The fate of the students is an ongoing mystery that remains unsolved despite years of scrutiny and international interest.
The students were visiting the southwestern city of Iguala from a teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa when their buses were intercepted by local police and federal military forces in September 2014.
Exactly what happened after that — and why — remains unknown. However, survivors of the original group of 100 students said their buses were stopped and shot at by armed police and soldiers. Bullet-riddled buses were later found on city streets, with broken windows and blood.
About 43 students then disappeared.
A government report last week referred to the incident as a “state crime,” based on thousands of documents, text messages, phone records, testimony and other forms of evidence.
Jesus Murillo Karam, Mexico’s former attorney general, was arrested a day after the report was made public — and charged by the prosecutor’s office on suspicion of “crimes of enforced disappearance, torture and against the administration of justice.”
He had led the state investigation into the disappearances of the students, but was criticized by then-President Enrique Peña Nieto for a lack of transparency in his handling of the matter.
The 43’s parents welcomed his arrest.
“Today, the judge handling the case agrees with us. Murillo Karam conducted a dubious, irregular investigation, tortured, manipulated and fabricated evidence, thus fabricating a lie that prevented us from knowing where our children are,” the the parents’ joint statement said.
“We cannot give up the fight until we have full proof of their whereabouts. It will be painful for our families to learn of their fate, especially if they are lifeless, but if they give us scientific and definite proof, we will go home to to mourn To this day we do not have this evidence. Therefore, our demands and struggle continue.”
CNNE’s Fidel Gutierrez contributed reporting.
