Ayotzinapa: attorney general criticized for inaction, rejects truth commission

Inaction by the Attorney General has prompted the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) to provide evidence to two federal courts to secure justice for a man it says was wrongfully

arrested in connection with the Ayotzinapa case. The organization filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs with a federal district court and a federal circuit court — both located in

Matamoros, Tamaulipas — because the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) has done nothing to resolve the case of Erick Uriel Sandoval Rodríguez. The CNDH issued a statement earlier this

week charging that it “has undoubted evidence” that Sandoval was “wrongly arrested” by the PGR in connection with the 2014 disappearance of 43 teaching students from the Ayotzinapa,

Guerrero, teacher training college. The commission claims the federal department mistakenly identified him as the man known by the aliases of _“El Güereque”_ and _“La Rana” _(The Frog). The

human rights group’s evidence includes proof that Sandoval’s physical appearance does not match that of the man that other detainees said was an accomplice in the disappearance of the 43

students. In a new statement issued yesterday, the CNDH said it presented the courts with the documents and evidence it obtained in its own investigation which allowed it to establish that

the PGR had arrested the wrong man. The human rights group previously provided the PGR with “a file with certified copies of all the evidence it obtained” in relation to the case but said

the federal department failed to correct its mistake. In addition, the CNDH said that 17 other people including “relatives of the detainee and witnesses of the case” had filed injunction

requests that have been ignored by the department and described “the silence of the PGR” as “incomprehensible.” With the evidence that it gathered — which also includes personal details of

the man alleged to be the real _“El Güereque” _and _“La Rana”_ — now in the charge of the courts, the CNDH expressed its “conviction” that they would “issue a ruling in favor of justice.”

CNDH president Luis Raúl González Pérez said the “best response” that his organization hoped for was that the PGR “corrects the injustice” that it has inflicted on a man for whom there is no

evidence of guilt. He also said that a judge had previously ruled there was no evidence that justified Sandoval’s detention although the same judge raised the possibility that a tattoo that

supposedly identified him had been removed. _“_We have already proved that there has been no tattoo removal because he’s not the [same] person . . .” González said. Meanwhile, the PGR said

yesterday that creating a truth and justice commission to undertake a new investigation into the abduction and presumed homicide of the 43 students — as ordered by another Tamaulipas-based

federal court on June 4 — is impossible. There is “a real, legal and material impossibility” to create the commission, the PGR said in the First Collegiate Tribunal of the 19th Circuit while

presenting an appeal to an injunction granted to Miguel Ángel Landa Bahena, who is also accused of involvement in the disappearance of the students. In an interview with the newspaper _El

Universal_, acting Attorney General Alberto Elías Beltrán said the court’s ruling that a new investigation must take place is “a violation of the separation of powers” and that the PGR is

analyzing its legal options to challenge the decision. The _amparo_ or injunction granted to Landa, who is also known by the alias _El Chequel, _ ordered a new investigation into his alleged

involvement in the students’ disappearance and for independent experts to determine whether he was tortured during the PGR’s investigation. A United Nations report published in March said

that 34 people were tortured in connection with the investigation and presented with “numerous physical injuries” that were medically certified and consistent with injuries resulting from

torture. _Source: El Universal (sp)_