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| Parents of 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students in front of Attorney General's Office Photo: Víctor Camacho |
Translated by Ruby Izar-Shea
With the [PGR, Attorney General's Office] return to the Cocula garbage dump hypothesis and the delays in the Iguala case investigations, the federal government intends to conclude the second term of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) [which gave an interim report yesterday] without positive results, said the parents of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.
MV Note: The IGIE began its work in March 2015 for an agreed upon six-month period. It submitted its initial report in September of last year, in which it rejected, on scientific grounds, the possibility of the "historical truth" presented by the PGR the previous January, that the 43 students had been killed and their bodies burned in a dump in Cocula, near Iguala. Subsequently, the Mexican government agreed to a second six-month term. It ends April 30. There is the possibility of another extension, but the Mexican government has indicated it will oppose that.Abrajam Gaspar Bernabe and Epifanio Alvarez Carbajal, parents of two young people disappeared in the September 26 and 27, 2014 events, ratified the IGIE warning about the obstacles and challenges they face to continue the investigation on the alleged perpetrators of the Iguala case and find out the whereabouts of the young people.
Abrajam Gaspar complained:
''The Attorney General's Office (PGR) says it will do something and does nothing; it’s been a long time without results or news.''Meanwhile, Epifanio Alvarez said that, as things currently stand, the parents of the 43 missing students will request once again that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) extend the Expert Group’s stay in Mexico, something which, apparently, the federal government no longer supports.
Both parents stressed the ''desperation'' they face with the lack of progress in the investigations and the slow action of the PGR authorities, ''because months have passed and there have been many meetings'' which have even been attended by Arely Gomez, the Attorney General of the Republic, but there has been no significant progress. ''We think they are trying to delaying everything,'' insisted Abrajam Gaspar.
Interviewed over the telephone before leaving the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School to go to Mexico City, where on Monday they will offer a press conference at the Monument to Benito Juárez, both parents referred to the meeting held last Thursday with the head of the PGR to learn about the investigation’s progress.
Epifanio Alvarez said ''very little'' progress was reported by the authorities, and they reiterated the government's refusal to allow the IGIE to directly interview members of the 27 Army Battalion present on the days the Iguala events occurred, despite them having valuable information to clarify what transpired.
Moreover, the relatives of the 43 disappeared students reaffirmed their full support for the Interdisciplinary Group of Experts, whose work has been fundamental to breaking down, scientifically, the hypothesis that the students were killed and incinerated in the Cocula garbage dump. Spanish original