A judge orders the release of eight soldiers related to the ‘Ayotzinapa case’

A district judge in the state of Mexico has ordered the release of eight soldiers involved in the Ayotzinapa case, The soldiers were arrested in June 2023, after the prosecutor’s office linked them to the disappearance of 43 students in Iguala, Guerrero in 2014. Gustavo Rodríguez de la Cruz, Omar Torres Marquillo, Juan Andrés Flores Lagunes, Ramiro Manzanares Sanabria, Roberto de los Santos Eduviges, Eloy Estrada Díaz, Uri Yachiel Reyes Lajos and Juan Sotelo Díaz will face judicial process upon conditional release.

Accused of forced disappearances, members of the military must comply with a number of conditions to regain their freedom, such as payment of bail of 50,000 pesos, signing a periodical every 15 days before the court, surrendering their passports, To keep and to prohibit. Contact with witnesses and victims of the case, as well as travel to Guerrero state, should be avoided. The soldiers may leave this week from military camp No. 1-A, where they are held as prisoners.

Nearly 10 years on, the families of 43 students have insisted that the government investigate the role played by members of the military following the youth’s disappearance. The Commission on Access to Truth and Justice (COVAJ) in the Ayotzinapa case has pointed to the exchange of messages in recent years between soldiers and members of the Guerrero Unidos cartel, for which the Prosecutor’s Office has called to understand the role of soldiers in Iguala. Has demanded. and their ties to organized crime groups. Parents of students have protested the lack of transparency and unwillingness of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDANA) to explain the military’s actions.

Arturo Medina Padilla, undersecretary for human rights and president of CoVAJ, expressed his disagreement with the judge’s decision to release the eight soldiers in a statement. “Once again, members of the judiciary resort to the process of so-called sabadazos, without considering the rights of the victims, the mothers and fathers of missing youth, in a case that involves serious violations of human rights,” the statement said. Medina Padilla points out that the new court order “does not acquit these elements of the armed forces of the charges, who will remain subject to proceedings until the respective sentences are issued.”

The Office of the Attorney General (FGR) has also expressed its disapproval of the judicial decision and assured that the judges involved in the decision have given an “undue advantage” to the military. “In the face of this closure, absolutely unfair to the victims and to the Mexican State, given the gravity of the crimes committed in the Ayotzinapa case, this Federal Social Representation will immediately present the relevant resources to guarantee rights and protection.” Victims.”, the Public Ministry said in a statement published on Sunday afternoon.

In recent weeks, the families of 43 students have faced disagreements with the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The government only offered the parents to open the files with the evidence of the case before their eyes, however, when relatives requested the assistance of a group of experts appointed to Mexico by the IACHR to review them, the government Refused. Furthermore, a large part of the rift between the current government and the students’ families lies in the Mexican military’s requirement to provide documentation and evidence, which has been repeatedly denied by the armed forces. A denial that López Obrador has supported.

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