Mexico to receive UN help in missing students case

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has signed an agreement with the United Nations' top human rights official for technical assistance in its latest attempt to determine what happened to 43 missing students, officials said Monday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the case of the students from the teacher's college in Ayotzinapa "paradigmatic."

The former Chilean president said that Mexico's government is obligated to find the truth and that the process would be an opportunity to make deep changes to its justice system.

Police seized the students in the Guerrero state city of Iguala in 2014 and allegedly handed them over to a drug gang. Prosecutors say the gang then killed the young people.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said the case is a priority for the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who in January created a truth commission to re-investigate the case.