Mexico opens 11 lines of investigation to solve the Ayotzinapa case

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Five years after the enforced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students , their parents and their legal representatives consider that we're closer to learning the truth , although this doesn't imply that those responsible are going to be punished .

They have hope they will find the exact location of the 43 students, nevertheless, the release of 77 suspects make it seem like obtaining justice will be complicated.

The investigation launched by the Commission for the Truth and Access to Justice for the Ayotzinapa Case, led by Alejandro Encinas , has given hope to the victims' parents .

During today' news conference, Alejandro Encinas announced that the Ayotzinapa case has been classified as an enforced disappearance perpetrated by government officials . He also announced that the government is offering MXN $1,500,000 in exchange for information about the case.

Sources

with knowledge of the investigation told EL UNIVERSAL that the investigations carried out by the commission suggest that the students could be in locations such as Iguala , Huitzuco, Tepecoacuilco, Mezcala, and Carrizalillo but the information has to be ratified.

Moreover, there are around 10 other investigation lines being analyzed by the commission . These theories include the municipal police in Huitzuco , the omissions made by the Federal Police , the participation of state and prosecutor police in Guerrero , the responsibility of former Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre and the army, and drug trafficking from Iguala to Chicago , led by cartel Guerreros Unido s.

Santiago Aguirre

, director of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights (Centro Prodh), recognized the work the commission has done in the last 9 months but emphasized that it will need the support of other institutions to solve the case:

“We are almost reaching the 5th anniversary with a new commission that gives hope but at the same time, there are setbacks that show that not all the institutions have aligned themselves with this effort to find justice and truth in the case.”

Furthermore, Aguirre said that “we're closer to learning the truth than before, every time is harder to overcome the legal consequences of a failed investigation but I also believe that it's still time to punish those responsible, as well as those who hindered the investigation.”

Aguirre said that the Attorney General's Office is in charge of preventing that those responsible are freed from jail, handling the processes, arrest the suspects , and find witnesses but until now, their reaction has been tardy .

On the other hand, the victims' parents insist that former high-ranking officials w ho were involved in the crime and hindered the investigations should be punished.

Will former officials be held accountable?

The victims' parents have said that J esús Murillo Karam and Tomás Zerón de Lucio should be prosecuted.

Another request made by the parents is to no longer dismiss the findings of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) , who debunked the so-called historical truth presented by Murillo Karam and Zerón.

The families said that the Peña Nieto administration only spread lies and now they are demanding President López Obrador a more speedy development in the investigations after five years of waiting.

“We hope that they follow the lines of investigation opened by the independent experts , that they investigate the suspects who are being investigated because they can provide a lot of evidence of the location of our children, we don't get anything from sending a lot of people to jail , the only thing we want is to know where are they,” said Hilda Hernández Rivera, César Manuel González Hernández's mother.

Meanwhile, the families' lawyer, Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, praised the fact that this administration has vowed to investigate f ormer federal officials , nevertheless, he criticized its tardiness .

Ayotzinapa: an open wound

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