MEXICO CITY, Sept. 25 (UPI) — Mexico will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, President Enrique Peña Nieto told the missing students’ families.
He spoke to the families in a private session Thursday in Mexico City.
The families have expressed concern that the year-old investigation is flawed. They seek an international panel of experts to examine the incident and want the possible role of the army to be examined.
They also believe an initial report was meant to mislead them. A public prosecutor’s report concluded the students were illegally detained by corrupt police officers in Mexico’s Guerreros state, handed over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel and then killed, their bodies burned in a garbage dump.
A six-month independent review by analysts, sent by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an agency of the Organization of American States, found errors in the report.
The meeting of Peña Nieto and the skeptical families resulted in nothing new, said Vidulfo Rosales, a lawyer representing the families.
“What guarantee do we have that this new investigation won’t be more theater? We’re not going to give up; we’re going to continue searching,” Vidulfo said in Mexico City’s central plaza, surrounded by family members.
Peña Nieto, in a social media message after the meeting, assured the families “we are on the same side and we want the same thing, to know what happened to each of their children.”
A public 43-hour hunger strike was begun Wednesday by about 50 family members to note the one-year anniversary of the disappearance. A commemorative march through Mexico City was scheduled for Saturday.
