Mexico’s Ex-Attorney General Arrested in 2014 Missing Students Case

By Staff, Agencies

Mexican officials have arrested a former attorney general suspected of involvement in the disappearance of 43 schoolchildren in 2014, the most prominent person to be arrested in the controversial case in recent years.

Jesus Murillo was arrested on Friday at his home in Mexico City on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in the abduction and disappearance of the student-teachers in the southwest state of Guerrero on September 26, 2014.

Murillo will be moved to a jail in Mexico City after being transferred to the attorney general's office, officials said.

Hours after the arrest, a judge issued 83 arrest warrants for some soldiers, police, Guerrero officials and gang members in connection with the case, the attorney general's office said.

During his 2012-2015 term under then-President Enrique Pena Nieto, Murillo was in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College.

International experts said the official investigation was riddled with mistakes and torture and harassment of witnesses.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who took office in 2018 promised to shed light on the various angles of the incident and uncover the truth.

Lopez Obrador's government has been trying since 2020 to arrest another former top official, Tomas Zeron, and asked the "Israeli" entity last year to extradite him.

When asked about the government's move to scrutinize past investigations, Murillo said he was happy and open to questioning, local media reported in 2020.

The attorney general's office said Murillo is expected to cooperate with judicial authorities "without resistance."

The arrest comes a day after Alejandro Encinas, Mexico's top human rights official, called the disappearances a "state crime" involving local, state and federal authorities.

He said that the highest levels of Peña Nieto's administration are involved in the case and have kept it a secret until today.

Murillo took over the Ayotzinapa case in 2014, calling the government's findings "historical truth."

The 43 students went missing after corrupt police officers allegedly arrested them on their way to attend a demonstration in the southwestern city of Iguala.

According to that account, a local drug gang mistook the students for members of a rival gang, killed them, burned their bodies in a dumpster, and dumped their remains in a river.

The government has so far failed to determine the fate of the missing students.

Rights groups have slammed the Mexican government for its mishandling of the incident, describing it as a “stain” on its human rights record.

The Mexican government has displayed a “reckless approach to human rights,” Amnesty International said in a statement released in September 2016.

The allegations of police complicity in the incident have led to mass protests throughout the country.