Image: The New York Times
An independent detailed investigation into the disappearance of 43 Mexican students that took place nearly a year ago has ‘rejected’ the government’s account of events.
The government investigation said the bodies were burned at a rubbish dump hours after the students went missing. However, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says it has found no evidence to support claims that the bodies were incinerated. The Mexican government has now ordered a new investigation.
Shortly after the IACHR report was published, Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez stated that a new forensic team would return to the area where the bodies were supposed to have been burned. Relatives have always rejected the official investigation. They accused the authorities of covering up the alleged involvement of high-ranking officials and possibly the army in the killings.
The case shocked Mexico and led to weeks of protests against official impunity and the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The report also confirms what many people have believed for a long time – that the government’s investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students was deeply flawed. The families of the missing disagreed from the start with the government’s version of events – now they’ve been vindicated.
However, there still remains a lot unknown – the report doesn’t explain what happened to the students and only suggests possible motives.
But what is clear is that the government needs to step up its efforts to get to the bottom of what actually happened. President Enrique Pena Nieto has been hugely criticised for his handling of this case – this report will heap yet more pressure on him.
After a six-month investigation, the Washington-based IACHR released a report of nearly 500 pages urging the government to continue looking for the missing students. A fire expert from Peru hired by the commission concluded that ‘it was impossible for all the bodies to have been burned at the landfill site in the municipality of Cocula, in the western state of Guerrero.’
The original probe said the trainee teachers were rounded up by corrupt policemen after travelling to the city of Iguala on 26 September and taking part in a protest over job discrimination. According to the original inquiry that has have happened, forensic experts managed to retrieve there a fragment of a bone, which was identified as that of one of the missing students after DNA tests in Austria.
