Mexican Court Orders Missing 43 Students Case Re-opened

Mexico court orders new probe into massacre of students
AFP

A Mexican federal court ordered the re-opening of an investigation into the forced disappearances of 43 students from the rural community of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.

The First Collegiate Tribunal from the 19th Circuit in Tamaulipas ruled there were enough indications to assume that the confessions in the case were obtained through torture, Mexico’s Animal Politico reported. The ruling found the investigations carried out by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office were not prompt, effective, independent, or impartial.

The ruling calls for the work to be done by independent experts to meet international standards and the creation of a “Truth Commission.”

The harsh ruling is the most recent issue to rock the Mexican government since 43 students from the rural community of Ayotzinapa were kidnapped by authorities and never heard from again in 2014. The students hijacked a number of buses to make their way to a protest in the town of Iguala, Guerrero. En route, the students were taken by police forces and are still missing.

As Breitbart Texas reported at the time, the Mexican government initially claimed the students were taken by local police and then turned over to cartel gunmen for execution and incineration at a local landfill. That version of events was almost immediately refuted by outside investigators and the parents of the students who claimed the evidence at the landfill did not match the government’s version of events. 

In 2015, a team of international forensic investigators traveled to Guerrero at the request of Mexico’s PGR to carry out their own research in the case–but soon after accused the Mexican government of manipulating the evidence to push their version of events, Breitbart Texas reported at the time. 

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.

Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.