U.S. authorities have handed over key suspects in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of 43 college students to their Mexican counterparts after they attempted to cross the border without proper paperwork.
The Mexican National Institute for Immigration identified the man by name only, but federal investigators confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday that he was Alejandro Tenescalco. He said he didn’t qualify.
Former Mexican police officer Tenescalco was caught trying to cross the border on December 20.
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Relatives and classmates of 43 Ayotzinapa college students who went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, march in Mexico City, Sept. 26, 2022. U.S. authorities have extradited Alejandro Tenescalco, a key suspect in the 2014 disappearance, after a man was arrested on December 20, 2022, for trying to cross the border without proper documentation.
(AP)
He was a police supervisor in Iguala, a city in Chilpancingo province. There, students from the local teachers’ college were taken away by the city police. Mexican authorities have suggested that corrupt police handed over the students to drug cartels who killed them and burned their bodies.
Alejandro Encinas, head of the government’s Truth Commission, called Tenescalco “one of the main perpetrators” of the crime.
He faces kidnapping and organized crime charges. The Mexican government offered his $500,000 for his arrest.
The murder of a student sparked international outrage and became an endemic example of brazen drug gangs and corruption throughout Mexico.
The mother of missing college student Adan Abarraján de la Cruz while the families of 43 missing students protested over claims of military responsibility and lack of response to the student’s disappearance in Iguala, Mexico. , sitting at the feet of a soldier outside a military base.
(AP)
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An investigation resulted in the arrest of three soldiers, including a retired general who was the commander of the army in the area when the abduction occurred. Also, then-Federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam was accused of basing the government’s original account on torture and manipulation of evidence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
