Mexico City, February 10 (RHC-teleSUR) -- The families of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students said they stand behind the recent revelation by Argentinian experts who called the state's investigations into the case slanted, and asked for extra security for the group of foreign experts.
In a press conference Monday, Felipe de la Cruz, the spokesperson for the families, said the experts need extra protection “because we know that when things do not go as the government wants them to, they retaliate.”
The team of 30 foreign experts was hired as an independent party on behalf of the students' parents who did not trust Mexican officials to carry out the investigation on their own.
The Argentinian team of forensic anthropologists released a report Saturday evening criticizing Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo for closing the Ayotzinapa case.
The report stated a number of things wrong with the government's investigations, including: mistakes made when collecting genetic profiles from family members, making it impossible to make DNA matches; leaving the dump in Cocula, the main crime scene, unguarded for weeks allowing anyone to tamper with the scene; and ignoring proof that the remains found in the dump did not belong to the students.
The families of the students and their supporters are frustrated by the lack of transparency in the case.
“Far from accepting the recommendations of international experts, [the Attorney General] is closed to public scrutiny, plus he's disqualifying the expert opinion of the team,” said a statement issued by the families.
The families have also backed the foreign specialists and demanded “respect” for them because during “their years of experience, they have always acted with scientific rigor,” and added that the team's current research into the disappearance of the students “scientifically confirms” that the official story by the government “does not establish the truth.”
The official story given by the state is that the 43 students were arrested by corrupt municipal officials on Sept. 26 and handed over to the drug gang known as Guerreros Unidos, or United Warriors, who later killed them, burned their remains in a garbage dump in the town of Cocula, and disposed of them in a nearby river.
