On March 17th, three suspects involved in acts of torture against those accused of the case of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School who disappeared in Iguala in 2014 were arrested by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
According to different sources, “Isidro Junco Barajas, who currently served as Deputy Director of Operational Control of the Security Directorate of the Chamber of Deputies (…) Ezequiel Peña Cerda, now area director at the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) and the marine Ariel Agustín Castillo Reyes.”
In addition, “the former director of the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), Tomas Zeron de Lucio, and the ex-head of the Federal Ministerial Police, Carlos Gomez Arrieta, against whom the FGR would have requested the intervention of Interpol, are about to be arrested,” the newspaper Proceso reported.
Organizations accompanying the relatives of the disappeared students reported that they welcome and recognize “the first legal actions of the FGR against officials who committed torture and/or irregularities in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case, since they confirm what the families have always denounced: the manipulation of the investigation.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also ruled in this regard, stating that “it observes the development of the investigation in light of Mexico’s human rights obligations”, and hopes that the arrest warrants “against those who participated in acts of obstruction of justice in the enforced disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa are taken independently.”
For more information in Spanish:
La CIDH aplaude actuación de FGR en caso Ayotzinapa (El Proceso, 18 de marzo de 2020)
Detienen a marino por tortura en caso Ayotzinapa (El Debate, 18 de marzo de 2020)
Detienen a ex policías que torturaron a imputados por caso Ayotzinapa (La Jornada, 17 de marzo de 2020)
For more information from SIPAZ:
National/Guerrero: Meeting on New Evidence in Ayotzinapa Case (March 9, 2020)
Chiapas/Guerrero: Two Police Officers Held for Attacks on Parents of the Ayotzinapa 43 Disapeared; Investigation of Students who Participated in Protest Continue (February 26, 2020)
Chiapas/Guerrero: Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Attacked with Tear Gas in Tuxtla Gutierrez (February 17, 2020)
National/Guerrero: Agreement to Reintroduce Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case. Number of Disappeared Increases in the Country (January 14, 2020)
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