Another Blow to “Historical Truth”

The “historical truth” on the Ayotzinapa events is full of inaccuracies that are the result of either incompetence or the complicity between the office of Mexico’s attorney general (PGR) and Enrique Peña-Nieto’s government, who want to close the case and downplay the brutality of what happened. The truth is that two international expert analyses have already questioned the official narrative, confirming the reasons for the government’s generalized lack of credibility.

The report divulged by the GIEI (Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts) of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights squelched the government’s version, from the motives to the alleged death of the students and the incineration of their bodies. The PGR seems to be right to link the local police with drug traffickers. Still, it ignores the fact that the Federal Police and the Armed Forces were passive accomplices in the aggression against the students: They knew what was going on and failed to intervene in their defense.

It is noteworthy that the official motive stated for detaining the student teachers was to prevent them from interrupting a political act held by the mayor’s wife, even though the timelines of the two events do not coincide. The report explores the possibility that drugs had been planted in one of the buses taken by the students and that the police did not allow the vehicles to leave, under the orders of one individual who oversaw the whole operation. Although these appear to be central to the events, it is strange to see that the official version states the wrong number of buses.

Both the GIEI and the other group of experts, from Argentina, questioned the theory of the burnt bodies in a Cocula junkyard, but the PGR stands by its version, defending the reports issued by their two experts – whose experience investigating fires and arson is debatable – over that of the international specialists.

Although the office of the President has said that the government will take into account the GIEI report , this does not make up for the fact that, a year on, what happened at Ayotzinapa is still unknown and that what has been uncovered is thanks to the expertise of foreigners who have corrected the mistakes and voids left by the PGR. Corruption or incompetence? For the families of these student teachers it may be the same. All they want is the truth.