Reportage

Mexico: hope of knowing the truth is reborn eight years after the disappearance of 43 students

Audio 01:14

Relatives hold banners with portraits of missing students during a march to demand justice, in Mexico City, August 26, 2022. REUTERS - HENRY ROMERO

Text by: RFI Follow

3 mins

The parents of the 43 Ayotzinapa students who disappeared in the state of Guerrero on the night of September 26-27, 2014 demonstrated for justice on Friday August 26.

Last week, the preliminary report of a special commission commissioned by the government called the case a "state crime", highlighting the direct involvement of the police and the army.

The former public prosecutor of the Republic, Jesús Murillo Karam, responsible for the investigation, has been arrested and will be tried for enforced disappearance, torture of witnesses and obstruction of justice. 

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Mexico,

Gwendolina Duval

"

...41, 42,43, Justice!

“, chant the demonstrators.

Several hundred people, families, students, and supporters, marched on Reforma Avenue from the capital to Mexico City to demand that the truth be told in this affair, eight years later.

A call for truth encouraged by

the latest government report published Thursday by the "Ayotzinapa Truth Commission" which finally denies the controversial version defended until then by the authorities of the time.

According to the official thesis, the 43 young people had been arrested on the night of September 26 to 27 by the local police in collusion with the Guerreros Unidos gang, then shot and burned in a dump for reasons that remain unclear.

Only the remains of three of them could be identified.

On Saturday, a Mexican court ordered the remand in custody of the country's former attorney general,

Jesus Murillo Karam

, the day after his arrest in the investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School. .

This opens up possibilities for investigation

With this new report, Vidulfo Rosales, the families' lawyer sees a sign of hope.

It's a huge step forward,

" he said.

This opens up possibilities for investigation, avenues of research that must be exhausted.

That is to say that this report opens up tasks that the authorities must carry out in order to continue on the path of establishing the facts.

» 

Many elements are still missing from this provisional document.

However, he points out that there is no indication that the missing students are still alive. 

Hilda Legideño demands to understand what happened to her son.

They are our darling children, it is very difficult for us that they give us this type of information.

We know very well that they can give us an answer that we do not want to hear, but we will accept it if there is scientific proof 

, ”she assures.

On Friday, the government accused a then-army colonel of ordering the killing of six of the 43 students days after their abduction.

This is the first time that the active role of the army has been singled out by Mexico.

José Rodriguez was commander of the 27th Infantry Battalion in Iguala when the normaliens disappeared in 2014. He is believed to have been linked to the criminal group Guerreros Unidos.

►Also read

: Mexico: a report qualifies the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa as a "state crime"

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

  • Mexico

  • Crime