August 25, 2023
The José Ma. Morelos y Pavón Regional Center for the Defense of Human Rights recognizes all the contributions and progress made by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) and the firmness with which the parents’ legal representatives have pursued the case to this point. We also acknowledge the firm and unwavering struggle of these mothers and fathers who have been fighting for truth and justice since 2014. To all of them, our solidarity and sincere appreciation.
We are one month away from the nine-year anniversary of the disappearance of our 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers, and so far, López Obrador’s greatest triumph has been the complete withdrawal of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, with the recent departure of its last two members. They decided to do so due to a lack of conditions to find the truth, given the military’s shielding. They made it clear that the most they could achieve is to assign responsibility individually rather than as an institution, forgetting that the military has historically been the Mexican state’s enforcer against the people. It will be nine years of pretense and mockery against the mothers and fathers who have managed to withstand all kinds of adversity, but, above all, time, since that is what the government has bet on: managing the problem to wear down not only the parents but also their legal representatives and the people and organizations that support them.
They have had to face countless obstacles: age, physical and psychological exhaustion, fatigue, illness, and attempts to dismantle them through offers and infiltration by supposed social “fighters” and human rights “defenders.”
As a sign of the army’s impunity, on Tuesday, August 22, Judge Raquel Ivette Duarte Cedillo released General Rafael Hernández Nieto to continue his trial under house arrest, and we have no doubt that other military personnel will be granted benefits to keep silent.
Given this fact, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, instead of expressing his rejection of the judge’s decision, as he has done in other cases where the rulings go against actions initiated by him, announced that his Undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, will “analyze” whether to challenge the injunction.
All of the above coincides with the fact that the International Day of the Detained-Disappeared is commemorated at the end of this month.
In Mexico, these victims are among the 111,049 registered victims.
While President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is managing the case, waiting for his term to end and then pass the buck to his successor.
We demand:
- That the President of the Republic, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, stop protecting the army by guaranteeing trial and punishment for the soldiers who participated in the disappearance of our 43 colleagues from the Ayotzinapa Normal School, and that he acknowledge institutional responsibility for these events.
- Respect for the lives and physical integrity of the mothers and fathers, their legal representatives, and the members of the social and civil organizations that accompany and support them in this struggle.
TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND PUNISHMENT FOR THE GUILTY!
Sincerely
For the Morelos Center
Teodomira Rosales Sierra, Ms.
General Manager