Mexico City, Mexico — President Sheinbaum says Mexico will ask the United States to extradite a former judge involved in the Ayotzinapa case. The judge, Ulises Bernabé García, sought asylum in the U.S.
Sheinbaum said Wednesday that Mexican authorities will insist that the U.S. government withdraw asylum from Ulises Bernabé García, the former judge in the Ayotzinapa case.
“His life was never in danger and he falsely stated that the students were not there. We are requesting his extradition,” she said during a press conference.
Sheinbaum added that Mexico will also request that the United States have Interpol reassign the red notice to Inés Gómez Mont and Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga.
“They are known fraudsters with arrest warrants in Mexico and all the evidence there is that they were involved in issuing false invoices to business owners to avoid paying taxes. Today we were told that Interpol removed the red notice for them. Today authorities are going to ask for the reasons.”
Sheinbaum says Mexico always desires a good relationship with the U.S. government and the Department of Justice, “but it is very important that there always be reciprocity because you can’t be asking for things from one side and not responding from the other,” she said.
Her comments were made after new lines of investigation were announced in the 2014 Ayotzinapa case where 43 students disappeared.
With four new lines of investigation, the Mexican government is making progress in the search for the 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa.
These lines of inquiry stem from the reanalysis of documents and telephone records, using a methodology that incorporates technical and scientific elements to clarify the events that occurred on the night of September 26 and the early morning of September 27, 2014, in Iguala, Guerrero, reported Mauricio Pazarán, Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa Case of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR).
This work scheme made it possible to organize, relate and contrast the data gathered over 12 years, with a new perspective, to identify clues that had not previously been noticed or thoroughly investigated.
According to the FGR (Fiscalía General de la República), the first line of investigation is the analysis of communications, which allowed investigators to identify previously unknown patterns in 17 new targets who are now under investigation.
It also reconstructed links between members of Guerreros Unidos, municipal and state police officers, public officials, and individuals associated with funeral homes.
Among the findings were calls between members of that criminal organization and staff from funeral homes and the health sector. One of the individuals under investigation and their family owned funeral homes, held concessions for the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO) in Iguala, and were involved in the administration of a cemetery.
In August 2025, it was established that the funeral home owner used a student’s cell phone. This prompted several actions in October of that year, including raids on the funeral home and the morgue, where a human femur, a firearm, documents, and an unregistered crematorium were found, along with serious irregularities in the operation of the morgue.
This prompted searches at the Forensic Medical Service from March to June 2026, which resulted in the recovery of 23 pieces of evidence, including hundreds of bone fragments, dental prostheses, biological remains, cartridges, shell casings, and documents.
These items are currently undergoing forensic analysis to determine their nature and any possible matches with missing persons. Furthermore, at the request of the parents, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team was brought in to assist with the investigation.
The second line of investigation involves the analysis of data from three of the students’ cell phones, specifically the user history after their disappearance. In one case, this led to criminal charges, and on August 24, 2026, an arrest warrant was issued against a former public official from Iguala for the crimes of organized crime and enforced disappearance.
Another student’s phone was used by a municipal police officer from Iguala, who registered activity on the night of the events, so his participation is under investigation.
The review of the third device reinforces the hypothesis that some students were transferred to the municipal jail, since the user after the disappearance is a person close to a former public servant from Iguala, assigned to that agency, which contradicts what José Ulises “N”, former jail judge, declared to the then PGR.
The third line of investigation stems from the documentary reanalysis of the case files, This allowed for the identification of an individual who participated in the events, who was 14 years old at the time, and who had not been identified until now.
Information obtained from the statement given by this individual on July 30, 2026, strengthens the accusations against members of the criminal organization “Guerreros Unidos.”
The fourth line of investigation is related to the concealment of video recordings generated by the security cameras of the Superior Court of Justice of Guerrero, on the night of September 26 and the early morning of September 27, 2014.
This allowed investigators to reconstruct some of the decisions made by high-level public officials related to the concealment of the material. This led to the arrest of the former presiding magistrate of the Court, as well as the former inspector of the same court, both of whom are currently facing criminal charges.
The statements made by these former public servants, along with new evidence, formed the basis for the arrest of the former governor of Guerrero on August 6, 2026, for the crime of enforced disappearance of the 43 students.
Regarding the participation of international experts, it was detailed that there is a collaboration plan with the Office in Mexico of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who will propose these specialists.
The mothers and fathers of the 43 missing students remain at the heart of this process. The priority is to find them, clarify what happened, and bring those responsible to justice, as the case is not closed and no one is above the law, said Unidad Especial de Investigación y Litigación para el Caso Ayotzinapa (UEILCA) de la Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), Mauricio Pazarán.
President Sheinbaum says so far there are 30 new detainees by the FGR as a result of the new lines of investigation.
“It (the case) will not be closed until the truth is found, justice is done, and we find where the young people are. This is our commitment to mothers and fathers and to the people of Mexico,” she said.
He said that so far members of organized crime and municipal police officers from four municipalities have been arrested for alleged involvement, as well as military personnel for alleged links to crime.
“When we came into government, we made the decision not to continue down the same paths, especially regarding witnesses, many of them criminals,” Sheinbaum clarified.
On the night of September 26, 2014, 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero. It is believed that municipal police and other law enforcement agencies, acting in concert with criminal groups, attacked the student teachers, who were attempting to commandeer buses to travel to a protest in Mexico City.
All 43 students disappeared. The incident occurred during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government (2012 to 2018) at which time he claimed the students were handed over to the criminal group Guerreros Unidos, murdered, and incinerated at the Cocula garbage dump, a claim that was subsequently discredited by independent forensic analyses.
In 2022, the administration of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador classified the incident as a state crime.
