The shock announcement, which ties the army to one of the country’s worst human rights scandals of all time, was made by Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas as he released new details from the truth commission’s report.
According to Encinas, the students were handed over to a local colonel, José Rodríguez, who ordered the students to be killed.
The students from the radical teacher training college in Ayotzinapa were on their way to a demonstration in Mexico City when they were detained by corrupt police officers in the city of Iguala.
Called the emergency number
The students allegedly called the Mexican emergency number while being held captive in a warehouse for several days, before being handed over to the local colonel.
“According to reports, the six students were alive for as many as four days afterward, and were killed and disappeared on the orders of then-Colonel José Rodríguez,” Encinas said Friday.
A few days later, the colonel is said to have mentioned that the army is taking care of the “clean-up”, and that they have already taken care of the six students who were still alive.
The Ministry of Defense did not want to comment on the accusation.
Links to criminals
The Truth Commission’s report on the incident has already previously revealed that there were links between the police and the criminal network Guerreros Unidos, which is said to have participated in the violence and disappearances.
The military’s role in the students’ disappearance has long created tension between the students’ families and the Mexican government. From the beginning, questions have been raised about its possible involvement and relatives have demanded for years to be allowed to search the military base in Iguala. Permission for this was only given in 2019.
The bodies have never been found. However, fragments of burnt bone pieces have been found to match three of the students.