Mexico: 43 Ayotzinapa Families Call On AMLO To Meet Lawyers

Parents of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students are calling on AMLO to move forward with the case and for the Supreme Court to create a truth commission.

Families of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students held a press conference on Wednesday asking that the Supreme Court work impartially in their case and calling on President-Elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to meet with their lawyers to bring justice to the Iguala case.

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"We are afraid that the president will fold like the court, denying the request to create a special commission to investigate," the families said.

Family members asked incoming ministers, who will be sworn in along with AMLO on December 1,  to not bow before the interests of the current government, but to defend the separation of powers and judicial autonomy.

The supreme court was ordered to create a special truth commission to investigate the four-year-old case by a local level court in Reynosa in Tamaulipas state in early June. The high court has yet to move on the order.

Family representatives said at the conference: "Ministers must choose between two paths: to be complicit in the interests of the Enrique Peña government or to claim their independence and autonomy and ratify the commission."

In March of this year, the U.N. published the report 'Double Injustice: Human Rights Violations in the Investigation of the Ayotzinapa Case,' which revealed "a pattern of committing, tolerating and covering up torture in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case."

According to the official hypothesis, Iguala police officers kidnapped the 43 students and handed them over to the drug cartel Guerreros Unidos, who allegedly killed them and incinerated their bodies.  

But relatives of the missing students say this hypothesis is a fabrication and accuse the government of planting evidence and torturing detainees in order to cover for high-profile politicians and members of the military.

Families of Iguala reminded the incoming ministers recently selected by AMLO that as a candidate in May he pledged to "form a truth commission and allow United Nations to participate to clarify everything."   

The parents of the disappeared asked the newly selected interior minister, Olga Sanchez Cordero, and the incoming sub-secretary of the government, Alejandro Encinas, who will be in charge of the case for the administration come December, to meet with their lawyers.

"It's a shame that 46 months have passed without knowing the truth and the government continues to fight against a resolution that orders an independent investigation," said Mario Patron, director of Centro Pro Human Rights.