Zerón involves Peña Nieto in Ayotzinapa "historical truth"

Tomás Zerón, former head of investigations for Mexico’s attorney general’s office, said the official story about the 2014 disappearance of 43 students was fabricated by top government officials during meetings chaired by then-President Enrique Peña Nieto. Through a request for information, independent journalistic collective Fabrica de Periodismo obtained Zerón’s answers to a questionnaire sent to him in 2022 by Mexico’s top human rights official at the time, Alejandro Encinas.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, should be called to testify about his role in creating the false narrative. (Animal Politics)

Zerón lives in Israel, out of reach of Mexican law enforcement. The version he referred to, known as the “historical truth,” claimed that the Ayotzinapa students were turned over by local police to a drug gang that killed them, burned their bodies in a landfill and dumped the remains in a river, the Associated Press reported.

Investigators who later took over the case, one of the most emblematic human rights violations in the country, accused Zerón of creating a false story based on confessions extracted through torture. They wanted to close the case as quickly as possible and avoid political consequences, El País reports.

In his testimony, which was previously unreported, Zerón denies personal responsibility and positions himself as a mere “spokesman.” (Aristegui Noticias)

More Mexico

• López Obrador’s judicial reform plan passed a key congressional committee yesterday. The lower house of Mexico’s Congress, where the ruling Morena coalition will have a supermajority when its new term begins Sunday, is expected to begin debating the controversial proposal next week. The reform would require all federal judges in Mexico, including members of the Supreme Court, to be elected by popular vote, Bloomberg reported. (See yesterday’s report.)

• In response to criticism from the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and U.S. trade organizations, López Obrador and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum defended Mexico’s reform and sovereignty. (Reuters)

• Sheinbaum is a climate scientist who has expressed interest in transitioning to clean energy, but she will be hampered by AMLO’s massive commitment to fossil fuels and her own unwillingness to engage with her political mentor, the New York Times reported.

• “Mexico’s traditional and indigenous community police are coming under increasingly deadly fire from drug cartels,” the Associated Press news agency reports.

Venezuela

• According to several human rights organizations, at least 120 children have been detained by Venezuelan security forces during the post-election crackdown. All of the children have been charged with terrorism. More than 100 remain in custody, the Washington Post reports.

Regional relations

• China has called for more countries to support the Ukraine peace plan it developed with Brazil, after a diplomatic round with Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Colombia

• Oil pipelines in eastern Colombia have been attacked five times in recent days after a ceasefire with the ELN guerrilla group collapsed, Bloomberg reports.

• “Colombian airlines Avianca and Latam Colombia said Monday night they would operate most flights on Tuesday and resume full service on Wednesday, after earlier warning they would have to cancel dozens of flights due to a shortage of jet fuel,” the Associated Press reported.

Haiti

• Hundreds of Kenyan police officers leading an international security mission in Haiti have not received full pay in two months, CNN reports.

El Salvador

• The BBC tells the story of José Duval Mata, who has been in prison in El Salvador for more than two years, accused of “gang association,” despite the country’s justice system having twice ordered his immediate release. “It’s a story of Kafkaesque proportions.”

Animal corner

• Wildfires in Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland and one of the world’s most important biodiversity reserves, are taking a deadly toll on wildlife, including endangered species that scientists have been trying to protect for decades, the New York Times reports.