Mexico’s next government
will discuss a potential new investigation on the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, in collaboration with human rights experts who dispute the findings of the current administration, three sources said.
The abduction and suspected massacre of the trainee teachers in the state of Guerrero created one of the worst crises of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government.
The current administration concluded that the bodies of the missing students were incinerated in a garbage dump, but experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ( CIDH ) said the account was full of mistakes.
Those same experts will meet with President-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’ s team next month to discuss a possible re-opening of the case, said two people familiar with the investigation.
They said they were not authorized to speak publicly because the CIDH has yet to make a formal statement on whether or not it would extend the mandate of the investigators, known as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts.
A member of López Obrador ’s team confirmed plans for a meeting without providing details, and requesting anonymity.
The P resident-elect said he would set up a truth commission to analyze the case, but has not provided details.
On Wednesday, Peña Nieto reiterated his government’s findings of the Ayotzinapa case.
“There was clear and conclusive evidence that, very sadly, the 43 students were incinerated by a criminal group,” he said.
Nevertheless, that conclusion was widely questioned by national and international human rights experts.
The CIDH's Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts said the investigation was flawed, including the torture of witnesses who had allegedly participated in the disappearance of the students.
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