Editorial: Case of 43 Students Close to Be Shelved

It looks like Mexican authorities are about to close the case of the 43 students who disappeared in Iguala. The pieces of the puzzle have been arranged in a way that the only reality will be the “historical truth” promoted by the government, even if how the students died, where their remains are or who is responsible is still not known. Everything is designed to end in the type of confusion that justifies the absolute lack of credibility Mexican authorities have in front of their people.

One of the signs is the unusual lawsuit filed by a right-wing NGO against the Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes (Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, or GIEI) of the OAS’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in which it accuses them of making an inappropriate use of funds. The complaint dedicates more space to smearing the past history of some of the members of the research group than to providing evidence supporting the embezzlement charges.

Another indication is the unilateral decision made by the Procuraduría General de la República ‒ PGR, or Mexico’s Attorney General ‒ to offer a number of brief conclusions published in a third study made to determine if the bodies were burned in the Cocula landfill, a version disputed by the GIEI. The GIEI accused the PGR of breaching a previous agreement by divulging the results of the third study, instead of doing so jointly.

The result is that there is confirmation that some 17 people were, in fact, burned there – enough to scream out loud that the “historical truth” version is valid. In consequence, according to the government, it is not necessary to extend the GIEI’s contract, which expires soon.

It is telling that the PGR turned the massacre into a debate about what happened in the Cocula landfill to confirm their “historical truth” and the manipulation of the results of the third study.

The third study, for instance, coincides with some of the findings made by the Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (Argentine Group of Forensic Anthropology, or EEAF,) who were previously criticized by the PGR. Both their versions state that it is impossible to confirm that the 43 bodies were burned at the said location, and that the human remains of between 17 and 19 people were found. The latest report still has not offered forensic evidence proving that this happened on the day the students disappeared.

The EEAF analysis does not confirm a fire validating the “historical truth,” and when the testimonies of any of the 100 people detained were compared, several inconsistencies arose regarding the way the bodies, car tires and flammable material were arranged before lighting them on fire. Confessions of all kinds can be obtained through torture, but the truth rarely emerges.

The mistake pointed out by the EEAF is that the PGR chose to confirm the versions obtained through torture instead of investigating what really happened.

It is understandable that the Peña Nieto government is eager to close this chapter. They handled it poorly from the beginning, failed to understand its significance and never changed course. At all times, they gave the People plenty of reasons to distrust them, and they were unable to effectively deal with the independent examiners who walked in through the main gate waiting to see the work of the PGR ratified, and who left through the back door when the mistakes in the official investigation came to light.

This case was an opportunity for a nation smothered by violence to show the world a more transparent image in the face of the killing of innocents. It would have been illogical to ask the President to resign, but his government could have presented itself differently instead of delivering this mix of incompetence, cover-up and disregard for human life now so widespread in Mexico, which ensures the repetition of this type of massacre.