Arrest of Mexican Army General Ordered in Case of Missing Students
Mexican prosecutors have obtained a warrant for the arrests of an Army general and 15 other soldiers in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, a crime considered one of the worst atrocities in the country’s recent history.
The students are widely believed to have been massacred in Central Mexico after a night of violence in the town of Iguala, when police officers accused of working with the criminal cartel in the area forced them off buses, shot some of them and took the rest away. The authorities have only ever identified the remains of three students.
Investigations by the government’s truth commission into the case and a group of independent experts have said every level of government was involved, including the military, which they said had closely monitored the attack on the students in real time, but did not use that information to help locate them.
The general, Rafael Hernández Nieto, was accused of being involved in organized crime and the soldiers were accused of organized crime and forced disappearance, according to the judge’s order issuing the warrants, which was reviewed by The New York Times. A former judge, to whom some of the students were taken before reportedly being handed over to the cartel, was also accused of forced disappearance.
The development was a sign of some progress in the government’s investigation into the crime, which has suffered a series of setbacks and raised questions about President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s willingness to hold the army accountable for its alleged role.
Prosecutors first obtained arrest warrants for General Nieto and 19 other soldiers last August, but then, in an abrupt reversal, asked a judge to revoke most of them about three weeks later, citing “deficient evidence” in their own case. Four members of the military were arrested, including one general, but the rest remained free.
The lead prosecutor on the case quit soon after. Two of the four independent experts investigating the case also resigned. Mr. López Obrador defended the decision at the time, saying that “the investigation continues, and there is no impunity.”
César González, a lawyer representing the soldiers, said on Wednesday that the government’s case against his clients was weak, and criticized the attorney general for relying on the testimony of cartel members.
Source: The New York Times
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