Mexico identifies 17 new suspects in Ayotzinapa case after 12 years

Mexican authorities announced the identification of 17 new subjects of investigation in the 2014 disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students, marking 12 years since the attacks in Iguala, Guerrero. The breakthrough stems from a technological reanalysis of phone records and communications from the night of September 26 and early morning of September 27, 2014.

The Special Unit for the Ayotzinapa Case at the Attorney General's Office (FGR) reconstructed communication networks linking alleged members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, municipal and state police, public officials, and individuals tied to funeral homes in Iguala. One student's phone registered activity nearly a month after the disappearance, allegedly used by a former municipal public servant.

“The case remains unsolved 12 years later”

Officials are strengthening a hypothesis that a criminal network used incineration at a funeral home to destroy evidence. Witness collaborators stated some students may have been taken to the Ángel funeral home, owned by Rodolfo Rueda Mazon, who also held the concession for the Iguala Forensic Medical Service and cemetery administration.

The current administration is reviewing over 5 million pages across 3,000 case files from previous administrations, digitizing them with advanced technology. Subsecretary Arturo Medina Padilla emphasized the decision to re-examine existing investigations rather than start anew, leading to new lines of inquiry and arrests.