A truth commission investigating one of Mexico’s worst human rights tragedies said Thursday that military personnel were responsible, either directly or through negligence, for the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.
“Their actions, omissions or participation made possible the disappearance and execution of the students and the murder of six others,” said the head of the commission, Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas.
The apprentices had seized buses in the southern state of Guerrero to go to a demonstration before disappearing.
According to an official report presented in 2015 by the government of then-President Enrique Pena Nieto, they were arrested by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel.
The cartel mistook the students for members of a rival gang and killed them before cremating and disposing of their remains, the report said, which did not attribute responsibility to the military.
These conclusions have been contradicted by family members, independent experts and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Encinas said further investigation is needed to determine the extent of the involvement of Army and Navy personnel.
“An action of an institutional nature has not been proven, but there is clear responsibility by members” of the armed forces then stationed in the area, he said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in March that Navy personnel were being investigated for alleged tampering with evidence, specifically at a dump where human remains were found, including those of the only three students identified so far.
He dismissed an accusation by independent experts that Mexican authorities were withholding vital information about the case, shocking the country and drawing international condemnation.
#Truth #Commission #accuses #Mexican #military #missing #students
