In a bombshell investigative report published today by the Mexican newsmagazine, Proceso, it is alleged that Federal Police orchestrated and carried out the attack on students in Iguala, Guerrero, on September 26, with the complicity and collaboration of the Army.
State documents obtained by Proceso, as well as videos and testimonies, allegedly show that the Federal Police were monitoring the students as they left Ayotzinapa for Iguala, and that they participated in the shooting of students. This sharply contradicts the official version of events put out by the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, that federal forces did not know the attack was occurring, and that it was only local forces and drug gangs involved. This would suggest a cover-up. As Univisión writes, "“There is no way the Peña Nieto government can say they didn’t know know what was happening.”
In addition, documents obtained by Proceso allegedly show that the witness testimonies of presumed gang members used by the Attorney General in his report of the events were obtained after the use of torture:
But Hernández told HuffPost that documents she obtained from the attorney general's office show that witnesses who testified had been tortured by federal authorities or the military during interrogations completed prior to their testimonies. The documents detail telltale signs of beatings on the witnesses' bodies, Hernández said -- black eyes, marks on the neck, bruising on the ribs and signs that authorities had electrocuted one witness's testicles. One witness had a series of red dots over his body that Hernández said also likely indicated electrocution.
“The version given by the federal government, by the attorney general’s office, is based solely on testimony by presumed drug traffickers,” Hernández said. "What we found is that, in at least five cases, these testimonies were obtained using torture."
If true, this report casts great doubts on the reliability of the official account of these events and it presents further problems for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto.