Undersecretary of the Interior Alejandro Encinas made the revelation with little fanfare during a lengthy defense of the commission’s report, which was first released a week earlier. At the time, despite declaring the disappearances a “state crime” and saying the military watched it happen without intervening, Encinas made no mention of six students who were handed over to Colonel José Rodríguez Pérez. On Friday, Encinas stressed that authorities had been closely monitoring the students from the radical teachers’ college in Ayutthaya from the time they left the campus until they were abducted by local police in the town of Iguala that evening. A soldier who had infiltrated the school was among the abducted students, and Encinas claimed the military had not followed its own protocols in trying to rescue him. “There is also information confirmed by 089 emergency calls where it is alleged that six of the 43 missing students were held for several days and were alive in what they call the old warehouse and from there they were handed over to the colonel,” Encinas said. “Allegedly, the six students were alive for four days after the events and were killed and disappeared on the orders of the colonel, alleged then-Colonel José Rodríguez Pérez.” The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations on Friday. The truth commission report notes that the army recorded an anonymous distress call on September 30, 2014, four days after the students were abducted. The caller said the students were being held in a large concrete warehouse at a location described as “Pueblo Viejo.” The caller proceeded to describe the location. This entry was followed by several pages of redacted material, but this section of the report ended with: “There appears to have been apparent collusion between agents of the Mexican state with the Guerreros Unidos criminal group that tolerated, permitted and participated in acts of violence and disappearances of the students, as well as the government’s attempt to hide the truth about the events”. Later, in a summary of how the commission’s report differed from the conclusions of the original investigation, a colonel is mentioned. “On September 30 the ‘colonel’ mentions that they will make sure to clear everything and that they had already taken responsibility for the six students who were left alive,” the report said. On September 26, 2014, local police took the students from the buses they had driven to Iguala. The motive remains unclear eight years later. Their bodies were never found, although burned bone fragments have been matched to three of the students. The families of the missing students have for years pressed the government to probe deeper into the military’s involvement. Last week, federal agents arrested former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, who oversaw the original investigation. On Wednesday, a judge ordered him to stand trial on charges of enforced disappearance, torture and official misconduct. Prosecutors allege Murillo Karam created a false narrative about what happened to the students in order to appear quickly to solve the case. Authorities also last week said arrest warrants had been issued for 20 soldiers and army officers, five local officials, 33 local police and 11 state police, as well as 14 gang members. Neither the military nor prosecutors have said how many of those suspects are now in custody. It was also not immediately clear if Rodríguez Pérez was among those wanted.
