Mexico Arrests its Former Attorney General for Unsolved Murders

Mexico arrested its former Attorney General last month for his role in the murder of 43 students back in 2014. Historically, senior officials and politicians have enjoyed de facto immunity in Mexico, but that appears to be changing under the new National Prosecutor’s Office.

In September 2014, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher’s College, in the state of Guerrero, commandeered buses to go to a protest rally. Gunmen and police then attacked the buses. The students were last seen in the hands of local police in the city of Iguala. Then they disappeared. Despite nationwide protests, eight years of investigation have turned up little. As a candidate, the current president, Andres Lopez Obrador, pledged to solve the case. He appointed a commission to look into the matter, and a special prosecutor as its point person. It is believed that the students unwittingly took a bus loaded with drugs or money used by a local cartel. State police, federal police, and even the military knew about the kidnapping, but none took action to stop it or rescue the hostages. This lack of action, even at the highest levels, is behind some of the charges against the former attorney general.

Mexico still struggles with the rule-of-law; however, arresting the former attorney general is a major step forward. It took a president, armed with the will of the people, to establish a special commission and invest powers into a specific person to make a break-through. This centralized, concentrated authority is typical of the governance needed to address corruption. Decentralized authority tends to allow indifference, indecision, and ineffectiveness to flourish in chaotic environments.

Roughly 100,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels. Since then, the military, crime gangs, and corrupt security officials have all played a role in the volume of deaths. While it will be a long time before Mexico has a justice system that works the way one would hope, every prosecution of a corrupt official helps. Cleaning-up the system won’t be easy, but it is still the right goal to pursue.

Source:

Mary Beth Sheridan and Kevin Sieff, “Former Mexican AG Arrested in Connection with 2014 Kidnapping,” Washington Post, 21 August 2022, A23; see also https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/19/mexico-disappeared-students-ayotzinapa/

Phote: AFP