Agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) detained Enrique Martínez Chávez in Hawthorne, California, a former member of the Mexican Army accused of his alleged participation in the disappearance of the 43 normal school students from Ayotzinapa that 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 the 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 the attack and subsequent disappearance of the students from the “Raúl Isidro Burgos” Rural Normal School occurred.

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 military personnel allegedly linked to the case, although several of those warrants were later canceled by the Attorney General's Office, amid controversies within the investigation.

The arrest occurs when the Ayotzinapa case remains open and without a definitive resolution on 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.