Kidnapped Students in Mexico – Eight Soldiers in Arrest

Eight soldiers have been remanded in custody nearly nine years after 43 students were kidnapped and killed in southern Mexico. This was announced by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, on Twitter, Monday. The soldiers were said to have participated in the kidnapping. Four other members of the armed forces are already in detention, including a commander who is said to have ordered the killing of six of the youths.

Arrest warrants were issued for eight other soldiers. On the night of September 27, 2014, corrupt police officers kidnapped students from the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College in the city of Iguala and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos crime syndicate. The background to the fact has not yet been fully clarified. Only three of the young men’s bones were found and identified so far.

In August last year, the Truth Commission called this act a state crime and declared the students murdered. Dozens of Guerros Unidos members, police officers and civil servants were arrested. The then public prosecutor is said to have manipulated the investigation in order to quickly close the case. He is also accused of condoning torture methods and being complicit in the students’ disappearance.