Mexico Says It Will Allow International Experts To Revisit Missing Students Case

By Eyder Peralta

Published October 9, 2015 at 3:43 PM CDT

A man holds a banner that reads in Spanish "Justice," during a march by parents and relatives of 43 missing students who were killed, in Iguala, Mexico.

Mexico says that it will allow a team of international experts to revisit the case of 43 students who went missing last year.

NPR's Carrie Kahn reports that the United Nations' top human rights official recommended the move after a visit to the country.

Carrie filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the U.N.'s High Commissioner on Human Rights, recommended the experts re-examine the site where the government says the bodies of the students were burned.

"Authorities contend the 43 were kidnapped, then murdered by a local drug gang. All the bodies were allegedly burned in one night at a garbage dump. That version has been publicly challenged by relatives and international experts.

"Mexico says it will allow seven experts from five countries to re-review the crime area.

"During his visit, the UN commissioner criticized Mexico's police and prosecutors. Referring to the tens of thousands of unsolved murders and disappearances.

"'No one in Mexico can feel safe. They're not enjoying the protection of the law,' he said."

El Universal reports that Arely Gómez González, the country's attorney general, told senators today that it had assembled an international team to take part in the investigation.

"The case of Iguala is not closed," she said. "The investigations continue."

Back in January, Mexico declared all 43 students dead. The attorney general at the time made a multimedia presentation that said the students were kidnapped, taken to a trash dump, killed, set on fire, the remains put in bags and then thrown into a river.