Mexico’s top court orders release of Ayotzinapa missing students case file

Relatives of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students march to demand justice for their loved ones in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the attorney general’s office to release a public version of its investigation file into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College, one of the country’s worst human rights atrocities.

The case has been marred by missteps and interference, with Mexico’s former top prosecutor arrested in 2022 in relation to the case.

The court ruling, prompted by a request from a private citizen, requires the file to be made available on the prosecutor’s website with confidential data redacted.

For more than a decade, the government has promised action in finding those responsible, with investigations publishing varying accounts of what happened to the students from the southern state of Guerrero.

In 2022, investigators acknowledged that local, state and federal officials had played a role in covering up their disappearance. International probes have ruled they were likely kidnapped and killed by organized crime members in cahoots with police.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. The Supreme Court did not specify a deadline for compliance.

Victims’ families have long pressed for justice, though no one has been convicted in connection to the case.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Chris Reese)