Police in Mexico have apprehended retired judge Lambertina Galeana Marín who is implicated in tampering with evidence linked to the mysterious disappearance of 43 students from Iguala in 2014. Marín, the former president of the Superior Tribunal of Justice in Guerrero, allegedly ordered the destruction of vital CCTV footage that was essential to the investigation. At 79 years old, she was arrested in Chilpancingo after a warrant was issued three years prior.
The case, which has cast a long shadow over Mexico, continues to evoke deep anguish among the families of the missing. The students, who attended a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa, vanished on September 26, 2014, under troubling circumstances. While the remains of three students have been located, the fate of the other 40 remains unknown, though they are believed to have been killed.
In 2022, a government-appointed truth commission revealed that the case was tied to state-sponsored crime involving local police and criminal organization Guerreros Unidos. The students were in Iguala to seize buses for an annual protest in Mexico City, leading to them being targeted amid suspicions of gang infiltration. Following their capture, police and members of the gang established roadblocks, during which critical surveillance footage was recorded.
Testimonies indicated that key evidence was never presented to authorities, and when retrieval attempts were made nearly a year later, the footage was claimed to be lost. Prosecutors have since stated that Galeana is responsible for the disappearance of this crucial evidence. The Mexican security ministry has announced that she will face charges of forced disappearance, intensifying the ongoing battle for justice by the families still seeking answers for their missing loved ones.
