Families Of 43 Missing Mexican Students Demand Justice As Tragedy Hits 10-Year Mark

On Thursday, relatives of 43 Mexican students, who are presumed to have been massacred, will march through Mexico City to mark the tenth anniversary of a tragedy that deeply shocked the nation. This case is considered one of Mexico’s most significant human rights atrocities and highlights the ongoing missing persons crisis, which has seen over 100,000 disappearances.

“A decade later, we are still far from knowing the truth and the students’ whereabouts,” stated Vidulfo Rosales, a lawyer representing the families. Thousands of relatives, students, and supporters are expected to participate in the protest, chanting their poignant slogan: “Alive they took them! Alive we want them!” As Claudia Sheinbaum prepares to take office as Mexico’s first female president on October 1, the focus remains on discovering the students’ remains and identifying those responsible for their disappearance, amid a backdrop of escalating criminal violence that has claimed over 450,000 lives since 2006.

To date, the remains of only three of the missing students from Ayotzinapa rural teacher training college in Guerrero have been identified. The families hold the outgoing left-wing administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accountable for failing to locate the remaining students. “We believe this president lied to us. This president deceived us,” lamented Maria Elena Guerrero, a mother of one of the missing.

In response, President Lopez Obrador defended his administration’s efforts in a letter to the families, highlighting the prosecution of 151 individuals, including 16 military personnel. He asserted that there is no evidence of military involvement in the disappearances.

The students, known for their political activism, were abducted by a drug cartel with the complicity of corrupt police while en route to a demonstration in Mexico City. The official narrative, dubbed the “historical truth,” has been widely discredited. A truth commission established by Lopez Obrador’s government in 2022 declared the case a “state crime,” revealing that the military had prior knowledge of the events leading up to the abduction.

As frustrations mount, protesters recently demonstrated outside the Senate, underscoring the feelings of impunity and injustice that have plagued this case for a decade.