Around 5,000 people took to the streets in Mexico City on Tuesday to demand justice, nine years after the disappearance of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero, a case that shocked the country.
Visibly tired and silent, the parents of the young people kidnapped in the town of Iguala led the march.
“The army doesn’t care about us, it eliminates us,” read one of the placards carried by the protesters, referring to the army’s alleged involvement in the matter.
“This is not an isolated case. “The soldiers are very dangerous, so much so that we still don’t know where the 43 are and it’s certain that they know,” Luis Rodríguez, 25, told AFP.
These Ayotzinapa Normal School students disappeared on the night of September 27, 2014, after driving to Iguala, where they were preparing to board several buses to go to Mexico City and take part in a demonstration.
According to official information, they were arrested by the police in collaboration with criminals and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, which would have murdered them.
The families rejected the investigations carried out by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), which in particular reiterated that the young people had been confused with members of another cartel.
President López Obrador then set up a commission to shed light on the matter.
This investigative group, formed following an agreement between the government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleges that the Mexican army allowed the attack and murder of the students, covered it up and failed to provide transparent information about the facts.
On July 26, the commission ended the investigation that began in 2015, saying the military had refused to hand over sensitive information, making it “impossible” to continue its work.
Relatives of the victims accuse the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of not providing all the information it had about the case.
President López Obrador defended the actions of his government, which will end in 2024, recalling that two generals, 20 other army personnel, including officers and soldiers, a former prosecutor general and about 120 others were detained in connection with the matter.