President Enrique Pena Nieto said Monday that Mexico will continue to investigate the case of the 43 students who went missing in the southern state of Guerrero two years ago.
At a news conference in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where he witnessed the signing of the peace treaty between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Pena Nieto reaffirmed his government's commitment to continuing with the investigations.
"Today is an occasion to reiterate the government's firm commitment to finding out the last consequences in the investigations," said Pena Nieto, according to a press release published by the presidency.
The president said the government's "only interest" is finding out what happened on the evening of Sept. 26 and in the early hours of Sept. 27, 2014, in the municipality of Iguala, Guerrero.
Pena Nieto said that for this case there will be no turning back and guaranteed that all those responsible will face justice.
The president added that the Mexican Attorney General's Office will continue working so that what happened to the students "is duly clarified."
The 43 students from Ayotzinapa have been listed as missing since Sept. 26 and 27, 2014, after police from Iguala detained them while they were travelling on buses.
Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto (L) and his wife Angelica Rivera attend the parade at the Zocalo Square in Mexico City Sept. 16, 2016. Mexico on Friday held a military parade to mark the 206th anniversary of its independence. (Xinhua/Str)
The government's hypothesis is that the students were abducted by the police who handed them over to members of the organized crime gang "Guerreros Unidos" ("United Warriors"), who suspected that the students belonged to a rival organization.
According to statements made by alleged criminals arrested as part of the case and an expert survey, members of "Guerreros Unidos" killed and cremated the young people in a rubbish dump in the neighboring municipality of Cocula.
The students' parents rejected this version because two forensic studies carried out by experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team ruled out this possibility as it would be impossible to light a fire capable of completely burning 43 bodies in this rubbish dump.
On Monday, students from several parts of the country, mainly in Mexico City, and the southern states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, held marches demanding the government to clarify the facts.
During an interview with Aristegui Noticias, Vidulfo Rosales, lawyer for the students' parents and Felipe de la Cruz, spokesperson for the parents, condemned the fact that two years after the incident, the students' whereabouts are still unknown and so far no one has been sentenced, despite 180 people being arrested.