Mexican Judiciary Releases Eight Soldiers Implicated in Ayotzinapa Case
Photo: Unsplash
By KELIN DILLON
On Wednesday, Jan. 24, eight members of the Mexican military who stand accused of involvement in the infamous Ayotzinapa case were released from preventative detention by a federal judge’s orders.
While the September 2014 disappearance of the 43 students in Iguala, Guerrero, remains unsolved, members of the Mexican Armed Forces have widely been implicated as perpetrators in the case – including by the U.S. government and the Truth Commission created by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to look into the incident.
The eight released soldiers – Gustavo Rodríguez de la Cruz, Omar Torres Marquillo, Juan Andrés Flores Lagunes, Ramiro Manzanares Sanabria, Roberto de los Santos Eduviges, Eloy Estrada Díaz, Uri Yashiel Reyes Lazos and Juan Sotelo Díaz – will now remain free until their trial following their freedom from the Campo Militar 1-A prison in the State of México (Edoméx).
In exchange for their freedom, the military elements were required to turn over their passports to the authorities, leave a 50,000 peso bail bond and subsequently report to the district court on the 1st and 16th of every month.
The soldiers are also banned from entering or approaching the state of Guerrero, where the Ayotzinapa incident took place, as well as from living with one another and approaching or communicating with the witnesses and family members associated with the case.
Following their release, only five members of the Mexican Armed Forces will remain under preventative detention for their purported role in the Ayotzinapa case, including General Rodríguez Pérez.
For his part, López Obrador characterized the judiciary’s release of the soldiers as a “political” move made to “affect” both the Armed Forces and the AMLO administration.
“What is regrettable is that the Judiciary, from the beginning, protected those who participated in the disappearance of the young people and did not take care of guaranteeing justice for the benefit of the parents of the missing young people,” said AMLO on Tuesday, Jan. 23.