Photo: @courtesy family album
On 4 November, the body of Julio César Mondragón, a student from the Ayotzinapa Teachers’ College who was tortured and executed on 26-27 September in Iguala, Guerrero, was exhumed to perform a new autopsy. The exhumation of the body was carried out by the Argentine Team for Forensic Anthropology (EAAF), being independent investigators contracted by the student’s family, as by personnel from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR). Members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) were present as observers, given that “in them we confide to carry out this task,” the family noted. Relatives and the collective recalled that the body of Julio César was found by soldiers on 27 September 2014 after making report to the Public Ministry in Iguala, and they were present during the recovery of the body. “The autopsy carried in Iguala was carried out without professionalism or any sense of rigor, concluding that Julio’s face was removed by local fauna. The authorities of Guerrero state ignored the clear indications of torture that his body presented,” the family has noted, having denounced that all investigations carried out by the State Attorney General’s Office of Guerrero have been full of mistakes, omissions, and failures.
The family expressed gratitude to all the organizations, collectives, journalists, activists, and civil society members throughout the world who have expressed their support, announcing the same day that the exhumation would be performed, the youth’s biography would also be published. “We want society to know the person who Julio was. We want to cleanse his name of all the lies that have been launched against him of late. We say it again: Julio is not the faceless youth. He is the student-teacher, the tireless worker, the loving husband, the committed father, the joyful son, the strong nephew, the rebellious friend, the brilliant grandson, and the helpful brother.”
For more information (in Spanish):
La exhumación de Julio Cesar Mondragón Fontes no fue iniciativa de ninguna instancia oficial: familiares (SIDIDH, 6 de noviembre de 2015)
Exhuman restos del normalista Julio César Mondragón (El Proceso, 4 de noviembre de 2015)
Exhuman el cuerpo del normalista Julio César Mondragón; lo revisarán forenses argentinos (Animal Político, 4 de noviembre de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
National: Mobilizations within and outside the country for the first anniversary of the forcible disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa (10 October 2015)
Chiapas: Actions for the one-year anniversary of the Ayotzinapa disappearances (8 October 2015)
Guerrero/National: “Fruitless” meeting between relatives of the disappeared from Ayotzinapa and EPN (8 October 2015)
Guerrero: Group of Experts on Ayotzinapa case presents its report 6 months on (13 September 2015)
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