Mexican police and soldiers wanted over unsolved disappearance of 43 students

Only the remains of two students have been found since they vanished six years ago.

Saturday 26 September 2020 21:07, UK

Relatives of missing students hold posters with their images as they take part in a protest outside the Attorney General's office, before the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students of the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College, in Mexico City, Mexico September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Image: Relatives of the students hold posters on the anniversary
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Mexican authorities have issued dozens of arrest warrants for police and soldiers they believe were involved in the still-unsolved disappearance of 43 college students six years ago.

On 26 September 2014, students training to be teachers at a college in the southern state of Guerrero were allegedly kidnapped and turned over to a local gang.

Four months later, an investigation found the students had been burned in a huge fire at a garbage dump, with some remains thrown into a river.

A relative of a missing student holds a poster with his image as she walks past a "+43" sign painted on the ground, during a protest outside the Attorney General's office, before the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students of the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College, in Mexico City, Mexico September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Image: Families attend a protest near the attorney general's office

But many of the families did not believed the story and experts found holes in it, noting it failed to come up with any definitive account of what happened.

On Saturday, lead investigator Omar Gomez told reporters that warrants had been issued for the "material and intellectual authors" of the crime, including military members as well as federal and municipal police.

It marks the first time Mexican authorities have announced arrest warrants for military personnel in connection with the disappearance of the students.

The remains of only two of them have been found.

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Many of the suspects initially arrested in the case were later released, and many claimed they had been tortured by police or the military.

In March, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Tomas Zeron, the former head of investigations for Mexico's attorney general's office, for alleged violations in the investigation of the case.

Zeron - who was at the centre of the earlier investigation - and five other former officials face charges including torture, forced disappearance and judicial misconduct.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's Undersecretary of Human Rights Alejandro Encinas and Maria Martinez, mother of Miguel Angel Hernandez Martinez, hold pieces of fabric embroidered by relatives of the 43 missing students of the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College, as they attend the delivery of an investigation report with marking the 6th anniversary of their disappearance. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Image: The warrants were issued during a press conference in the Mexican capital

The unsolved disappearances have sparked outrage in the country over the years, with massive protests in 2014.

There has also been international condemnation of what is seen one of the darkest examples of the government's longstanding difficulty preventing violence or convicting criminals.

Family members of the victims have long accused Mexican authorities, including the military, of complicity.

The mother of one of the students, Maria Martinez Zeferino, said at Saturday's press conference in Mexico City that "the military participated".

"There were videos of it," she claimed.

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