OAS Urges Mexico to Redouble Ayotzinapa Massacre Investigation

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights approved a special mechanism for monitoring the case of the 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa on Friday, urging the government to redouble its efforts in the investigation.

GALLERY:
After Nearly 2 Years, Families Still Struggle for Ayotzinapa 43

The new mechanism will be coordinated by the the Commission’s Rapporteur for Mexico James Cavallaro and will include a team of technical advisers that will visit Mexico on three different occasions during the investigation, with the possibility of a fourth visit.

They will have complete access to the files and other sources of information, according to the commission.

The families of the victims argue the state should stop focusing on the hypothesis the students’ bodies were thrown into a garbage dump, where investigators found the remains of one of the missing students.

Many of the Ayotzinapa parents as well as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, or the GIEI, have accused Mexican police of involvement in the Sept. 26, 2014 disappearance of 43 students from the training school of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero State. The police also stand accused of killing six other people and injuring 25.

RELATED:
Ayotzinapa Student Tortured Before Death: New Autopsy

The GIEI have also suggested there is evidence of torture as well as security protocols being violated during the safeguarding of the crime scene.

One hundred and twenty six police and municipality officers and alleged hitmen have been detained in relation to the case, which has marred the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto as parents and friends of the students, trade unions and grassroots organizations continue to organize protests against the Mexican government. The case of Ayotzinapa has also resulted in a widespread critique of violence, human rights abuses, impunity and corruption in Mexico over the course of the investigation.