Two Mexican federal police officers allegedly participated in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, the National Human Rights Commission said on Thursday, implicating national agents in the case for the first time.
MEXICO CITY: Two Mexican federal police officers allegedly
participated in the disappearance of 43 students, the National Human
Rights Commission said on Thursday, implicating national agents in the
2014 case for the first time.
The announcement adds a new twist to a probe that has come
under fire from international human rights groups and independent
investigators.
Jose Larrieta Carrasco, a commission official investigating
the case, said the authorities should now look into a "new route in the
disappearance" of the students. The attorney general's office said it
would look into this "line of investigation" following the commission's
announcement.
Prosecutors have already charged municipal police officers in
connection with the mass abduction in the southern city of Iguala on
September 26-27, 2014.
But the governmental rights commission said it found an
eyewitness who saw two federal agents near Iguala's courthouse, where
municipal officers had stopped a bus carrying 15 to 20 students.
The commission also said another local police department,
from the town of Huitzuco, had a previously unknown role in the
disappearance.
The bus was one of five that around 100 students had seized
that night to use for a future protest. Iguala police officers opened
fire on the buses before the students disappeared.
The commission said the police fired on the tyres of the bus
that stopped near the courthouse, prompting the students to toss rocks
at the police. The officers bundled the students into several patrol
vehicles, including three from Huitzuco.
When the federal officers arrived, they asked what was going
on. An Iguala officer said the students would be sent to Huitzuco,
where "the boss" - possibly a drug cartel member - would "decide what to
do with them," the commission said.
The federal officers responded, "Ah, ok, that's good," and
allowed the local police to take the students away. This would be a new
location in the twisting saga, as authorities have maintained that
suspects told investigators that the students were killed in the nearby
town of Cocula.
The commission said there was enough evidence to "presume
the participation of members of the Huitzuco municipal police and two
federal police officers" in the disappearance, adding that it has the
name of one of the two federal agents, which it gave to prosecutors.
The commission also said a soldier on a motorcycle took pictures of
the incident and then left. Families of the victims have called for an
investigation into whether the military had a role in the case, but the
army denies any wrongdoing.
INVESTIGATION QUESTIONED
The attorney general's office said it was providing protection to the
eyewitness cited by the commission as well as the person's family.
Prosecutors declared last year that police officers from
Iguala and the neighbouring town of Cocula abducted the students and
delivered them to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. The gang then killed
the students, incinerated their bodies at a garbage dump in Cocula and
dropped the remains in a nearby river.
But experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights who conducted an independent investigation said there was no
scientific evidence the 43 students were incinerated at the dump.
The case has provided the biggest challenge of President
Enrique Pena Nieto's administration, prompting protests and causing his
approval rating to drop.
- AFP/de
Post a Comment