Angel Aguirre arrested in Ayotzinapa student case

Mexican authorities announced the arrest of former Guerrero governor Angel Aguirre on Thursday over alleged evidence tampering in the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college.

General Prosecutor Ernestina Godoy said Aguirre gave an instruction to hide evidence with the participation of public servants and senior state officials. She said the alleged concealment of audio evidence was an intentional operation directed from the leadership of Guerrero's state executive power.

Aguirre, 70, was governor of Guerrero when the students disappeared on September 26, 2014, while travelling to a protest in Mexico City. Local police stopped them in Iguala, where six people died in a street clash and 43 students later went missing.

Dozens of people, including public officials, have been arrested over the case. The remains of only three students have been found, and the whereabouts of the others are still unknown.

Aguirre requested a leave of absence in 2014 and left office before completing his term.

An investigation under former president Enrique Pena Nieto's government suggested the students had been incinerated and blamed local authorities and drug traffickers. A later investigation under Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described the events as a state crime and suggested a criminal group colluding with local police had attacked the students.

The students' parents have accused the Mexican military of complicity. In 2022, authorities arrested three soldiers, including a general, for alleged actions, omissions or participation in the crime. An independent investigative commission accused the military in 2023 of withholding key evidence.

President Claudia Sheinbaum has said her goal in the unresolved case is truth, justice and finding the students.