The IACHR accuses "serious interference" in the investigation of the 'Ayotzinapa case'

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called on the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to ensure the independence of the Special Unit for Investigation and Litigation of the Ayotzinapa case (UEILCA) to "redirect" the investigation.

This has been stated in the Third Report of the Follow-up Mechanism on the Ayotzinapa matter (MESA), presented this Tuesday at the Isidro Burgos normal school in Guerrero.

The person in charge of MESA, Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, has warned in an interview with this newspaper of an "interference" of the Executive in the judicial case and has requested measures so that the families of the students regain confidence in those who carry out the investigation.

For Arosemena de Troitiño, there were "serious interferences" in the work of the Public Ministry unit,

that led to the resignation of prosecutor Omar Gómez Trejo.

The IACHR has also indicated that, eight years after the disappearance of the 43, one of the greatest challenges continues to be the concealment of information by the Army.

Gómez Trejo was the one who was in charge of the UEILCA until last September.

The prosecutor in the

left his post after weeks of disagreements and clashes with the head of the Attorney General's Office (FGR), Alejandro Gertz Manero.

In mid-August, the unit handling the case requested 83 arrest warrants against those involved in the disappearance of the young people.

Shortly after, the FGR requested the cancellation of at least 21 of those arrest warrants, including 16 soldiers, who had been accused of organized crime.

The president himself justified Gertz's decision and assured that the accusations against the military sought to generate a "rebellion" in the Army.

Arosemena de Troitiño, who has welcomed the fact that the Mexican government recognizes Ayotzinapa as a State crime, when asked if the president covered up the military, has indicated that the classification that was given as "a matter of State" brought new dangers in terms of of judicial independence.

“That it is a matter of State means that the country recognizes the importance of an issue like this, but that cannot make it easier for the Executive or the Legislature to intervene in the justice system.

If the justice system is determining a matter, it must determine it based on evidentiary material.

That position [of the president] is interference, ”she has said.

“What the report asks today is that these advances that were very significant, that were achieved during this time,

Esmeralda Arosemena, during her visit to Mexico for the presentation of the Third Follow-up Report on the Ayotzinapa matter. Mónica González Islas

The IACHR welcomed the change in strategy taken by the López Obrador Administration upon coming to power and creating both the UEILCA and the presidential commission, and assured that they had a positive impact on the search for the truth.

But the international body points out that in recent weeks there have been complaints that the independence of these two instances created has been affected, so it asks to analyze the facts denounced and take "concrete measures to redirect the investigation."

Among the actions that the report indicates as acts that harmed independence and were considered "serious interferences" are precisely the cancellation of the 21 arrest warrants and the "worrying displacement" of the unit in the prosecution and detention of former attorney Jesús Murillo Karam, the architect of “historical truth”.

Regarding the accusations against the then Attorney General's Office, headed by Murillo Karam, the IACHR has considered that the location of the skeletal remains of two students in the Barranca de la Carnicería refuted this narrative and allowed new lines of investigation to be opened. the clarification of what happened.

“These findings constitute yet another piece of evidence that distorts and demonstrates the inconsistencies of the version released by the PGR in which the final destination of the normal school students would have been the Cocula garbage dump or the San Juan river.

Arosemena de Troitiño has also demanded that the ex-prosecutor in the case, Omar Gómez Trejo, be passed over and a person outside the file be named, such as the lawyer Rosendo Gómez Piedra, a man close to the Secretary of the Interior.

"It passes over the authority and that is why we point out a setback in independence," he said.

"Today the Prosecutor's Office has to show that it is acting independently, it has to show that it handles the case, that it knows about it, so as not to break with this process, that we do not want it to end with a decision that precisely reflects ignorance of the case or simply the impunity".

One of the biggest recent controversies in the investigation was the capture of a series of messages between alleged members of the Iguala criminal network, which were presented by the presidential commission, headed by Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas.

After they were disseminated, the GIEI discarded these tests because it was not "possible to guarantee the originality of the messages."

The commissioner has added this Tuesday that it was a hasty move by the Encinas commission and that it will be the UEILCA who must prove the veracity of these images.

Regarding the concealment of information, the commissioner recalls in the interview that she attended a meeting at the Defense Secretariat, where they were assured that the armed forces had "nothing to do" with the matter.

"The appearance and late delivery of a series of documents in the custody of military forces and state intelligence agencies is alarming," the report says.

The document, which contains recommendations to the Mexican State regarding forced disappearance, affirms that while the presidential commission and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), dependent on the IACHR, accessed Army documents, while the Prosecutor's Office they were denied or told they did not exist.

Eight years after the disappearance of the 43, the IACHR recognizes that the whereabouts of the young people, the clarification of what happened, and the determination of those responsible are still pending.

The Prosecutor's theory is that what happened on September 26 and 27, 2014 was the product of a dispute between Guerreros Unidos and another rival criminal organization.

While the Truth Commission handles the hypothesis, along the same lines as the previous one, that it was due to a specific shipment at stake.

The IACHR's theory tends more towards the former, and adds: "Pieces of evidence are observed that indicate that the students could have been deprived of their lives and their remains disappeared through cremation or by dissolving in acid."

In recent weeks, and given the various events in the case, the GIEI debated whether to extend its mandate until December or terminate its participation.

Of its members, Ángela Buitrago and Carlos Beristain decided to continue, while Francisco Cox and Claudia Paz decided to leave because there were no conditions to stay.

With only half the group, it then became a follow-up mechanism.

Asked about this, Arosemena de Troitiño downplayed the situation and evaded answering if they had received pressure from the Government.

"You had to come to an end point, because this has to end at some point," she explained.

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