Mexico issues arrest warrants on anniversary of disappearance of 43 students

Mexican authorities have issued dozens of arrest warrants in a case that convulsed the country, sparked massive protests and garnered international condemnation.

College students hold images of the 43 missing students in a march Mexico City to mark the sixth anniversary of their disappearance. Source: AAP

Mexican authorities have issued dozens of arrest warrants for police and soldiers whom they believe may have participated in the 2014 disappearance of 43 college students, the head of the investigation said on Saturday.

Omar Gomez, head of the special prosecutor's office for the case, said the warrants had been issued for the "material and intellectual authors" of the crime, including military members, and federal and municipal police.

The announcement came during a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on the sixth anniversary of the students' kidnapping.

During the event, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Mexico's Undersecretary of Human Rights Alejandro Encinas held fabrics embroidered by relatives of the victims, many of whom attended the ceremony holding large pictures of the disappeared students.

Saturday marks the first time Mexican authorities have announced arrest warrants for military personnel in the case. Reuters reported earlier in the week that arrest warrants were imminent.

The Mexican military did not respond to initial requests for comment.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador meets with the parents of the 43 students at the National Palace in Mexico City. Source: AAP

The students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College disappeared on September 26, 2014. The students had commandeered five buses to travel to a protest, but were stopped by corrupt police in the city of Iguala, Guerrero and handed over to a drug cartel.

Prosecutors initially said the cartel mistook the students for members of a rival gang and killed them before incinerating their bodies at a garbage dump and tossing the remains in a river.

The remains of only two of the students have been positively identified so far.

The unsolved kidnapping convulsed the country, sparking massive protests in 2014 and garnering international condemnation as one of the darkest examples of the government’s longstanding difficulty preventing violence or convicting those responsible.

In June, authorities announced the apprehension of the leader of a Guerrero gang accused of involvement in the disappearance, and arrest warrants for Guerrero officials in connection with the case.

Family members of the victims have long accused Mexican authorities, including the military, of complicity in the students' disappearance.

With reporting by AFP.