PRESIDENT OF MEXICO MEETS WITH FAMILIES OF MISSING STUDENTS

 

 

MEXICO CITY, 24th September 2015.- The President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto, met today with parents and relatives of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, who disappeared since September 2014.

The President reaffirmed to their parents and families: “we are on the same side and working for the same objective: find what happened to your sons and bring to justice all the responsible. Let’s find out the truth together.”

The meeting, held in the auditorium of the Technology Museum at the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, for its acronym in Spanish), was also attended by the President of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez.

Members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), invited by the Government of Mexico, and the lawyers for the families of the victims were also present at the meeting.

President Peña Nieto expressed his solidarity with all of them, condemned the atrocious crime perpetrated against the students of Ayotzinapa, and reiterated his commitment to clarify the September 2014 facts, and bring those responsible to justice.

He expressed: “Mexico´s Government institutions are on your side, and the Secretary of the Interior and the Attorney General are instructed to listen and support you at all times.”

The President told to the families that he shared their pain and understand their indignation; “it had surely been the most difficult year of their lived, and that no mother, father, son or brother should suffer what they have suffered.”

He assured that the attention of the Federal Government on this issue has been ongoing. "Until today there have been held more than 50 meetings between relatives, representatives and members of the student community of the Rural Normal School ‘Isidro Burgos’ with officials from the Federal Government. "

President Peña Nieto instructed his collaborators:

1. Investigate all findings and possible perpetrators, reassuring that the investigation has not been closed.

2. Incorporate the recommendations proposed by the (IGIE).

3. To find out what happened with each and every one of the missing students.

4. The Human Rights Undersecretary, in coordination with the Executive Commission of Attention to Victims, should ensure that all individuals have access to these mechanisms of assistance, and guarantee medical care to all those who were injured in the 2014 events.

5. Following the recommendation of the IGIE, the Attorney General’s Office will put together a team of experts, of the highest level to discuss the events occurred at the landfill site in Cocula. Dr.Jose Torero has been invited to head it.

6. The President ordered the creation, within the General Attorney’s Office, of a Specialised Office for Missing People.

In the meeting, it was also recalled that on 16th September Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, leader of the criminal group operating in that area of Guerrero, was taken into custody, due to his alleged responsibility ordereding the killing of the students.

So far, derived from the investigation, 131 people have been prosecuted, of which 111 have been apprehended, including Jose Luis Abarca, mayor of Iguala and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda, as well as Francisco Valladares Salgado, Deputy Operative Director of the Municipal Police of Iguala.

More information: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/articulos-prensa/estamos-del-mismo-lado-y-trabajamos-con-el-mismo-objetivo-saber-que-sucedio-con-sus-hijos-y-castigar-a-todos-y-cada-uno-de-los-responsables-expreso-el-presidente-pena-nieto-a-los-p/