A Mexican army general has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, the government said Thursday — the latest arrest in a case that drew international condemnation.
The general, who commanded a battalion in the area of ??southern Mexico where the incident occurred, is one of three suspects arrested, Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejia told reporters.
He did not identify the suspects but said the other two were also military personnel.
Prosecutors announced last month that arrest warrants had been issued for more than 80 suspects in the case, including 20 military personnel, 44 police officers and 14 cartel members.
On the same day, former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, who led a controversial investigation into the mass disappearances, was arrested on charges of enforced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice.
The case is one of the worst human rights tragedies in Mexico, where a spiral of drug-related violence has left more than 100,000 people missing.
The apprentices had seized buses in the southern state of Guerrero to go to a demonstration in Mexico City before disappearing.
Investigators say they were arrested by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel who mistook them for members of a rival gang, but what exactly happened to them is disputed.
According to an official report presented in 2015 by the government of then-President Enrique Pena Nieto, cartel members killed the students and cremated their remains in a garbage dump.
These conclusions have been contradicted by relatives, independent experts and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A truth commission hired by the government to investigate the atrocity last month branded the case a “state crime” involving agents from various institutions.
Military personnel, either directly or negligently, bear “clear responsibility”.
So far, the remains of only three victims have been identified.