Mexico City, January 17 (RHC)-- The federal government of Mexico has signed an order which fulfilled its commitment to investigate the Ayotzinapa case and sanction the officials involved in the disappearance of 43 students.   The Commission for Truth and Access to Justice was established for carrying out the investigations.

“I respectfully ask the members of the commission, the experts who are part of it, their most determined effort and commitment to help to know the truth in the shortest time that is human, legal and scientifically possible,” said the head of the Ministry of the Interior (SG), Olga Sanchez Cordero in front of the Parents of the disappeared young people.

The organization will not only investigate the Ayotzinapa case but also the disappearance of more than 37,000 Mexicans, according to officials.

On September 26, 2014, 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ School of Ayotzinapa went missing.  Security footage indicated they were kidnapped by police, and the official investigation by outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration concluded they were later handed over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, executed and their bodies incinerated at a local landfill.

Relatives have demanded the federal government let them enter the barracks, which is where they believe the students were taken after being kidnapped.  In 2015, after multiple petitions were ignored, they forced entry but were escorted out before they found any evidence.

Both the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) have suggested the Mexican government should include the army in the investigation.