March-rally, 5 February 2015 in Chilpancingo. Photo @SIPAZ
The parents of the 43 students forcibly disappeared in Iguala confirmed their trust in the team from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which at the beginning of this month started to review the evidence on the happenings of 26 September 2014. Felipe de la Cruz, spokesperson for the parents of the disappeared, said that the arrival of the independent specialists represents an advance, given that it provides hope that truthful results will result from the investigations that they plan to undertake, “rather than a theater put on by the Federal Attorney General’s Office [PGR].” He added that it is hoped that the PGR will come to an agreement regarding the inspection of military barracks on the part of the parents, as they have been told that the conditions are not appropriate at this time. The parents want to know that they are not just going in circles. Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, their lawyer, has specified that the IACHR specialists are not those in charge of carrying out the investigation, but rather that they will review what has occurred so far within the ongoing investigation so as to make recommendations when irregularities are found.
In recent days, relatives of Julio César Mondragón Fontes, the student who was murdered and defigured, rejected the conclusions made by the PGR that accuse the Iguala municipal police officer Luis Francisco Martínez Díaz as responsible for the murder. The relatives noted that after five months without the minimum of attention dedicated to clarifying the torture and execution of Julio César, “now the PGR seeks to close the case with a summary media action, thus leaving unresolved one of the very ‘reasons for which the Ayotzinapa case cannot be closed.'” Beyond this, they demanded that the torture and extrajudicial execution of the youth be investigated as a murder. They have demanded that the investigation be serious, profound, and based in science. In a communique released on 4 March, the family denounces that the case has been investigated using two lines directed by Chilpancingo: murder and organized crime. “This makes no sense, given that it was torture and an extrajudicial execution.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Llegada del grupo de CIDH, un “avance”, afirman familiares (Milenio, 6 de marzo de 2015)
Expertos de la CIDH se reúnen con autoridades encargadas de la investigación de Ayotzinapa (SIDIDH, 5 de marzo de 2015)
Familiares de normalista exigen a Arely Gómez que retome el caso (La Jornada, 5 de marzo de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Guerrero: Investigation “based in scientific proof” requested in the Ayotzinapa case (1 March 2015)
Guerrero: Amnesty International accuses PGR of failure to investigate participation of the Army in the Ayotzinapa case (5 February 2015)
Guerrero: further update in the Ayotzinapa case (29 December 2014)
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