Prosecutors also announced they had issued arrest warrants in the case against 20 military officers, five local officials, 33 local police and 11 state police, as well as 14 gang members. The roundup included the first arrest of a former attorney general in recent history, and one of the largest mass arrests ever by civilian prosecutors of Mexican military soldiers. Portraits of some of the 43 missing teacher training college students are placed on the floor outside the Mexican Embassy in 2014. REUTERS Mothers and fathers of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, hold a rally in Mexico City September 26, 2021.ZUMAPRESS .com Jesus Murillo Karam served as Attorney General from 2012 to 2015, under then-president Enrique Peña Nieto. The office of the current Attorney General, Alejandro Gertz Manero, said Murillo Karam was charged with torture, official misconduct and enforced disappearance. In 2020, Gertz Manero said that Murillo Karam had been involved in “orchestrating a massive media stunt” and leading a “generalized cover-up” in the case. The arrest came a day after a commission set up to determine what happened said the military bore at least partial responsibility for the case. He said a soldier had infiltrated the student group involved and the military did not stop the kidnappings despite knowing what was going on. Corrupt local police, other security forces and members of a drug gang kidnapped the students in the town of Iguala in Guerrero state, although the motive remains unclear eight years later. Their bodies were never found, although burned bone fragments have been matched to three of the students. A woman holds a banner that reads in Spanish “We’re missing 43,” referring to the 43 missing students during a march in Mexico City, November 26, 2015. AP Murillo Karam, under pressure to quickly solve the case, announced in 2014 that the students were killed and their bodies burned in a dump by members of a drug gang. He called this hypothesis “the historical truth”. But the investigation involved cases of torture, improper arrest and mishandling of evidence that have since allowed most of the gang members directly involved to go free. The incident happened near a major military base and independent investigations found that members of the military knew what was going on. The families of the students have long called for soldiers to be included in the investigation. On Thursday, the truth commission looking into the case said one of the abducted students was a soldier who had infiltrated the radical teachers’ college, but the army did not search for him despite having real-time information that the abduction was taking place. He said the inaction violates the military’s protocols for missing soldiers cases. The Defense Ministry has not responded to a request for comment. The soldiers and officers wanted on Friday’s warrants — and the other officials, police officers and gang members — face charges of murder, torture, official misconduct, criminal association and enforced disappearance It was not immediately clear if all the suspects were facing all charges or if the suspects were among dozens previously arrested and charged during previous investigations. Before reforms to Mexican law, the military had long been allowed to arraign soldiers accused of wrongdoing in separate military courts. But soldiers must now be tried in civilian courts if their offenses involve civilians. The soldiers charged served at the base near where the kidnapping took place in 2014. Students at several Mexican universities protest the 43 missing students in Mexico City on October 15, 2014. EPA The Institutional Revolutionary Party, to which both Murillo Karam and Peña Nieto belonged, wrote on its Twitter account that Murillo Karam’s arrest “is more a matter of politics than of justice. This action does not help the victims’ families get answers.” Mexican federal prosecutors previously issued arrest warrants for members of the military and federal police as well as Tomás Zeron, who at the time of the kidnapping was head of Mexico’s federal investigative agency, the Detective Service. Zeron is wanted on charges of torture and cover-up of enforced disappearances. He fled to Israel and Mexico asked the Israeli government for help in arresting him. Students and anarchists clash with police during a march in Mexico City demanding the safe return of 43 missing Ayutthaya students on November 20, 2014. Javier Vasquez / Demotix Gertz Manero said that in addition to Zeron’s alleged crimes connected to the case, he allegedly stole more than $44 million from the Attorney General’s budget. The motive for the students’ abduction remains a matter of debate. On September 26, 2014, local police from Iguala, members of organized crime and authorities kidnapped 43 students from buses. The students occasionally commandeered buses to transport them. A Guerrero police officer stands guard during a demonstration calling for justice for the 43 missing Ayutthaya teacher trainees in 2014. REUTERS Murillo Karam claimed the students were handed over to a drug gang that killed them, cremated their bodies in a dump in nearby Cocula and dumped the burnt bone fragments in a river. Subsequent investigations by independent experts and the Attorney General’s Office, and confirmed by the truth commission, rejected the idea that the bodies were incinerated at the Cocula landfill. There is no evidence that any of the students could still be alive.
