A control judge bound former Guerrero governor Ángel Heladio Aguirre Rivero to criminal process for his alleged participation in the forced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers, Mexico's Attorney General's Office (FGR) announced in the early hours of Wednesday, August 12. The court upheld official pretrial detention, meaning Aguirre will remain in the Altiplano federal prison.
The case dates to the night of September 26, 2014, when 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero. Aguirre, who governed the state between 2011 and 2014, was detained on August 6 in Tepotzotlán, State of Mexico, as part of new FGR proceedings, according to El Universal. The charges point to the alleged concealment of information and the possible destruction of security camera recordings from the Iguala Palace of Justice, which, according to the investigation, captured the moment when municipal and state police stopped one of the buses carrying the student teachers. Twelve years later, the binding of a former governor to process marks a judicial advance in a case that has proved difficult to prosecute.
According to Aristegui Noticias, the hearing lasted more than 15 hours, during which the defense presented 31 pieces of evidence in an attempt to discredit the charges. The control judge, attached to the Federal Criminal Justice Center of the Altiplano, granted a four-month period for supplementary investigation. Two former officials from Aguirre's administration testified as witnesses, stating that the former governor was in Mexico City on the date of the events. The crime of forced disappearance committed by public servants carries sentences of 40 to 60 years in prison. Thirteen parents of the 43 student teachers attended the hearing.
Within four months, the Attorney General's Office must present the results of the supplementary investigation. For the families of the student teachers, the judge's ruling opens a new stage in a cause that has already spanned more than eleven years.
This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.