Alonso Urrutia and Emir Olivares
The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, July 26, 2024, p. 3
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the meeting he will hold next week with the parents of the 43 missing students. However, this Thursday, in response to the critical position of a sector of them, he uploaded on the official website of the Mexican Government a part of the file that he sent to the relatives in the first days of this month.
López Obrador reiterated his defense of the Army’s role in both the Ayotzinapa case and his administration in general. To this day I have no evidence that the Army was involved in the disappearance of the young people, and that bothers them a lot, especially those who support this version, but I always say what I think and I have the evidence that nothing has been found, other than unproven versions from a journalist.
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Through the Ministry of the Interior, two documents were released: the first report of the President of Mexico on the missing youth and a 109-page document containing six annexes: the issuance of the precautionary measure in favor of the youth by the IACHR; the agreement for the incorporation of international technical assistance with the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts; one of the appearances of the protected witness with a code Juan.
Also the letters that the President has sent and received regarding the process of the 16 soldiers involved in the disappearance of the young people and the access to military archives; the sentence of the United States immigration court on the request for asylum of Ulises Bernabé, former judge of Iguala, Guerrero.
The last annex is a report from the National Defense Secretariat that, among other information, contains a chronology of the events with the reports received by the army, the collaborative actions it has carried out with the various entities investigating the case and some documents of international agreements for its investigation.
In the first document, López Obrador expressly mentions that 20 military personnel, including two generals, have been prosecuted for possible omission and links to organized crime, but so far no evidence has been found. absolutely nothing
on the direct participation of members of the Army in the Iguala crime.
Likewise, in that document that he sent to the parents of Ayotzinapa he states that It is time to review the behavior of those who have led the demands for alleged justice, especially their ties to the United States government.
. He also reiterated his commitment to clarifying the case and finding the young people.
Army Defense
At the conference, López Obrador also rejected the militarization of his government, noting that it should not be forgotten, he said, It is a uniformed people and the Army has not been used for the enrichment of its senior commanders, as in other countries.
. Unlike in the past, when there was a narco-state In Mexico, where security was under the command of a civilian, today “there have not been, as there were before, massacres and no one has disappeared, because it depends on who governs. And, furthermore, because there has been significant progress in the Army in terms of respect for human rights.
He questioned the conservative sector’s hypocritical stances, which now question the participation of the National Defense and Navy secretariats and the National Guard in security work and other tasks.
I’ll give you an example: a project that we built with military engineers has meant a saving of at least 100 percent, compared to if that project had been built by a serious construction company. Because if we had done that same project with a contractor, as it was before, we would not have saved double, but triple; what’s more, it would not have been done, they would have taken the advance payment, as it was before. How can I not defend those who have helped us in the transformation of the country?
