Mexico Ayotzinapa case detention

On 6 August 2026 the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (FGR) detained former Guerrero governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero, charging him with forced disappearance and obstruction of justice related to the 2014 disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students. The arrest was part of a renewed investigative model; protected witnesses who testified earlier in the year said video recordings from security cameras 12 and 15 at the Iguala Palace of Justice had been delivered to Aguirre, who allegedly ordered a meeting to destroy the footage. President Claudia Sheinbaum said the action stemmed from a “solid, ongoing investigation,” while families of the missing students said they had not been notified.

Two days later a federal judge denied Aguirre’s request for house arrest and ordered preventive detention, keeping him at the high‑security El Altiplano prison where he receives treatment for hypertension. He was captured on the Mexico‑Querétaro highway and transferred to the facility. The probe involves the FGR, the Special Unit for the Ayotzinapa Case, the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice (COVAJ), the Secretariat of Security and Protection and the Criminal Investigation Agency, which continue to pursue additional lines of inquiry.