Former top official Jesus Murillo Karam arrested over probe

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Jesus Murillo Karam (Photo: El País)

Mexico’s former attorney general has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.

Jesús Murillo Karam, who led an inquiry into the atrocity, has been charged with forced disappearance, torture, and the obstruction of justice.

The students vanished while traveling by bus through the city of Iguala on their way to a protest in Mexico City.

Other than bone fragments recovered from three of them, nothing is known of their fate.

Municipal police opened fire on buses carrying the students on the evening of 26 September 2014 – but what happened next is disputed.

Their mysterious disappearance sent shockwaves around the world and triggered widespread protests in Mexico against impunity and state complicity in organized crime.

Jesus Murillo Karam, who was arrested on Friday, led a controversial 2015 investigation into what happened to the students that blamed members of a cartel who were accused of killing them and burning their remains.

His findings, which were endorsed by then President Enrique Peña Nieto, were criticized by independent experts and relatives of the missing students for errors and for not apportioning any blame to the armed forces.

In a tweet, Mr. Karam’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which is no longer in power, accused those behind Friday’s arrest of being politically motivated.

He is the highest-profile government official to be arrested in connection with the disappearance of the students so far.

Source: El Universal

Mexico Daily Post