Mexico authorities made the first high-level arrest in the infamous 2014 abduction of 43 students, charging a former top prosecutor of crimes in one of Mexico’s greatest human rights violations, which current officials have labelled a state crime.
Former Attorney General Jesus Murillo was detained at his residence in Mexico City on allegations of kidnapping and disappearance of student-teachers in the southwest state of Guerrero, as well as torture and obstruction of justice.
Murillo was transported to the attorney general’s office and will be transferred to a prison in Mexico City, according to authorities.
Within hours of the arrest, a court issued 83 additional arrest warrants for troops, police, Guerrero officials, and gang members in connection with the case, according to the attorney general’s office.
Murillo oversaw the widely criticised inquiry into the Sept. 26, 2014, abduction of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College during his 2012-2015 term under then-President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Only three students’ bones were ever discovered and identified, and concerns have dogged Mexico ever since.
International specialists denounced the official investigation for being filled with mistakes and abuses, including witness torture. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018 promising to purify the air.
Since 2020, Lopez Obrador’s administration has attempted to arrest another key former official, Tomas Zeron, including requesting extradition from Israel last year.
When asked about the government’s decision to look into the previous probe, Murillo indicated he was happy and was willing to be questioned, according to local media in 2020.
Murillo was arrested while wearing black pants with his hands folded within the pockets of a grey blazer, and a law enforcement officer standing behind him with a gun slung over his chest, according to a photograph released by local media.
Murillo cooperated “without resistance,” according to the attorney general’s office.
The arrest comes only one day after Mexico’s top human rights commissioner, Alejandro Encinas, declared the disappearances a “state crime” involving municipal, state, and federal officials.
“What happened? A forced disappearance of the boys that night by government authorities and criminal groups, “Encinas stated at a press conference.
According to Encinas, the highest echelons of Pena Nieto’s government coordinated a cover-up, including modifying crime scenes and concealing linkages between officials and criminals.
Murillo took up the Ayotzinapa case in 2014, calling the government’s conclusions “historical truth.”
According to another account, a local drug gang mistaken the students for members of a rival gang, murdered them, burnt their bodies at a landfill, and dumped the remnants into a river.
A team of foreign specialists found flaws in the story, and the UN condemned arbitrary detentions and torture throughout the investigation.
