In his findings, Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, who led the case, said municipal police handed the students over to the Guerreros Unidos, which later killed them, burned their corpses at a dump and disposed of the ashes with plastic bags, which they threw into a river in a nearby state.
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In Washington, there’s another question: How much longer can the United States government give Mexico millions in security aid ($194 million this year) and watch as atrocities pile up? Six people were killed in a series of attacks that accompanied the mass abduction.
Abarca denied any involvement in the disappearance. Despite exhaustive investigations by governmental and non-governmental actors, the whereabouts of the students are still unknown.
IACHR experts said in a report earlier this month that “no evidence exists to support the theory” that the 43 bodies were incinerated at the dump on September 27, 2014, the day after the students disappeared.
Prosecutors accused the mayor of Iguala and his wife of being in league with the drug gang, though they were just two among dozens of suspects arrested over the crime, which sparked worldwide concern over the lack of law and order in Mexico.
Since the beginning, the families of the missing feel they’ve been fighting against, not working with, the government to find their sons.
Karam said they found plastic bags containing the students’ remains and could confirm the identity of two of the missing students. The tragedy of Ayotzinapa occurred against the backdrop of such violence, fueled by long-standing poverty, inequality, and entrenched corruption in Mexican society. Of particular concern are the arms being supplied by our war on drugs to the Mexican military and police.
Through it all, the day-to-day reminders of his son’s disappearance keep the loss fresh: no extra hands to fix their old taxi, a fragile grandmother who still does not know that he is gone, a daughter without her closest sibling.
Ayotzinapa has brought the worst of Mexico into the limelight for all to see. But this view denies the important role citizenship advocacy has played in challenging the actions of the Mexican government.
The most numerous march – in Mexico City – began at noon near the Los Pinos presidential palace and was unfolding peacefully. In the meantime, the president has promised to appoint a special prosecutor with a team of investigators to look into forced disappearances, a frequent subject of criticism in Mexico. Political groups have allied in an unprecedented fashion and new groups, encouraged by the civil response, have formed.
A year later, there are still no clear answers for why the students were targeted.
Attention from the global community has rightly focused on the failures of the Mexican state.
President Enrique Peña Nieto’s handling of the investigation has been widely maligned.
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Some 120 people were invited to the closed-door meeting, including the IACHR experts, government officials, human rights organisations and other students from the Ayotzinapa teacher college. Students and relatives of the missing young men blocked traffic on the main highway from Mexico City to the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Saturday, but authorities are increasingly less willing to tolerate such disruptions.
