Mexican armed forces knew about attack on 43 students, report says

A relative holds a poster with the image of one of the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa College, Raul Isidro Burgos, during the delivery of a report on the 43 missing students of the Ayotzinapa teacher training college by members of a team of international experts, at the Interior Ministry building in Mexico City, Mexico, March 28, 2022. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's armed forces knew that 43 student teachers who disappeared in 2014 were being kidnapped by criminals, then hid evidence that could have helped locate them, according to a report released Monday by special investigation.

Evidence obtained by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), an independent panel tasked with investigating the notorious case, revealed that Navy and Army officials kept secret that the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College were under real-time surveillance by the state leading up to and during their abduction.