Mexico: OHCHR Supports Families of the Ayotzinapa Disappeared

The Mexican office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Wednesday expressed its "deep solidarity" with the relatives of Christian Rodriguez, who is one of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa whose remains were recently identified.

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Regarding this identification, the OHCHR said that it "is a first step to know the truth" about the disappearance of the students from the Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, which occurred on September 26, 2014.

The UN office stated that this rules out the so-called "historical truth", referring to the official version of the previous government, which involved serious human rights violations and cover-up actions.

The OHCHR representative Jesus Peña said that "it will be essential that the Mexican State continue to provide reliable responses to families."

He also stressed that it evidences the need to deepen this case's investigation and the acts and omissions that prevented the Rodriguez family from knowing its son whereabouts for over five years. Other students' families also do not know where their sons are so far.

Peña recognized the Mexican government's actions in this finding and the work carried out to achieve the identification of the student, in which the Institute of Genetics of the University of Innsbruck (Austria) collaborated.

According to the controversial official version of Enrique Peña Nieto's administration, the Ayotzinapa students were murdered by "Guerreros Unidos", a criminal gang that cremated their remains in a garbage dump.