HomeNewsBriefSchool Director's Implication is Latest Iguala Case Twist
BRIEF

School Director's Implication is Latest Iguala Case Twist

AYOTZINAPA / 29 JAN 2015 BY DAVID GAGNE EN

The director of the rural teachers' college in southwest Mexico attended by 43 students missing since September has been implicated in their disappearance, in what represents the latest twist in a case that continues to rock the nation.

According to Felipe Rodriguez Salgado, alias "El Cepillo," an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos gang implicated in their disappearance, Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College Director Jose Luis Hernandez Rivera was bribed by a member of criminal group Los Rojos to send the students to a protest in Iguala the night they were abducted, reported Proceso.

Following the accusation, Hernandez denied any involvement in the case, reported Milenio.

The alleged Guerreros Unidos leader had previously stated the criminal gang rounded up the missing students on their way to Iguala because they were believed to have members of Los Rojos among them. Salgado was arrested in mid-January, and has since confessed to killing at least 15 of the missing students.

InSight Crime Analysis

Salgado has been a key witness in the government's investigation into the missing students case. Mexican authorities have built their official version that the students were taken to a trash dump and burned last September in part based on testimony from Salgado and his accomplices, as well as biological and forensic evidence. (For a full recap of the Iguala case, click through InSight Crime's timeline below.)

SEE ALSO: Mexico News and Profiles

Given the significant role Salgado has played in the investigation and the high number of suspects who have been arrested in connection to the case, the Mexican government may look closely into the accusation against Hernandez. Notably, the public release of Salgado's comments comes amid remarks by Mexico's Attorney General Jose Murillo Karam that the government's investigation into the case is still underway, despite widespread reporting it had been closed.

But no matter how Hernandez's case is resolved, it is unlikely to buy back the government any credibility among the Mexican population. Despite attempts to show transparency and silence critics of the investigation, there is growing doubt that the government's version of what happened to the students rings true. In January, one independent investigation determined the bodies were probably burned in an army crematorium, and magazine Proceso has found the government likely used torture to obtain testimony from witnesses.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 15 MAR 2023

Australia and New Zealand are the most expensive cocaine markets in the world. For the Sinaloa Cartel, it's worth the…

ELITES AND CRIME / 18 JAN 2023

The US trial of Genaro García Luna, the architect of Mexico's war on drugs, will seek to prove whether he…

ARGENTINA / 12 SEP 2022

Synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, fentanyl, and ecstasy are reshaping Latin America's drug trade.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…