In the case of the 43 students from a teachers’ college in Mexico who have been missing since 2014, a court has ordered the Ministry of Defense to release missing intelligence information.
Mar 5, 2026, 3:43 amMar 5, 2026, 3:43 am
According to the decision, the army must provide 853 pages of documents whose existence it has previously denied, according to the Prodh human rights center.
On the night of September 27, 2014, corrupt police officers kidnapped students from the left-wing Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in the southern city of Iguala and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. Soldiers are also said to have been involved. The case has not yet been fully solved, although numerous suspects have been arrested. The background remains unclear. Only bone parts from three of the young men have been found so far. A truth commission classified the act as a state crime in 2022 and declared the students dead.
A memorial and protest demonstration for the students who disappeared in 2014.Image: keystone
Human rights activists hope for relevant information
According to the Centro Prodh, which legally represents the students’ relatives, the content of the documents now to be released is likely to be relevant to clarifying the case. “The resolution makes it clear that gaps in the documents do not mean that they do not exist, but rather indicate that the information is available to the military and must be released,” the organization said in a statement.
It is unclear what the military will do after the verdict, as it has so far denied the existence of the documents. President Claudia Sheinbaum did not initially comment. “I was not aware of this decision until now. We will check and inform him,” she said. Sheinbaum plans to meet with the students’ families again before the end of the month. (sda/dpa)