Special prosecutor in Mexico’s investigation into 43 missing students resigns

The special prosecutor leading the Attorney General’s Office investigation into the abduction and disappearances of 43 students in southern Mexico in 2014 has resigned, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday.

The resignation of Omar Gómez Trejo came one day after the families of the missing students marched on the eighth anniversary of their disappearances.

Gómez Trejo himself appeared to have gained the trust of the families. But the Attorney General’s Office has come under fire for cancelling some 21 arrest orders for suspects — including 16 members of the military — without explanation and for sensitive portions of a Truth Commission report being leaked to the press.

MEXICAN AUTHORITIES ISSUE WARRANTS FOR MILITARY, POLICE ALLEGEDLY LINKED TO DISAPPEARANCE OF 43 STUDENTS

That followed some advances in the case, including the arrest of former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam and of the army officer commanded the base in Iguala, Guerrero, when the students disappeared. He is now a retired general.

At his daily news conference Tuesday, López Obrador alluded to there being “differences,” but added that all points of view are respected. He said Gómez Trejo “didn’t agree with the procedures that were followed to approve the arrest orders,” but did not elaborate.

The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, a nongovernmental organization representing the students’ families, said in a statement Tuesday that Gómez Trejo’s resignation signaled unjustified interference by superiors in the Attorney General’s Office, including “rushed accusations and cancelled arrest orders.”

They expressed confidence in Gómez Trejo and his team’s work and called the developments “extremely concerning” for the pursuit of justice in the case.

At Monday’s march, the students’ families called for the resignation of Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero.

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Security forces abducted the students from buses in Iguala on Sept. 26, 2014, and turned them over to a local drug gang. New revelations implicate the military in the disappearances, but the motive for the students’ abduction remains unclear, though there is growing evidence it involves police and military collusion with drug traffickers.”