The investigation in regards to the enforced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students has crumbled at the tribunals because the then General Procuracy (PGR) , now known as the Attorney General's Office , led by Jesús Murillo Karam , and other authorities, perpetrated at least 158 irregularities.
The anomalies took place between October and December 2014 , and they include torture, undue delay in the presentation, illegal detentions, isolation, deprivation of the right of defense, among others.
From the 83 detainees , 58 of them have been released from prison because their human rights were violated.
The 158 irregularities took place while Tomás Zerón de Lucio led the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) and Jesús Murillo Karam led the PGR and were contained in a court order dismissing charges issued by a judge on October 2018.
This court order was analyzed by the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center's legal team , the organization that legally represents the victims' parents . The analysis shows that “ illegal detention for false flagrancy ” was the most common irregularity; it is followed by torture .
As EL UNIVERSAL had previously revealed, protected witnesses who collaborated with the PGR between 2010 and 2015, told the newspaper that Zerón de Lucio was an accomplice in the case of torture against Patricio Reyes Landa, who has been released from jail . It was claimed that Jonathan Osorio Cortez, aka “El Jona”, and Agustín García Reyes , aka “El Chereje,” were also tortured.
Other alleged victims of torture include Miguel Ángel Ríos Sánchez and Osvaldo Ríos Sánchez; they stated that the students were murdered and transported to a grave in a neighborhood located between Cocula and Iguala . Carlos Pascual Jaimes, Ramiro Ocampo Pineda, Raúl Núñez Salgado, David Cruz Hernández , Darío Morales Sánchez , and Salvador Reza García were also allegedly tortured.
After false flagrancy and torture, the other common irregularities perpetrated by authorities were when the suspects were called to testify but upon their arrival to court, they were informed they were arrested and in many cases, they didn't have a lawyer ; the other common irregularity was the “ illegal detention for ordering it retroactively. ”
Other anomalies include the “ nonvoluntary presentation ” of the suspects before authorities since the PGR forced suspects to testify .
Only 35 suspects remain in prison.
In an interview, Luis Eliud Tapia Olivares , the head of the Integral Defense Area at the Prodh Center , said that only 35 people remain in jail for their direct involvement in the enforced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students . He explains that even when a larger number of people remain in jail , there is evidence only against 35 of them , while the rest can be accused of crimes non-related to the Ayotzinapa case .
In regards to the irregularities , Tapia Olivares said that “they are serious, they are the evidence of how things are investigated in Mexico , it shows that it doesn't have the professional police bodies to carry out scientific investigations and show that, under the national and international spotlight , the administration of justice couldn't do more than use old practices.
The expert lamented that “in Mexico , crimes are perpetrated to investigate crimes and Ayotzinapa is the proof . The crumbling of the case in the tribunals is the result of these initial mistakes, it took the PGR three months to build an irregular investigation that ended with scandalous released from jail .”
He added that in October 2018, the Judiciary mentioned these irregularities, as well as the United Nations and the Independent Experts Interdisciplinary Group , who had previously warned about the human rights violations .
Now, five years after the enforced disappearance of the 43 students , he is urging the current administration to solve the case and reveal the truth about the Iguala case .
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