Mexico Missing Students: Wanted Former Official Still Remains At Large After 8 Years

Marking the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in 2014, the infamous case has now been recently revived with new information. The missing persons case that has gone cold has allegedly pointed in the direction of negligence at the hands of Mexican authorities.

According to Al Jazeera, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador formed a truth commission, releasing a report back in August which disclosed an operation that targeted the 43 teacher-trainees. The report labeled the attack as one of Mexico’s most infamous human rights atrocities over the past 40 years.

It was an alleged “state crime” which saw the participation and negligence of federal and state officials, alongside the army in the attack against the students. Two reports were published, one from the commission, and the other from international experts sponsored by Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Both point fingers at the Army, which was a supposed ally of the current Mexican President since he took office in 2018.

The facts of the report said that state officials colluded with the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel in the attack, which occurred in Iguala City. The Truth Commission pointed out that the students were being closely monitored prior to their disappearance by police and soldiers just as they left the college and during the fateful incident, failing to intervene in the attack. They concluded that there is little to no chance the missing students are still alive, though their whereabouts remain unknown.

Vidulfo Rosales, a lawyer for the student’s families commented that they know little about what occurred that day apart from the report provided by the Commission. Rosales remarked that the disappearance was a large-scale operation in which authorities were involved.

More than 80 arrest warrants were issued following the release of the report. Charges of torture and forced disappearance were placed on former attorney-general Jesús Murillo Karam in connection with the students’ disappearance but he has denied all charges placed against him.

A key official in the investigation is wanted for his abuses within the case. Tomas Zeron de Lucio, former director of Mexico’s Criminal Investigation Agency still remains at large, accused of torture and tampering with evidence in the disappearance of the 43 students. Zeron is also accused of embezzlement of state funds in another case which amounted to $50 million.