By Lizbeth Diaz
MEXICO CITY, March 4 (Reuters) – A Mexican court ordered the army to hand over long-awaited documents that could advance the landmark investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students in southern Guerrero state at the alleged hands of organized crime and local security forces.
The ruling, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, rejected the army’s prior assertion that 853 missing pages of information generated by the CFRI, an army intelligence agency, did not exist, and ordered that these must now be handed over.
The government has for over a decade promised to find those responsible for one of the country’s worst human rights atrocities, but no one has been convicted, though over 100 have been arrested and face ongoing prosecutions.
The case of the disappearance of the students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College has been marred by missteps and interference. International probes have ruled that they were killed by organized crime members in cahoots with police.
The documents may not be considered classified due to the “overriding interest on the part of the victims’ families, as well as society in general, to know the truth,” the ruling said.
The families’ legal representative, the Agustin Pro Human Rights Centre, known as Centro Pro, hailed the order.
“This ruling recognizes the right to the truth of the families and of society as a whole, underlining the obligation of SEDENA (defense ministry) and other military bodies to provide key information for the search for the students,” it said in a statement.
Only the remains of three of the 43 students have been positively identified. The locations of the others remain unknown.
Mexico’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling, dated February 19.
Asked about the case in a morning press conference on Wednesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had no knowledge of the ruling but would meet with the victims’ parents at the end of this month.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Mark Porter)
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