Mexico names 17 new suspects in Ayotzinapa case after phone reanalysis
Mexican prosecutors say a reanalysis of 2014 phone records has identified 17 previously unknown people now under investigation in the Ayotzinapa students' disappearance.
Mexican federal prosecutors said on Monday that a fresh examination of telephone records has identified 17 previously unknown individuals who are now under investigation in the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students.
Special prosecutor Mauricio Pazarán said the review centred on communications made during the night of 26 September and the early hours of 27 September 2014, when the students vanished after being attacked in Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero.
According to Pazarán, the comprehensive reanalysis of documentary and expert telephone evidence grew out of a new look at records from 2014 and 2015. That work, he said, revealed patterns that earlier investigations had not explored, leading to the identification of the 17 individuals.
The group includes public officials, Guerrero state police officers and people alleged to be linked to criminal groups.
Pazarán also disclosed new findings about two students' mobile phones. He said a handset belonging to Jorge Aníbal Cruz Mendoza was used by a municipal police officer from Iguala on 30 September 2014 and later by the officer's romantic partner. A phone belonging to Israel Caballero Sánchez was likewise used after his disappearance, in that case by the wife of a former municipal public servant assigned to the police station who was on duty on the day of the events.
Authorities have not established how the devices came into those hands, Pazarán said.
He added that arrests carried out in connection with the events include nine municipal police officers, eight alleged members or collaborators of criminal groups and seven former public officials. Among the latter is former Guerrero governor Ángel Aguirre.
Investigators believe the students were killed, but remains from only three of the 43 have been identified. Dozens of people have been detained over the course of the investigation, yet more than 12 years on no one has been convicted over the disappearances.
Families of the missing continue to press for answers. Outstanding issues include military documents sought by relatives, pending extraditions and renewed international supervision of the investigation.