Report slams obstacles, torture in Mexico students case

Mexico City: Independent investigators issued a scathing report Sunday on the disappearance of 43 Mexican students, accusing the government of obstructing their probe and alleging that some suspects were tortured.

After a yearlong investigation ending this month, the foreign experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights were unable to resolve a case that has shocked the international community and sparked protests against President Enrique Pena Nieto.

While the mystery remains, the report calls for investigations into the conduct of federal police and the military on the night of September 26-27, 2014, when the 43 young men vanished in the city of Iguala, southern Guerrero state.

The experts also cited medical reports showing "significant indications of mistreatment and torture" against 17 of the more than 100 suspects detained in the case, with some claiming they received electric shocks in their testicles and bags were placed over their heads.

A good part of the 605-page report -- the second of their mission -- is dedicated to the "obstructions" that the experts faced from the authorities, which worsened starting in January.

The authorities showed "little interest" in moving forward with new lines of investigation and it was "impossible" for the experts to reinterview 17 of the suspects, the report said.

"The group has also suffered a (media) campaign that seeks to discredit people as a way to question their work," said the report by the five-member panel -- two lawyers from Colombia, another from Chile, a former attorney general of Guatemala and a Spanish psychologist.

"These actions show that some sectors are not interested in the truth," Colombian lawyer Alejandro Valencia told a news conference.

- Torture claims -

Pena Nieto's spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment, but the government has said that it cooperated with the group, giving them ample time to investigate.

The experts arrived in Mexico in March 2015 at the request of the victims' parents and after the government agreed to their mission. Their mandate was renewed once, but the authorities decided against giving them another extension.

Prosecutors say the teachers-in-training were attacked by municipal police after the young men stole five buses that they planned to use for a future protest. Three students and three bystanders were killed on the spot.

The officers then handed over 43 students to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, which killed them and incinerated their bodies at a garbage dump in the nearby town of Cocula, according to prosecutors.

The remains of only one student were fully identified after they were found in a nearby river.

Claims of torture are among the most damning elements presented by the experts, with medical reports and statements from suspects claiming they were beaten after their arrests.

The suspects were usually detained "peacefully," but bruises appeared in medical reports after their arrests and some claimed to have received electric shocks on their tongues and genitals.

One said police put a rag up his nose and poured water on his face.

- 'Satanic One' -

The report also raises new questions about the presence of soldiers and federal police in Iguala the night of the attacks, but it does not directly link them to the mass disappearance.

The experts were never allowed to interview 27 members of the 500-strong 27th army battalion based in Iguala.

The report noted that the army monitored the students' movements and that a military intelligence officer witnessed a clash.

The experts called on the authorities to investigate allegations that one battalion soldier, nicknamed "The Satanic One," trafficked weapons for the Guerreros Unidos.

Another "key element" that needs further investigation is the "participation or knowledge" of federal police in the mass disappearance, according to the report.

Students in one of the five buses said federal police pointed their guns at them as they exited the vehicle, prompting them to run.

At a city exit, federal police manned a checkpoint and a detour, according to survivors from an attack on a bus carrying a third-division football team.

After gunmen and other police attacked the bus, witnesses said the federal officers failed to help the wounded.

The report also recalls allegations that federal police were present when students were detained near a judicial building.

In other conclusions, the experts rejected claims that the students were out to disrupt a local political event, denied that they were infiltrated by another gang and said there was no proof they were burned at the landfill.

They urged authorities to investigate the possibility the students were attacked because they inadvertently stole a bus used to smuggle heroin.