Mexico President Defends Armed Forces After Release Of Report On Ayotzinapa 43 Disappearance

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has shown support for the country's armed forces days after an independent panel accused the Mexican military of being complicit in the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College.

Obrador said during a press conference on Thursday that it was untrue that the Mexican military had created obstacles in the investigation related to the 2014 incident, which is now known as the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa 43.

Talking about the report related to one of the most notorious human rights cases in Mexico's history, the president said it's not true the "navy and the army aren't helping."

"If progress has been made, it's precisely because of the cooperation of the navy and the army," Obrador, who promised to clear up the case when he took office in 2018, said, as reported by Al Jazeera.

He also noted that 115 people, including retired general Jose Rodriguez, have already been detained in connection with the case.

According to Obrador, what's "most important now is the search for the missing youths."

His comments come after the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) said on Tuesday that officials from Mexico's army and navy, as well as police agencies and intelligence services, knew the location of the 43 students.

The GIEI added that the Mexican security forces had withheld key information. Meanwhile, the panel accused them of obstructing investigative efforts and using torture to get hands-on false testimonies.

Before the group's sixth and final fact-finding report was released, GIEI member Carlos Beristain said, "They all collaborated to make them (the students) disappear."

The panel also tweeted about the case, saying, "The obstacles to access to broader levels of information in investigations of serious human rights violations, as is the case now after an important initial opening, shows impunity and resistance to change."

The GIEI's findings were also backed by the Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. It said it regretted that the "armed forces have not provided all the information requested by the GIEI," which was needed to work on the case.

The students had been traveling on buses through Iguala for a protest in Mexico City when they went missing on Sept. 26, 2014.

Even though the remains of only three students have been formally identified, they are all presumed dead.