Jesus Murillo was arrested at his home in Mexico City on charges of enforced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in the kidnapping and disappearance of the student-teachers in the southwestern state of Guerrero. The attorney general’s office also issued 83 more arrest warrants for soldiers, police, Guerrero officials and gang members in connection with the case. Murillo was attorney general from 2012 to 2015 under then-president Enrique Peña Nieto, during which he oversaw the much-criticized investigation into the September 26, 2014, disappearance of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College. The remains of only three students were found and identified, and the case has haunted Mexico ever since. Murillo announced in 2014 that the students were killed and burned in a dumpster by a drug gang, but the investigation allegedly used torture, improper arrest and mishandling of evidence, resulting in most of the suspects going free. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018 and promised to clarify what had happened. His government has sought to arrest another former top official, Tomas Zeron, since 2020, including asking Israel to extradite him last year. The attorney general’s office said Murillo cooperated “without resistance.” It comes a day after Mexico’s top human rights official, Alejandro Encinas, called the disappearance a “state crime” involving local, state and federal officials. “What happened? Enforced disappearance of the boys that night by government authorities and criminal groups,” Mr Encinas told a news conference. Mr. Encinas said the highest levels of Mr. Peña Nieto’s administration orchestrated the cover-up, including changing crime scenes and concealing ties between authorities and criminals. Murillo took over the case in 2014 and called the government’s findings “historical truth.” According to this version, a local drug gang bypassed the students with members of a rival gang before killing them, cremating their bodies in a landfill and then dumping the remains in a river. But a panel of international experts picked holes in the account, and the United Nations denounced arbitrary detention and torture during the investigation. The phrase “historical truth” has become synonymous with the perception of corruption and impunity under Mr. Peña Nieto. The lawyer for the parents of the Ayutthaya students, Vidulfo Rosales, called on the government to make more arrests. “There is still a lot to do before we can think that this case has been solved,” Mr. Rosales told Mexican television.
