A retired judge in Mexico has been arrested for her involvement in the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from Iguala, Guerrero, an incident that remains shrouded in mystery over a decade later. Lambertina Galeana Marín, who served as president of the Superior Tribunal of Justice in the state at the time of the incident, is accused of orchestrating the destruction of CCTV footage that could have provided critical evidence in the case.
The 79-year-old was apprehended in Chilpancingo, three years after an arrest warrant was issued for her. Families of the 43 missing students have long sought accountability for what transpired on the fateful night of September 26, 2014. While the remains of three students have been located, the other 40 are still unaccounted for and are widely presumed dead. A truth commission established by the Mexican government in 2022 declared the case a state-sponsored crime involving collusion between local police and a criminal group known as Guerreros Unidos.
The students, who attended a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa, were in Iguala to seize buses for an annual protest in Mexico City. Local authorities and the Guerreros Unidos group, fearing infiltration by their rivals Los Rojos, implemented roadblocks in the city. Investigators reported that security cameras at the Palace of Justice captured the events at one of these checkpoints, but the footage was never retrieved by officials and was later reported missing.
Prosecutors claim that Galeana was responsible for the order to destroy or delete this crucial evidence, leading to her current arrest. The Mexican security ministry confirmed that she would face charges related to forced disappearance, continuing the push for justice in this high-profile case that reflects deep issues within Mexico's law enforcement and justice systems.
