[JURIST] Mexican authorities captured high-ranking drug cartel member Gildardo Lopez Astudillo Wednesday, alleging that he is connected to last year’s disappearance of 43 college students in Guerrero. National Security Commissioner Renato Sales Heredia [official Twitter, in Spanish] confirmed the arrest [El Sol de Mexico report, in Spanish] of the suspect, who was found on the streets carrying a gun and false identification. Sales Heredia also stressed that the government will continue to investigate and take all necessary action to further determine the facts surrounding the disturbing disappearances. This arrest comes one week after UN human rights experts welcomed a report [JURIST report] pertaining to the disappearance, torture and executions of the missing students, and two weeks after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] called upon Mexico to address [JURIST report] the failure of its investigation into the disappearance of 43 students from a teacher’s college in Ayotzinapa.

According to government figures, more than 25,000 people have gone missing in Mexico since 2007. While the problem of disappearances is widespread in Mexico, no particular case has drawn more attention than that of the Ayotzinapa students. One of the first major breakthroughs in the case occurred in mid-November when Jose Luis Abarca, a former Mayor of Iguala, was charged [JURIST report] with homicide in the case. In late January Mexican authorities arrested [JURIST report] a hit man for the Guerreros Unidos gang, which is believed to be behind the murder of the disappeared students, along with 100 other people believed to be connected to the crime. Two days later Mexican officials issued final findings [JURIST report] on the case and declared that all the students were believed to be dead, even though DNA testing has only affirmatively confirmed the death of one. Mexico has faced much criticism from international actors on their efforts to resolve the problem of disappearances. Later that month, Amnesty International issued a statement urging [JURIST report] the Mexican government to adhere to UN recommendations on how to investigate the disappearances of its citizens. In July, AI opined [JURIST report] that the discovery of 129 bodies in the southern state of Guerrero “confirms what we had already found: the sheer magnitude of the crisis of enforced disappearances in Guerrero and elsewhere in Mexico is truly shocking.”