and expressed the IACHR’s commitment to “accompany” the families and the State until the events that occurred nine years ago are fully clarified. years.

According to the discredited version of the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), known as “historical truth”, the 43 students from Ayotzinapa (Guerrero) were arrested in September 2014 by corrupt police linked to organized crime who murdered and incinerated them. in a garbage dump.

In 2018, López Obrador reopened the investigations and ordered the capture of soldiers linked to the case. But according to the families, the lack of will of the Government and pressure from the Army have prevented new progress and have led to the resignation of the special prosecutor in the Omar Gómez Trejo case and the departure of the IACHR experts from the country.

“Politicization of Justice in Mexico”

During the hearing this Wednesday, the families’ lawyer Santiago Aguirre, from the Prodh Center, denounced that the López Obrador Government has “dismantled” the Truth Commission and the special prosecutor’s office that were created to resolve the case and that the progress have been “truncated”.

He criticized the “tremendous politicization of justice in Mexico” and the “unprecedented empowerment of the Army.” In addition, he expressed concern about the investigations into the former prosecutor Gómez Trejo and the also resigned Undersecretary of Human Rights Alejandro Encinas, who tried to resolve the case.

Lawyer Vidulfo Rosales also lamented that “the investigation is going downhill and in clear decline,” while Mario González, father of student César Manuel González, said that the family members are “angry, disappointed, annoyed and angry.”

Representing the Mexican State, the Mexican ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Luz Elena Baños, responded that López Obrador “has clearly expressed his commitment to continue with the search and investigation actions.”

He also claimed that the current Government classified the case as a “state crime”, that there are 124 people detained for the disappearance of the 43 students and that the officials of Peña Nieto’s Executive who designed the “historical truth” to close the investigations.

Both the IACHR and the families regretted the absence of the authorities investigating the case despite having been invited to the hearing.