Mexican president to unveil truth about 43 Ayotzinapa students

Mexico City, July 1 (RHC)-- In the early hours of September 26-27, 2014, 43 students were kidnapped after a chase in which it has already been proven that municipal, state, federal and Army police officers participated.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday: "We already know what happened; we are missing some pieces to complement [the investigation], because remember that it is also a judicial process: you can have the evidence, but you have to certify and validate it."

Since his run for the presidency, AMLO has committed to revealing the truth about the forced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.  "We already have made a lot of progress, which is one of the demands or unfulfilled commitments I made and have not been able to fulfill," the president said, noting that before the end of this year, the truth about what happened will be known. 

The case and the investigation have been highly controversial.  Manipulation and covering-up of evidence, pressure to protect those responsible and bureaucratic neglect have been issues denounced by the victims' relatives. 

Former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto delivered a version stating that municipal police had kidnapped and handed over the students to members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, who killed and burned them in the Cocula landfill and then dumped them in the San Juan River. 

The Ayotzinapa Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team denied such a version because there was no evidence to support this thesis.  

In March of this year, the GIEI provided evidence proving that Mexican authorities, including members of the Navy, manipulated the landfill to make people believe that the students had been burned there, completely tearing down the version delivered by Peña Nieto.