Over a decade later, families see no progress on Ayotzinapa student massacre probe

In the 11 years since the massacre of the Ayotzinapa students, there have been two changes in government that have promised new lines of investigation to clarify what happened. A new prosecutor has also been appointed — the third in the case — Mauricio Pazarán, with a more scientific strategy. However, the families of the missing continue to be disappointed. On Thursday, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced from the National Palace that when she met with the parents of the 43, she would inform them of “progress” in the analysis of calls from the night of the crime, a path that had not been explored in depth in all these years.

However, the group left the meeting with faces marked by weariness and sadness. The lawyer representing them, Isidoro Vicario Aguilar, lamented that there is no new information and that the investigation remains stalled at the same point where the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) left it before abandoning the case in 2023.

The parents of the missing children left their homes in Guerrero in the early hours of the morning to embark on an eight-hour road trip for a meeting at the National Palace that lasted just under two hours. Despite Sheinbaum’s hopes of communicating “substantial progress,” the group — accustomed to the helplessness they have experienced for more than a decade — was prepared for another blow regarding the lack of information on their children’s whereabouts. Many are beginning to wonder if so many grueling trips to the capital are still worth it: six parents of the students have died without knowing where their children’s bodies ended up on the night of September 26, 2014.

The fresh perspective of prosecutor Pazarán, who relieved Rosendo Gómez Piedra of the investigation after an internal conflict with his employees, heralded a shift in the investigative strategy. Aguilar explained that the entire Ayotzinapa case file would be reviewed again, but with a more scientific and multidisciplinary perspective, analyzing the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) codes of the cell phones to track them, rather than focusing on witness statements. This is a path that, for some reason, had not been explored in depth in over a decade.

Specifically, monitoring calls and phone data from the cell phones of two students was expected to yield new clues. Both devices were active on the day of the crime and remained turned on afterward, presumably used by the perpetrators. However, this lead has not led to any substantial new findings for the families, who have pointed out that the state continues to protect the officials involved in the case. “We’re going on 11 years without a response, and in that we see the incompetence [of the prosecution], because they can’t clear up what happened. With new technology, they’ve abandoned the lines of investigation we’ve been pursuing for 10 years,” Vicario Aguilar lamented.

Given the lack of answers from the presidency, the families have tried to seize the opportunity to ensure this doesn’t become another wasted trip. They have again insisted on the pending extraditions of those involved. The main one is Tomás Zerón, the former director of the Mexican Attorney General’s Office’s Criminal Investigation Agency, accused of forced disappearance, financial crimes, and torture of a detainee in the case. A fugitive in Israel, Zerón continues to give interviews and participate in documentaries to provide his version of the massacre, despite three extradition orders that Israel has yet to accept.

Another pending extradition is that of Ulises Bernabé, head of a police station in Iguala, where the criminals allegedly took some of the 43 students. He lives in the United States under the protection of political asylum, and an arrest warrant for him was canceled and reactivated in 2023. The most recent is Abraham Eslava Arvizu, the right-hand man of the chief investigator, accused of torturing members of Guerreros Unidos — the cartel that attacked the students — and a fugitive in the United States. The pressure for the extradition of those involved coincides with Sheinbaum’s request to Marco Rubio during his visit that Washington reciprocate the transfer of criminals after Mexico extradited 55 drug lords to its northern neighbor. “We are interested in cases that are very relevant to Mexico for which deportation or extradition is requested, just as they are interested in cases there,” Sheinbaum declared Wednesday during her morning press conference.

The family members’ tireless requests also keep alive the hope that the army will hand over the remaining 800 pages of the military file needed to complete the investigation. Before abandoning the case, the group of independent experts investigating what happened that night in parallel with the state, the GIEI, reported that the military deliberately concealed information about their espionage on Guerreros Unidos. Sheinbaum once again settled the matter and defended the army at the meeting: all the documentation they had has already been handed over.

Nevertheless, Vicario Aguilar assures that the president shows a willingness to continue working on the case. Given the lack of substantial progress, Sheinbaum has promised the families the specialized prosecutor’s office in the case will be strengthened, with more personnel and resources for the scientific investigation of the evidence. She has also expressed openness to the reconstitution of the group of independent investigators, who gave up after being unable to make any progress due to the army’s resistance to sharing more information. Three weeks before the anniversary of the massacre, clarification of what happened on the day of the mass disappearance of 43 students and where their bodies are now remains elusive.

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