Mexico seeks Thomas Zerón’s extradition from Israel — Anadolu Agency
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration is seeking the extradition from Israel of former senior security official Tomás Zerón de Lucio. In 2020, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with suspicions of enforced disappearance and torture. This was reported by Anadolu Agency.
Zerón de Lucio headed Mexico’s now-dissolved Criminal Investigation Agency in 2014. In 2019, he moved to Israel, where he has lived ever since. According to Sheinbaum, personnel at Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office were changed to speed up extradition procedures from the United States and Israel.
Extradition request
The president said that Mexico had directly asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog for Zerón de Lucio’s extradition. According to her, Herzog said he had raised the matter with the judiciary, but it does not fall within his powers.
The process is complicated by the absence of an extradition treaty between Mexico and Israel. Mexican authorities also offered Zerón de Lucio immunity in exchange for cooperation, but he remained in Israel. Mexico’s request for his extradition has remained unanswered since 2020, according to the source.
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The case of the 43 students
In September 2014, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero state. According to the Presidential Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in the Ayotzinapa case, local police and criminal groups were involved in their disappearance, likely acting with the support and protection of senior officials, including the military, intelligence representatives, and security forces.
Until 2020, Mexican authorities officially placed responsibility for the attack solely on criminal groups. Investigations conducted after the Morena party came to power indicated that Zerón de Lucio, who headed the Criminal Investigation Agency, may have ordered evidence to be fabricated and witnesses to be tortured to obtain false testimony supporting the then-official version.
Relatives of the missing students say that the administrations of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum failed to fulfill their promises to fully establish the circumstances of the case. Twelve years after the disappearance, the parents still do not know the whereabouts of their children, the reasons for their disappearance, or who ordered the attack, according to the source.
