By Roberto Bustamante
Agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) detained in Hawthorne, California, Enrique Martínez Chávezformer member of the Mexican Army accused of his alleged participation in the disappearance of the 43 normal school students from Ayotzinapa occurred in September 2014.
The arrest was confirmed by US immigration authorities, who reported that Martínez Chávez, 32, was wanted by Mexican justice for the crime of forced disappearance of people.
According to ICE, he will remain in custody while the corresponding procedures are carried out for his eventual transfer to Mexico.
According to investigations related to the Ayotzinapa case, Martínez Chávez was part of the 27th Infantry Battalion based in Iguala, Guerrero, and was on duty on the night of September 26, 2014, when it occurred. the attack and subsequent disappearance of the students from the “Raúl Isidro Burgos” Customary Rural School.
The day last, ICE LA arrested 32-year-outmoded Enrique Martinez-Chavez in Hawthorne, California. Martinez is wished in his home country of Mexico for enforced disappearance of persons considering a member of the Mexican militia. He’ll stay in ICE custody until he’ll even be dispatched home. pic.twitter.com/NVYGfnnkIe
— ICE Los Angeles (@EROLosAngeles) June 4, 2026
Various federal investigations have placed him among a group of soldiers accused of alleged omissions and possible acts of collusion related to the events that occurred that night.
His name appeared among the arrest warrants issued in 2022 against non-public military personnel allegedly linked to the case, although several of those warrants were later canceled by the Customary Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic, amid controversies within the investigation.
The arrest occurs when The Ayotzinapa case remains open and without a definitive resolution about the whereabouts of the 43 missing students.
Almost twelve years after the events, relatives of the victims and human rights organizations maintain the demand that the events be completely clarified and that all those involved be held accountable.
The capture of Martínez Chávez represents one of the most recent movements in the investigations related to the case, considered one of the most emblematic and controversial episodes in terms of human rights in Mexico in recent decades.
Keep reading:
– Hooded men attack and burn a truck at military installations in Mexico after a protest over Ayotzinapa.
– Ayotzinapa Case: They demand the extradition of those involved 11 years after the disappearance of the 43 normal students.
