Fugitive ex-official implicates Mexican ex-president, others in tale spun of student disappearances

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A former head of investigations for Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office told officials investigating the 2014 disappearance of 43 students that the so-called “historic truth” presented to the public weeks later was cooked up by the highest ranking authorities in the government during meetings presided over by then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, a Mexican news outlet reported Monday.

Tomás Zerón, a fugitive now in Israel beyond the reach of Mexican law enforcement, told investigators that the president and members of his security Cabinet were present, the independent journalism collective Fabrica de Periodismo reported.

It quoted from Zerón’s answers to a lengthy questionnaire sent to him in 2022 by Mexico’s top human rights official at the time, Alejandro Encinas, which was released under a freedom of information request.

The “historic truth” version contended the students were turned over by local police to a drug gang in the city of Iguala. The gang purportedly killed the students, incinerated their bodies at a dump in nearby Cocula and tossed the remains into a river.

Subsequent investigations by independent experts and the Attorney General’s Office, and corroborated by the Truth Commission established for the case, have since dismissed the idea the bodies were burned at the dump.

A local drug gang was indeed involved, they determined, but the Truth Commission also believes corrupt members of Mexico's military as well as police at all levels were, too.

Encinas, the human rights official, previously referred to high-level meetings of officials to discuss the “historic truth” version, but without identifying all of those present.

According to Zerón, the meetings were attended by the president as well as his security Cabinet and then-Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam. Murillo Karam has been credited with calling the explanation of the students’ disappearance the “historic truth” and has been under house arrest awaiting trial. Peña Nieto now lives in Spain.

Zerón, who is accused of torture and forced disappearance, did not provide any detail on Peña Nieto’s involvement other than to say he was at the meetings.

Encinas, who resigned from his post last year, has said he offered Zerón a deal for his cooperation in the investigation.

Asked about the case Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Zerón should turn himself in.

“It would help a lot if he would come to make a statement and take responsibility,” the president said.

López Obrador was scheduled to meet with families of the missing students Tuesday, the last time before he leaves office at the end of September.

Families of the missing students made their monthly march for justice in the capital on Monday.