The Government of Mexico accused Israel this Friday of giving “de facto” protection to Tomás Zerón, former director of the defunct Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) of Mexico, involved in the case of the 43 young people who disappeared in 2014 in Ayotzinapa, which threatens to become an “irritating and disruptive” factor.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) assured that “the lack of progress in the resolution of this case is interpreted as a de facto protection by the Israeli Government for Tomás Zerón and threatens to become a factor “irritating and disruptive to the State of Israel.”
He also pointed out that the process to request the extradition of Zerón has been “long and fruitless.”
Mexico had announced in September 2020 the request for the extradition of Zerón, an official during the mandate of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), accused of hiding evidence and torturing witnesses in the case of the 43 students who disappeared from Ayotzinapa in September 2014. .
The case has been complicated because both countries do not have an extradition agreement, so López Obrador sent a first letter to Israel on the issue in September 2021, when the prime minister was Naftali Bennetand another in 2023, now with Benjamin Netanyahu in power.
The Mexican agency recalled that both the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the SRE itself have repeatedly insisted on the prompt resolution of this case with their counterparts from the State of Israel.
This, he added, “through 22 videoconferences, at least 70 electronic communications and a visit to Jerusalem by a Mexican delegation headed by the head of the Specialized Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa Case, attached to the FGR.”
On Thursday, during his morning press conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador accused the Government of Israel of protecting Zerón.
“The Zerón thing has not progressed, it is clear that there is protection from the Government of Israel“I have sent two letters to two (prime) ministers, the current one (Benjamín Netanyahu) and the previous one (Naftali Bennet) and there has been no response,” he said.
He stated that Israeli officials promised that “there was going to be a ruling in December and there hasn’t been one.”
“It is not possible that Israel is protecting an alleged torturer, a human rights violator,” he said.
The Mexican president has questioned the investigators of the previous six-year term and the Government of Israel for the lack of justice against Zerón, accused of being one of the architects of the “historical truth”the controversial version with which the Peña Nieto Government concluded the investigation.
