The Attorney General's Office (PGR) said it has a full commitment to the thorough investigation of
the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa normal school students and the ''effective punishment" of those responsible. Yesterday, the agency headed by Arely Gomez issued a statment, saying:
"The PGR reiterates that the investigation is open and that any line of investigation will be fully exhausted."The statement was in response to the statement made yesterday by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE), which is cooperating in the investigation of this case. The PGR said that the actions of the agency
''are taken according to a strategy and work plan developed based on the capacities and investigations of the Federal Public Ministry [investigative police and prosecutors].''Yesterday, members of IGIE presented their progress report on the second phase of their work in Mexico, in which they accused the PGR is pushing an unsubstantiated fifth version of what happened to the normal school students.
In response, the PGR said that it has no greater intention than to clarify the facts and punish those responsible.
''We have a work plan developed with the technical support of the IGIE, reporting continually to the families regarding each step in the investigation,'' the agency said.It added...:
''This institution (PGR) appreciates the recognition given by the IGIE of the progress taking place in the investigation and the work of the new team that is conducting it [in the office of the Deputy Prosecutor for Human Rights] and its willingness to work together."The PGR said that it has been receptive to the contributions and comments from the international experts, but said that they can only be met if the Mexican legal framework allows it
MV Note: IGIE access to interview soldiers who witnessed some of the attacks on the students has been denied on the grounds that only Mexican legal officials can interview the military, although the IGIE has interviewed police arrested for the attacks.The PGR statement addressed some other points in the IGIE report. It said the investigation of the case ''is not fragmented'' and mentioned that the transfer of the preliminary investigation (comprising 154 volumes) from the Specialized Deputy Attorney in Investigation of Organized Crime (Seido) to the one for Human Rights happened a week after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided to extend the mandate of the IGIE in Ocotber.
Regarding the indictment of the 22 policemen [who have filed amaparos, appeals to protect them from prosecution] mentioned by the IGIE, the PGR said that
'' these same people are also subject to federal prosecution for organized crime and kidnapping, so--apart from the evidence against them being updated as suggested by the IGIE--none of the 22 agents could obtain his freedom until federal judges also resolve the matter.''
MV Note: The IGIE expressed concern that the 22 could be released for lack of evidence or that the indictments are based on confessions obtained via torture, both of which are not uncommon occurrances in the Mexican justice system.Finally, the PGR stated that it is properly analyzing the relevance and adherence to the law of each of the pending requests from the Expert Group, which has been allowed full access to the preliminary investigation.
MV Note: The complaint of the IGIE is that at least twelve additonal investigations have been opened by Seido, which is no longer supposed to be involved in the case, and these twelve have not been included in the initial "preliminary" investigation files, so they don't have access to them.