Interior Ministry Undersecretary for Human Rights Alejandro Encinas said the men have been charged "for the crime of forced disappearance."

The students, from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, disappeared between the night of September 26 and the early morning of September 27, 2014, when they were traveling via bus to participate in demonstrations in Mexico City.

The government's official version of events says that cartel members killed the students and incinerated their remains. But exactly what happened to them has been hotly disputed.

The eight soldiers were arrested last week after the Mexican Attorney General's Office reactivated 16 arrest warrants against members of the Army that had been issued in September 2022 but were later annulled.

An independent commission investigating the 2014 disappearance, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) accused the armed forces of deliberately withholding information about the case earlier this year.

The commission's mandate expires July 31.

So far only the remains of three victims have been identified.