MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥� Mexican authorities have detained the former governor of the southern state Guerrero for his alleged involvement in the 鈥� a case that has grown to become a symbol for impunity and state involvement in cartel violence.
Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they arrested 脕ngel Aguirre, Guerrero’s former governor, on accusations of 鈥渃oncealing evidence to determine the whereabouts of the students” of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers鈥� College.
The former governor 鈥� of the party from which Mexico’s ruling Morena party emerged 鈥� is one of the highest-profile arrests in the case to date since the detention of former federal Attorney General Jes煤s Murillo Karam, who is facing criminal charges of forced disappearance, obstruction of justice and torture. Aguirre governed Guerrero from 2011 until he resigned in October 2014, one month after the students disappeared.
The disappearance of the students after they commandeered several buses on their way to a protest shocked Mexico and the international community, and in Mexico as the truth of the case continues to
Ernestina Godoy, the Attorney General of Mexico, stated that two testimonies gathered this year indicate that Aguirre not only requested that officials hand over the security camera footage from one of the locations of the attack that night but also ordered the destruction of any evidence related to the events.
鈥淭he Attorney General鈥檚 Office has evidence proving that this order to conceal the evidence was issued directly by the then-governor, with the participation of high-level state officials,鈥� she said.
鈥淔ar from being an isolated act or a technical oversight, the concealment of the recordings was the result of a malicious operation, deliberately orchestrated from the highest levels of the State Executive Branch.鈥�
Godoy did not explain why the testimonies of a collaborator and a protected witness, collected in January and May 2016 respectively, were obtained more than a decade after the events. She only indicated that when she arrived at the Attorney General鈥檚 Office at the end of last year, she began a 鈥渞eanalysis鈥� of the case with a 鈥渘ew investigative approach.鈥�
After three administrations, dozens of arrests and an investigation plagued by irregularities, key questions remain unanswered. Authorities believe the students were killed, but only bone fragments from three of them have been found, and the motive for the attack remains unclear, although it is believed to have been linked to heroin trafficking in the area.
According to Mexican authorities, a cartel in the city of Iguala attacked the students in multiple locations in collusion with security forces and local, state and federal authorities, including the military.
In one of these locations, outside the Palace of Justice 鈥� the seat of the courts 鈥� there were cameras that recorded the moment when security forces stopped one of the buses, but initial official statements claimed that this footage did not exist. Now, the federal prosecutor鈥檚 office confirms what investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced years ago: that these recordings were hidden or destroyed to conceal evidence.
The administration of former President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador, who served from 2018 to 2024, described the Ayotzinapa case as a 鈥渟tate crime.鈥�
During President Claudia Sheinbaum鈥檚 administration, which began in October 2024, the president said that new lines of investigation were reopened, some of which, according to the prosecutor, have led to the arrest of the former governor.
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