A group of experts in Mexico said that the search for 43 missing Ayotzinapa college students was not thorough enough.

A new report shows that the investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in 2014, which was one of the most well-known mass kidnappings in recent history, had some problems.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights put together a group of experts called the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI). On Friday, they released their findings, which said that Mexican authorities did not follow through with arrests related to the case.

It also found that important information had been kept from the public, especially about the role of the military in the kidnapping.

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Carlos Beristain, a member of the GIEI panel, said, "There are black holes where information goes to die."

It is the latest damning report from a scandal-filled investigation into what happened on September 26, 2014, when 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College were taken away against their will.

In the city of Iguala, the students took over a group of buses as part of an annual protest tradition to drive to Mexico City to remember the 1968 Tlatelolco student protest massacre.

But the police stopped them, and it's not clear what happened next. Mexican officials think that the students were given to local drug cartels with ties to the police and military, who then killed them.

Some pieces of burned bone have been found, and their DNA has been linked to three of the missing students. The other bodies, on the other hand, have never been found.

Angela Buitrago, a member of GIEI, asked for more arrests to be made in the case at a news conference on Friday. The GIEI report said that some of the arrest warrants that were still out there were more than six months old.

"We have insisted that these arrest orders be checked and carried out," Buitrago said, adding that some public officials were among the suspects who were still on the run.

In 2022, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 83 officials, including members of the military, government, and police. However, the GIEI stopped 21 of those arrest warrants.


In her statement on Friday, Buitrago said that the GIEI had recently sent evidence to prosecutors to back up the withdrawn arrest orders.


"It's clear from the large number of documents that many of them could be brought back to life," she said.


The GIEI has said in the past that there is evidence that military personnel were involved in the mass disappearances.

In 2022, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 83 officials, including members of the military, government, and police. However, the GIEI stopped 21 of those arrest warrants.

In her statement on Friday, Buitrago said that the GIEI had recently sent evidence to prosecutors to back up the withdrawn arrest orders.

"It's clear from the large number of documents that many of them could be brought back to life," she said.

The GIEI has said in the past that there is evidence that military personnel were involved in the mass disappearances.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES