The mystery surrounds the disappearance of the 43 students of the normal Ayotzinapa five years later

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Mexico City (CNN) - Their faces have become emblematic in a country where violence seems to conquer the rule of law. The mystery still involves his whereabouts and what happened the day they disappeared. But five years later, their families and Mexicans across the country remain determined to discover the truth.

Forty-three students from a university of teachers in the city of Ayotzinapa, in the state of Guerrero, suddenly disappeared on September 26, 2014. Surviving students and witnesses testified that they were attacked by local police and, according to the then attorney general From Mexico, Jesús Murillo Karam, the Ayotzinapa students were kidnapped in a plan that allegedly involved local officials, and were then handed over to the Guerreros Unidos criminal group, which operates throughout the southwest region of Mexico.

For the past five years, his parents have been demanding answers about his whereabouts: only a small part of the more than 40,000 registered people missing in Mexico, according to the Mexican government. No one has been convicted in connection with his disappearance.

• Five keys to the Ayotzinapa case after five years of the disappearance of the 43 students

The original investigation conducted by the government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto has been widely criticized for being inefficient and full of discrepancies, and should now be reviewed for failures in due process, according to Mexico's Under Secretary for Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas. Murillo Karam defended his case management in an interview with Aristegui News this week with Carmen Aristegui, host of CNN in Spanish. He argued that the original investigation was carried out correctly and offered to assist in any further investigation.

Government prosecutors and investigators originally concluded that the group burned their bodies in a landfill and threw their remains into a nearby river. But an examination conducted by Argentine forensic experts contradicted the investigation of the Mexican authorities. The information they collected did not "support the hypothesis that there was a fire on the morning of September 27, 2014, of the magnitude and duration required that would have resulted in the massive incineration of the 43 missing students," the forensic team said. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also did not agree that there was evidence to suggest that their bodies had been burned.

Who is responsible?

Of the more than 140 people originally detained in connection with the case, 77 were released after a judge dismissed the cases due to insufficient evidence or reports that many of the detainees were tortured. The rest have pending cases.

During a press conference earlier this month, Encinas warned that others could also be released due to similar irregularities in the case.

The most notable release is that of Gildardo López Astudillo, better known as "El Gil", accused of ordering the disappearance of the 43 students. A judge in Tamaulipas acquitted López Astudillo after concluding that there was insufficient evidence of a crime. Dozens of evidence were thrown due to allegations of torture. López Astudillo has maintained his innocence.

In an interview with CNN, Mexican senator Lupita Murguia, who led the special commission investigating the case of missing students for the lower house of the Congress of Mexico, where she served, described the release of suspects as serious, noting that those released They cannot be prosecuted again for the same charges in a subsequent investigation.

• Secretariat of Human Rights of Mexico: Of the 142 detainees for acts in Ayotzinapa, they have already been released 77

A new investigation

For many who have closely followed the case, the need for new transparent research is fundamental.

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has created a new commission to reopen the investigations from scratch, investigating judges and officials also to see where there could be violations of due process.

During one of his daily press conferences this month, López Obrador said this would heal "a wound that affects us all." He called anyone who could have "intervened" during the incident with the students to step forward and "count on government protection."

On Tuesday, the Mexican government announced that it would interrogate the former governor of Guerrero, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, the former state attorney, Iñaki Blanco, and the then secretary of public security of the state, Leonardo Vásquez Pérez, in the new investigation led by the López Obrador administration . None of them have been formally charged.

“Five years after the forced disappearance of the 43 young students in Ayotzinapa, the Mexican authorities still have a large outstanding debt to the victims, their families and society in terms of guaranteeing their rights to the truth, justice and reparation of the damage caused, ”Amnesty International Mexico executive director Tania Reneaum Panszi said in a statement this week.

The Washington Office for Latin America, WOLA, a human rights advocacy group, also issued a statement saying that the management of the Ayotzinapa investigation by the Peña Nieto administration had “increased public support for such reforms necessary. ”

"We want them alive!"

The move towards new research has renewed the hope of answers from many relatives of missing students.

"We have hope in the commission headed by Encinas and we hope that there will be real information for us soon," spokesman for the parents of the disappeared, Felipe de la Cruz, told CNN in Spanish on Monday. Not knowing where his children are "he eats his soul," de la Cruz said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

“They had us full of lies,” said Cristina Bautista, referring to the previous government. The mother of one of the 43 disappeared was sitting at a panel in the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Mexico City on Monday.

"We, the parents, are cleaning their lies and now it is different," Bautista said. "We are moving slowly, but we hope to get to the truth and we just hope it doesn't take so long, it can be fast."

On Thursday, a Catholic mass and procession was held in Mexico City to honor the students on the fifth anniversary of their disappearance. Although many questions remain, their relatives are clear on one thing, since they go out with the family song that they have been repeating since their disappearance: "We took them alive, we love them alive!"

- Flora Charner of CNN contributed to this report. Claudia Dominguez reported and wrote from Atlanta, Natalie Gallón wrote and reported from Mexico City.