Although Mexican authorities officially acknowledged the death of 43 students who disappeared in 2014, the case of their death will not be closed, said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as he became known on Saturday night, August 20. According to Obrador, the country’s Attorney General will continue to investigate to find out the truth and bring those responsible to justice.

Former Mexican Attorney General Detained

Earlier, on August 19, police forces detained former Mexico Attorney General Jesús Murillo Carama, who led the first investigation after the kidnapping of students. He is suspected of involvement in the disappearance of persons, torture and crimes against the administration of justice.

An investigation led by Murillo found that students at Colegio Ayotzinapa were kidnapped on September 26, 2014 by corrupt police officers in the state of Guerrero, who turned them over to members of the Mexican drug cartel Guerreros Unidos, who believed the youths were relatives of members of a rival criminal group. After that, they would have been killed and their bodies burned in a landfill.

Subsequently, these findings of the investigation were questioned by independent experts. Witnesses in the case were also accused of being tortured. The families of the missing students believe that the justice authorities falsified the facts and misled the population.

Victims of “State Crime”

The day before, August 18, the so-called Truth and Access to Justice Commission in the case of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, created about four years ago, announced that there were no doubts about the deaths of young people. They were victims of a “crime of state”, said the deputy minister of the interior of Mexico for human rights, population and migration, Alejandro Encinas.

In March, it was reported that Mexican marines and military officials were also being investigated in connection with the case of missing students suspected of manipulating evidence, including those that led to the identification of several students whose bodies were allegedly burned in a landfill. .

A woman kicks a policeman’s shield during a protest on the 6th anniversary of the disappearance of students.

War on drug cartels

As a result of the so-called “war on drug cartels” that intensified in Mexico in 2006, when, in addition to the police, the military participated in armed operations against organized crime, tens of thousands of people were killed, injured or forced to leave their homes. houses.

There is no exact data on casualties, presumably in 2007-2018 alone, the war could have claimed the lives of around 115,000 people. After the current president López Obrador came to power, he declared an end to the war, but the level of violence and corruption in the country remains high, and large drug cartels manage to partially control some Mexican regions.