Our priority is to know what happened to our children, not to weaken the Army
▲ Nine years and 10 months after the disappearance, the parents left Angel to anti-monument +43 in Reforma.Photo by German Canseco
Jessica Xantomila and Jared Laureles
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, July 27, 2024, p. 6
After reaching a consensus to respond to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first report on the Ayotzinapa case, the parents of the 43 normalistas who disappeared in 2014 acknowledged the will of the head of the Executive to reopen the investigation and make progress. However, they assured that two months before the end of the six-year term, the main demand to know what happened to the young people and the punishment of those responsible has not yet been satisfied
.
In this reply they maintained that contrary to what is stated in the presidential documents (released on Saturday 20th and yesterday) It has never been our interest to single out the Army to weaken it as an institution or to serve outside interests; our only priority is to know what happened to our children.
They also defended the organizations that support them and expressed their hope that the truth will be revealed in the next administration.
At the monthly march for the nine years and 10 months of the disappearance of the young people, Cristina Bautista, mother of Benjamín Ascencio, stated that the response presented yesterday was prepared by the legal representatives of the mothers and fathers of the 43
and clarified that the position that was circulating on social networks last Wednesday It wasn’t ours
.
The families’ lawyer, Isidoro Vicario, added that the response they released yesterday There is consensus and it will be delivered in full at the meeting on Monday, July 29
with the president.
Hilda Hernández Rivera, mother of César Manuel González, was in charge of reading the parents’ position, at the end of the mobilization they carried out from the Angel of Independence to anti-monument +43 on Paseo de la Reforma. He specified that it was with the edition of July 20 of The Day that finally all the families of the students were able to see the content of the President’s document, since several of them were not given it personally.
Active participation
Going deeper into what was stated in the presidential report regarding the fact that no information has been found absolutely nothing
Regarding the direct participation of members of the Army in the Iguala crime, Hernández Rivera indicated that the need to investigate the role of the military is based on the development of the investigation itself, since on the night of September 26, 2014 They fully witnessed the disappearance of our children and then suspiciously concealed it in their initial statements
.
He mentioned that there is also the saying of protected witnesses who speak of a possible active participation
of the military, as well as cell phone messages (known as the Chicago wiretaps), that thanks to your efforts, (President), were recovered from the United States and that show how the military had links with criminals
.
Hernandez Rivera stated that a proof of bad faith
of the Army in the case is that Time and again they have given false information
He gave as an example that the annex to the presidential report denies that soldier Julio César López Patolzin –one of the 43 missing– was part of an infiltration released from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Normal School
.
He argued that in the investigation there is document GAOUI-5823, dated October 21, 2014, signed by General Alejandro Saavedra Hernández, in which the Sedena accepts that said young man had received training for the handling of sensitive information, followed the orders of his superiors and met with them once a week to give the Army information about the Normal School
.
The families of the missing youths have ratified their demand that the Army hand over the 800 pages of intelligence that may contain relevant information.
In their response to the presidential report, the parents of the 43 asked that The person currently in charge of the investigations and dialogue with us should be removed, as he has shown his inefficiency.
and that on-site searches continue, that the delivery of missing military information is ensured, that pending extraditions are accelerated, that assistance to victims is finally dignified and that all pending lines of investigation are exhausted.
A transcript of the address given on behalf of the parents of the 43 can be found at https://bit.ly/3A0wBR2
