A judge orders the release of eight soldiers related to the 'Ayotzinapa case'

A district judge of the State of Mexico has ordered the release of eight soldiers linked to the

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The soldiers were arrested in June 2023, after the Prosecutor's Office linked them to the disappearance of the 43 students in Iguala, Guerrero, in 2014. Gustavo Rodríguez de la Cruz, Omar Torres Marquillo, Juan Andrés Flores Lagunes, Ramiro Manzanares Sanabria, Roberto de los Santos Eduviges, Eloy Estrada Díaz, Uri Yashiel Reyes Lazos and Juan Sotelo Díaz will face the judicial process on conditional release.

Accused of forced disappearance, members of the Army must comply with a series of conditions to regain their freedom, such as the payment of a bail of 50,000 pesos, the periodic signing every 15 days before the court, the retention of their passport and the prohibition of approaching to witnesses and victims of the case, as well as avoiding going to the State of Guerrero.

The soldiers could leave this week from military camp number 1-A, where they remain prisoners.

In almost 10 years, the families of the 43 students have insisted that the Government investigate the role that members of the Army played in the hours after the disappearance of the young people.

The Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in the Ayotzinapa case (CoVAJ) has pointed in recent years to messages exchanged between the troops and members of the Guerrero Unidos cartel, for which the Prosecutor's Office has sought to decipher the role of the soldiers in Iguala and their relationship with the organized crime group.

The parents of the students have protested the lack of transparency and willingness of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) to explain the actions of the military.

The undersecretary of Human Rights and president of the CoVAJ, Arturo Medina Padilla, has shown in a statement his disagreement with the judge's decision to release the eight soldiers.

“Once again, members of the Judiciary resort to the so-called

procedure , without considering the rights of the victims, mothers and fathers of the missing young people in a matter that involves serious violations of human rights,” the statement says.

Medina Padilla has pointed out that in the new court order “these elements of the Armed Forces are not exonerated from the charges, who will continue to be subject to proceedings until the corresponding sentence is issued.”

In recent weeks, the families of the 43 students have suffered disagreements with the Administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Government offered the parents to open the files with evidence of the case for their eyes only, however, when the relatives requested the assistance of a group of experts commissioned to Mexico by the IACHR to review them, the Government refused.

Furthermore, a good part of the fissures between the current Government and the students' families lie in the need for the Mexican Army to deliver documents and evidence, which have been repeatedly denied by the Armed Forces.

A refusal that has been supported by López Obrador.

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