AMLO announces military arrests for culpability in the Ayotzinapa 43 students case

Chivis Martinez borderland beat Reforma

Chivis note: A Narcomanta from "Los Tlacos" was discovered today in Iguala.  It attributes responsibility to “Guerreros Unidos" for the kidnapping and massacre of the 43 (there were 44 as one named Julio Cesar Mondragon was skinned and left at the scene) The manta was hung on the bridge of the road to Taxco. At bottom of this post read further.

Six years after the Ayotzinapa case, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced arrest warrants against elements of the Army and offered an apology.

"I want you to know, arrest warrants have been issued against the military that are going to be executed," he told the parents of the 43 disappeared normalistas.

The President warned that there will be zero impunity.

"Whoever has participated and is revealed, will be brought to justice."

López Obrador said that the Ayotzinapa case is painful.

"It is an important, transcendent and at the same time sorrowful because we are remembering acts of injustice, of atrocities that were committed against young people, your children, it is a regrettable and painful fact," he said.

Likewise, it reaffirmed the commitment to clarify the facts.

"That the truth, the real truth, is known, that is the commitment and of course that we know the whereabouts of the young people, at the same time that those responsible are punished, in short, that there is justice, reparation of the year."

Before parents, he promised that they will succeed and asked them not lose to hope.

"For one, we are authorities that emerged from the people, no vested interest groups imposed on us, I am not here for the potentates, I am not here for organized crime or white collar corruption," he said.

In the same way, the President demanded that the judges act with rectitude and not release those involved in the case.

"It is required that the judges help to advance in the Judicial Power, because there is a huge issue there when alleged perpetrators are released," he said.

Chivis note: A Narcomanta from "Los Tlacos"was discovered today in Iguala.  It attributes responsibility to “Guerreros Unidos" for the kidnapping and massacre of the 43 (there were 44 as one named Julio Cesar Mondragon was skinned and left on an Iguala street) The manta was hung on the bridge of the road to Taxco. 

In BB early reporting we surmised the military was an integral component of the crime.  Reports from the ground indicated the military surrounded the city blocking entry and exit.

Pepe and I wrote extensively from the first day and before it became a huge global story.   We concluded that it was most likely the military that transported the majority of the bodies to a military crematory.  The crematory in Iguala was no longer in operation however apx 1.5 hrs away in Morelos there are two facilities in that state.  This would have been the easiest most efficient way to depose of that number of bodies, leaving no bones, or evidence.

Those arrested in the case have largely been quietly released over the years.  

The court cites various reasons for the releases including the ‘go to’ favorite in narco cases; human rights violations or illegal process procedures.  

AMLO is referring to these releases in his speech to the normalistas parents.  Normalistas are student teachers in school studying to become teachers in the rural indigenous territories.