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to the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayot-zinapa remain unsolved and their mothers and fathers continue to demand justice, without tangible results regarding what happened in those terrible hours of the night of September 26, 2014 and the early hours of the 27th.
Eleven years have passed, the third federal government is now in progress, and today we must stop to evaluate the expression of will, five days ago, of the President of the Republic, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, to explore the possibility of reincorporation into the investigation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI). They would be Carlos Beristain and Ángela Buitrago, who not only have the full trust of the relatives of the 43 normal students, but their intense and fruitful work, and their forceful reports, contain key elements in the tortuous investigation process. Let us remember that the GIEI has been practically forced to separate itself from its function and leave the country on two occasions.
In 2016, the Peñanietismo gave them an outlet with its 2015 report, in which it showed evidence of the falsity of the so-called “historical truth” with which the then attorney, now under trial and under house arrest, tried to close the case and thereby favor the president at that time.
In 2020, already with the government of the so-called Fourth Transformation, the GIEI was invited to return and they carried out intense activity that led them, in fact, to coincide with what was proposed by Alejandro Encinas in a significant report as president of the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice (Covaj), at the same time as Undersecretary of the Interior, in which he showed evidence that points to the intervention and, where appropriate, responsibility of the Army, as well as other levels of government; He pointed out that they did not avoid it and, worse still, they denied it in their statements. They also acted, it was indicated, with opacity by denying all the information that they kept in the Regional Intelligence Fusion Center that operated in Iguala in 2014.
All of this led Covaj to say that we are facing a state crime.
The GIEI, for its part, in what would be its last report, highlighted that there are 800 pages of Army documents missing that have not been delivered to date, and are key to clarifying the case, to knowing the fate of the 43 normal school students and to achieving punishment for those responsible.
At the time, the then President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, instructed the Army to provide them. As we remember, this position of the Executive changed radically, and in the final phase of his government, he undertook an active defense of the Army, personally assumed the investigation and considered that there is no evidence linking him, and confronted both the GIEI and the human rights organizations that have accompanied the relatives.
In this context, in July 2023, the GIEI left the country, given the impossibility of advancing without essential information from the Army. In October of that year, in a climate of tension also with the Army, Alejandro Encinas resigned as Undersecretary of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior; It was said that “to participate in political-electoral activities.” In his place, Arturo Medina was appointed, who continues in that position in the current government. It is curious that without officially disappearing Covaj, it is not actually mentioned. Needless to say, both Covaj and the GIEI are located in the field of cooperation, and from there their contributions had to be judicialized, a complex field as we realize. Closed door.
The current government has managed to break the inherited tension with the relatives of the 43 normal students and the declared reiteration of their hope of finding truth and justice in the next government was very admirable at the time. They have had six meetings on good terms and, despite the fact that the President of the Republic has indicated that she is going for truth and justice, and that she will insist on the extradition of Tomás Zerón, another key player, news has also been spread about the arrest of those involved; Even they do not find evidence of results or details about the new strategy. Mauricio Pazarán Álvarez, the new prosecutor, has joined the case. The return of the GIEI has been a request from the relatives, and it is a good indication that direct contact is sought to evaluate that possibility.
In very broad terms, I present an outline of the context of the GIEI’s outputs and the results of its work; They will evaluate and decide, however, we cannot avoid asking ourselves if there are actually conditions agreed upon with the Army for it to abandon its refusal to provide the essential information that the GIEI requested at the time to clarify the case.
Nor can we avoid doubt about the political conviction to resume the advances that the GIEI contributed and are contained in its reports.
