Mexican authorities on Wednesday, May 14 arrested former judge Lambertina Galeana in connection with the 2014 disappearance and presumed killings of 43 college students, a case that has long symbolized government corruption in Mexico. Galeana, who once led the Superior Court of Justice in Guerrero state, faces charges of forced disappearance and destruction of evidence.
Mexican news outlet El País reported that surveillance footage allegedly showed armed men outside the judicial building where Galeana was working at the time of the students’ disappearance.
In 2022, the Truth and Access to Justice Commission concluded that Galeana ordered the destruction of that footage during her tenure.
The students, all from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, vanished in September 2014 while traveling to Mexico City to participate in a protest. Witnesses last saw them in the town of Iguala, where they were allegedly intercepted by local police and handed over to members of a drug cartel.
For years, families of the missing students accused the government of covering up the truth, pointing to a pattern of collusion between local authorities and organized crime.
In 2022, the Truth and Access commission established by the federal government found that the students’ disappearance was a “state crime,” and for the first time acknowledged the role of the Mexican military in the events. The commission’s findings were backed by Mexico’s former president.
While some suspects, including the former mayor of Iguala and members of a local gang, were arrested early in the investigation, the case has dragged on for nearly a decade. Only the remains of three students have since been identified.
Despite ongoing efforts, the full details of what happened remain unclear. Investigators believe the students were turned over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, but the motive behind the crime is still unknown.
Galeana was previously arrested and accused of the same crimes in 2022, but the case and her charges were later dropped.
According to the National Security Archive, more than 100,000 people in Mexico have vanished from their communities and families with no word on their whereabouts.
