Disappearance of 43 Mexican students: President Obrador defends his government's investigation

Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday defended his government's investigation into the disappearance of 43 Mexican students in 2014 in the face of allegations of inconsistencies made by a group of independent experts.

, declared the president during a press conference.

The inconsistencies pointed out by the experts relate to WhatsApp messages that a government commission presented in August as evidence of collusion between the alleged perpetrators of the massacre, members of a cartel, and the local authorities during the disappearance of students from a normal school in Ayotzinapa (state of Guerrero, south), in September 2014.

The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), a body created in 2015 by an agreement between the Mexican government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to deal with this case, argued on Monday that it is impossible to guarantee the authenticity of these messages.

Read also43 missing students: “There is no justice in Mexico”

Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the work of Undersecretary for Human Rights Alejandro Encinas, who heads the government commission on Ayotzinapa and who, in a recent interview with The

, admitted

could not be verified.

,” assured the president.

The students disappeared on the night of September 26-27, 2014, as they attempted to board buses in Iguala (Guerrero, south) to travel to Mexico City to take part in protests.

They were arrested by police in collusion with drug traffickers from the Guerreros Unidos cartel, who allegedly took them for members of a rival gang and executed them, according to the official version at the time.

So far, only the remains of three victims have been identified.