Experts make 20 recommendations about Ayotzinapa case

The members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI for its Spanish acronym) made 20 recommendations to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) about the investigation on the Ayotzinapa case.

The group recommended to conduct a comprehensive investigation, fully identify the fifth bus taken by the students, change the narrative of the case known as the "historical truth" and obtain the missing testimonies, such as those of Guerrero authorities on duty on September 26 and 27, 2014, the director and deputy director of Huitzuco police and the 27th Military Battalion.

A few hours before concluding their second mandate, the experts met with the team responsible for the case and Attorney General Arely Gómez.

In a statement the experts recommended to combine the different investigations into one in order to avoid fragmentation and to investigate other human rights violations surrounding the case, such as disappearances, killings, attempted homicide, concealment, obstruction of justice, abuse of authority, torture, excessive use of force, injuries and threats suffered by the surviving students.

They said that the results of the autopsy of Julio César Mondragón should also be included in the case, as well as the statements of the relatives of the members of Los Avispones soccer team, that were also attacked while they traveled in a bus, and the phone calls made between attackers and authorities on that date.

They also recommended analyzing the ballistics evidence from Santa Teresa and Juan N. Álvarez and comparing it with the weapons assigned to the Municipal Police of Cocula and Huitzuco, state and federal police forces as there is evidence of a possible involvement of some of its members in the violent events that night.

The team also said that authorities need to clarify why the Assistant Attorney General's Office for Special Investigations on Organized Crime (SEIDO) returned to Cocula on November 15, 2014, when 42 bullet shells were allegedly collected from ​​the dump even though the site had been inspected before and why the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team was not notified about this.

They also recommended to investigate  all the officials who obstructed the investigation of the case as well as the presence of clandestine laboratories in the area, as well as the routes used to smuggle heroin into the United States, the means of transport used and the owners shareholders and partners of these transportation companies.