Mexico Won't Budge on Official 'Truth' in Ayotzinapa Case

Mexico's National Security Council technical secretary, Tomas Zeron, insisted on Friday that the 43 students who disappeared in 2014 in Ayotzinapa were detained, and then killed and burned by the United Warriors group, sticking with the officially provided narrative that the student's parents reject.

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However, many of the relatives who have mobilized for “truth and justice,” have accused Criminal Investigation Agency, of which Zeron is the former head, of fabricating evidence in order to conceal state involvement in the case, with some calling it an "act of cynicism," according to La Jornada.

One lawyer who works with relatives said that Zeron is “suspicious,” and that he did not believe the statements to have been made “sponateneously,” but as a “part of a state strategy to give contradictory signals to the student's parents and ensure that the case remains unsolved."

Calling the official narrative “historical truth,” Zeron argued that the the government has seen no evidence to modify it's current conclusions.

“We do not have to change something that was well done,” Zeron said, referring to the investigation carried out by the Attorney General's Office. “Something that in three years has not changed.

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However several independent investigations have contested the official version events and allege that federal police and the Attorney General's office all played a role in the disappearances. The Mexican government denies these claims and blames criminal organizations and local police.

September 26th of 2017 will mark the third anniversary since the students disappeared in Ayotzinapa. The students were on their way to a political demonstration in a bus when they were pulled on over on September 26th, 2014, and never seen again.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has continually pushed the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto to intensify the search. The families of the young people "have expressed their frustration at the lack of concrete progress to find their loved ones, and their anguish at the imminence of the third anniversary of the tragic events without achieving truth and justice," in a statement of the organization.