'Ayotzinapa Case': Mexico investigates the sailors of the secret visit to the Cocula dump

The revelations of the last report of the group of experts of the IACHR on the

fishtail and point to the Armed Forces.

On Monday, the GIEI reported that agents from the Secretary of the Navy carried out a secret operation in October 2014, in one of the key places of the investigation at the time, the Cocula garbage dump.

The marines manipulated the dumpster scene.

The dependency never informed of the diligence, which does not appear in the file.

This Tuesday, the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has reported that the Prosecutor's Office is investigating the sailors involved.

At a press conference at the National Palace, the president explained that he had already seen the video that the group of experts presented yesterday, the edition of a two-hour recording taken by a Navy drone.

In the video, a group of 12 marines is seen in three trucks, taking things out of one, handling objects in the dump, even making a bonfire.

This visit took place on October 27, 2014, a month after the attack on normalista students in Iguala, a neighboring municipality of Cocula.

"The instruction was given to investigate the Navy chiefs who participated in that operation," said López Obrador, "especially the admiral responsible for the operation, I can't say more."

This Tuesday also, relatives of the 43 have appeared before the press in Mexico City to comment on the GIEI report and López Obrador's reaction this morning.

All have been very critical of the resistance of the Ministry of Defense to deliver information and the delay of the Navy in releasing the video.

"The Armed Forces have played dirty, their role has been unfortunate," said Vidulfo Rosales, his lawyer.

“The Army infiltrated the normal, followed the GIEI.

It has become clear that the Armed Forces have managed the information.

The question would be why, what are the reasons for denying the information, in the previous government and in this one”, he added.

GIE researchers during the III Report on the progress of the Ayotzinapa case.

Rodrigo Oropeza

By the time the video was recorded in October 2014, federal forces had launched a manhunt against Guerreros Unidos and their support networks in Guerrero.

At the end of the month, the authorities arrested several members and in November the former prosecutor summoned the press to divulge his theory, now outdated.

According to them, Guerreros Unidos had murdered the youths in the garbage dump and had burned their bodies.

The sailors who came in October 2014, it is now known, visited the area even before the prosecutor's experts.

The hunt ended badly.

Although dozens of arrests were made, many of the detainees were released because of the torture they had suffered in the process, either by members of the federal prosecutor's office or the Secretary of the Navy itself.

The same GIEI and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team also pointed out that the version of the garbage dump was not supported.

At the scene, they said, a bonfire of the size necessary to reduce 43 bodies to ashes had not been produced.

In the National Palace, López Obrador has been somewhat more elusive about the rest of the GIEI's findings, especially criticism of the Armed Forces for their resistance to providing information.

"All the information is being delivered, all the files have been opened and absolutely nothing is being hidden," he insisted.

Asked about the communications that the Army would have intercepted from the criminal network of Iguala, Cocula and the towns in the area, the president reiterated that "all the information from the Army has been made available."

That is the instruction and it is being fulfilled”.

The truth, however, is that the Army has hardly done much in this area.

Last October, the presidential commission that collaborates in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case disclosed two documents that proved the interception of communications to alleged members of Guerreros Unidos and municipal police in the area by the Army, at least since the day of the attack, the September 26, 2014. Despite this, the GIEI has not been able to obtain more evidence.

Parents of the 43 disappeared students in Ayotzinapa, participate during the III Report of the GIEI. Rodrigo Oropeza

The families of the 43 have harshly criticized the Armed Forces and López Obrador.

“They never listened to the president.

He should focus on the commitments that he has had with the people.

It is courageous that they have kept information”, criticized Emilio Navarrete, a relative of one of the 43.

“We are angry, because they saw our face.

The institutions played with us”, said Mario González, father of Cesar Manuel González Hernández, one of the 43 disappeared students.

They told us that all the information was going to be delivered.

They made us go to Battalion 27, knowing that we were not going to find anything.

They made us take a photo with the person in charge of the Ministry of Defense.

How not to be angry if after three years information comes out that should have come out before?

I am talking about these commanders who promised us to get to the truth, ”he added.

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