Fugitive ex-official accuses Mexican ex-president, others in story of student disappearances

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A former head of investigations for Mexico’s attorney general’s office told officials investigating the 2014 disappearance of 43 students that the so-called “historical truth” presented to the public weeks later was concocted by top government officials during meetings chaired by then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, a Mexican news agency reported Monday.

Tomás Zerón, a fugitive currently in Israel and out of reach of Mexican law enforcement, told investigators that the president and members of his security cabinet were present, the independent journalism collective Fabrica de Periodismo reported.

It quoted Zerón’s responses to a lengthy questionnaire sent to him in 2022 by Mexico’s top human rights official, Alejandro Encinas, and released under a freedom of information request.

The version of the “historical truth” claimed that the students were turned over by local police to a drug gang in the city of Iguala. The gang allegedly murdered the students, burned their bodies in a landfill in nearby Cocula, and threw the remains in a river.

Subsequent investigations by independent experts and the attorney general’s office, and confirmed by the truth commission set up for the case, have since debunked the theory that the bodies were burned at the dump.

They found that a local drug gang was indeed involved, but the Truth Commission also suspects that corrupt members of the Mexican military and police at all levels were involved.

Encinas, the human rights official, previously referred to meetings of senior officials to discuss the version of the “historical truth,” but without naming all those present.

According to Zerón, the meetings were attended by the president, his security cabinet and then-Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam. Murillo Karam is credited with calling the explanation of the students’ disappearance the “historical truth” and is under house arrest awaiting trial. Peña Nieto now lives in Spain.

Zerón, who is accused of torture and forced disappearance, did not provide details about Peña Nieto’s involvement other than to say he was present at the meetings.

Encinas, who resigned last year, said he made Zerón an offer in exchange for his cooperation in the investigation.

When asked about the case on Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Zerón should turn himself in.

“It would be very helpful if he would make a statement and take responsibility,” the president said.

López Obrador was scheduled to meet with the families of the missing students on Tuesday, the last time before he leaves office at the end of September.

Relatives of the missing students held their monthly march for justice in the capital on Monday.