MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥� Mexican authorities have arrested the former governor of the southern state Guerrero for his alleged involvement in the , a case that has become a symbol for impunity and state involvement in cartel violence.
Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they arrested 脕ngel Aguirre, Guerrero’s former governor, on accusations of 鈥渃oncealing evidence to determine the whereabouts of the students” of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers鈥� College.
The former governor, belonging to a party that gave rise to Mexico’s ruling Morena party, is the highest-profile arrest in the case to date since the detention of who is facing criminal charges of forced disappearance, obstruction of justice and torture. Aguirre governed Guerrero from 2011 until he resigned in October 2014, one month after the students disappeared.
The disappearance of the students from the rural teacher鈥檚 college of Ayotzinapa after they commandeered several buses on their way to a protest shocked Mexico and the international community, and as the truth of the case continues to
According to Mexican authorities, a cartel in Guerrero state’s city of Iguala attacked the students in collusion with security forces as well as local, state and federal authorities, including the military. Officials were presumably involved by taking part in the crime or concealing it.
Ernestina Godoy, the Attorney General of Mexico, stated that two testimonies gathered this year indicate that Aguirre not only requested that officials hand over the security camera footage from one of the locations of the attack that night but also ordered the destruction of any evidence related to the events.
鈥淭he Attorney General鈥檚 Office has evidence proving that this order to conceal the evidence was issued directly by the then-governor, with the participation of high-level state officials,鈥� she said.
鈥淔ar from being an isolated act or a technical oversight, the concealment of the recordings was the result of a malicious operation, deliberately orchestrated from the highest levels of the State Executive Branch.鈥�
Godoy did not explain why the testimonies of a collaborator and a protected witness, collected in January and May 2016 respectively, were obtained more than a decade after the events. She only indicated that when she arrived at the Attorney General鈥檚 Office at the end of last year, she began a 鈥渞eanalysis鈥� of the case with a 鈥渘ew investigative approach.鈥�
Hours later, the Agust铆n Pro Ju谩rez Human Rights Center, which represents the families, stated in a social media post that neither the students鈥� parents nor their attorneys had been notified of the arrest and that they were unaware of the charges. 鈥淚f it is solid and in accordance with the law, the process that is beginning could help settle a debt of justice for the families,鈥� the center said.
The current federal administration had committed to inform parents first of any developments, a key demand from families for years.
Clemente Rodr铆guez, the father of one of the students, recalled that from the beginning families asked for Aguirre to be investigated. 鈥淗e has to tell everything he knows,鈥� he told The Associated Press.
After three administrations, dozens of arrests and an investigation plagued by irregularities, key questions remain unanswered. Authorities believe the students were killed, but only bone fragments from three of them have been found, and the motive for the attack remains unclear, although it is believed to have been linked to heroin trafficking in buses to the U.S. operated by the local cartel in collusion with authorities.
On Sept. 26, 2014, students were attacked in a coordinated manner at various locations. In one instance, cameras recorded the moment when security forces stopped one of the buses outside the Palace of Justice, the seat of the courts, but initial official statements claimed that this footage did not exist. Now, the federal prosecutor鈥檚 office confirms what investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced years ago: that these recordings were hidden or destroyed to conceal evidence.
The administration of former President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador, who served from 2018 to 2024, described the Ayotzinapa case as a 鈥渟tate crime.鈥�
During President Claudia Sheinbaum鈥檚 administration, which began in October 2024, the president said that new lines of investigation were reopened, some of which, according to the prosecutor, have led to the arrest of the former governor.
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