In the case of 43 students who disappeared in 2014, a former Mexican governor was indicted

A formal accusation has been brought against the former governor of Guerrero state, Mexico, for his suspected role in the 2014 disappearance of forty-three students. This case has come to represent the country’s ruthless cartel violence and official impunity.

After ordering the deletion of surveillance tapes that would have revealed what happened to the students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college on the evening of September 26, 2014, Ángel Aguirre, who was detained last week, is charged of forced disappearance and obstruction of justice.

On Wednesday, a judge ruled Mexico’s attorney general had presented enough evidence to formally charge Aguirre with forced disappearance and ordered that he remain in a maximum security prison awaiting trial.

A lawyer for Aguirre denied his client’s wrongdoing. Guillermo Baradas told reporters: “We presented evidence demonstrating a high-level meeting attended by Mr Ángel Aguirre at the time the videos were allegedly handed over to him.”

The most significant development in the Ayotzinapa case since Jesús Murillo Karam, Mexico’s attorney general at the time of the students’ kidnapping, was arrested in 2022 is Aguirre’s indictment.

Over ten years later, the case’s violence still haunts Mexico. Only three pupils’ remains have been found; the fate of the remaining forty is unknown. Students from the Raúl Isidros Burgos teacher training institution in the hamlet of Ayotzinapa had commandeered many buses in Iguala on the nite of their kidnapping in order to travel to a protest in Mexico City.

However, a local criminal group collaborating with local police attacked the students before they could flee Iguala, Guerrero state. Federal police and military forces were also implicated, either directly or indirectly, in the removal and likely death of the students, according to a years-long international inquiry.

In an attempt to blame the attack only on the criminal gang and local police, the authorities at the time planned a complex cover-up. Crime scene evidence was tampered with, and suspects were coerced into making false confessions.

Meltión Ortega, a spokesperson for the 43 students, said: “We want no more deception; we want to be told the truth and for those responsible to be punished. The victims from Guerrero deserve to have the actual perpetrators and the masterminds punished, rather than just seeing a charade, as has happened in serious cases of human rights violations.”

Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, established an investigation unit to look into the case last year after pledging to find out what happened to the pupils.