Mexico Arrests Army General Jose Rodriguez Perez for Role in the Deaths of 43 Missing Ayotzinapa Students

Mexico has arrested retired Army general Jose Rodriguez Perez after he was accused of being involved in the disappearance and deaths of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.

According to The Washington Post, Rodriguez Perez was among the officials recently arrested for allegedly participating in or covering up the crime that involved 43 students from a rural teachers' college in Ayotzinapa town who disappeared on their way to a demonstration eight years ago.

Only the remains of three students have been recovered. According to Mexico's deputy security minister, the retired Army general is one of the highest-ranking military officers arrested in the case.

Warrants for three others were also issued this week. Two of those people were already detained, while one remains a fugitive. Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia said Thursday that four arrest warrants had been issued against members of the Mexican Army.

"There are three people arrested, among them the commander of the 27th infantry battalion when the events took place in Iguala in September 2014," Mejia told reporters.

Rodriguez Perez was a colonel in Iguala city on the night the Ayotzinapa students were abducted in 2014. Mexico's undersecretary for human rights Alejandro Encinas earlier said that six of the missing students "were turned over" to Rodriguez Perez.

Encinas noted that the six students were "killed and disappeared on orders" of Rodriguez Perez. He added that state and federal officials neglected to stop the kidnapping and rescue the students even though they could do so.

High-Profile Arrests Regarding Ayotzinapa Students' Case in Mexico

Last month, the former top prosecutor who led the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students was arrested. Former prosecutor Jesus Murillo Kuram was arrested outside his residence on charges of forced disappearance, torture, and obstruction of justice.

According to Al Jazeera, Murillo was considered to be the architect of the so-called "historical truth" version of events that they reported in 2015 under the government of former president Enrique Pena Nieto.

The official 2015 report noted that drug cartel members killed the 43 missing students, and their remains were burned at a rubbish dump. The report was widely rejected by the public, especially the relatives and officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The investigation into the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students was reopened in 2018 when President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won the presidency. Authorities said Murillo, who was a former attorney general from 2012 to 2015, was brought to a Mexico City jail.

Case of the Missing 43 Ayotzinapa Students in Mexico

On the night they disappeared in 2014, the Ayotzinapa students were on their way to a protest in Mexico City. They commandeered several buses to get there.

According to The New York Times, it was a tradition at their college that was usually tolerated by the authorities and bus companies. But their stunt turned into a night of terror and violence which involved law enforcement officers and other armed men.

Soon after taking the buses in Iguala town in Guerrero state, the students were intercepted by municipal police officers and other armed men, who shot some of them and took away others after forcing them off the vehicles. Little is known about what happened after that incident.

By dawn, six people were dead in Iguala, dozens were wounded, and the 43 students had disappeared. The families of the missing Ayotzinapa students have long accused the Army of playing a role in the disappearance and likely killing of their loved ones.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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