WHAT WAS OUT OF ...?
The research series
Many news and people are reported in detail for a while - then they disappear again from the headlines. How do the topics develop, what became of the persons? That's what we explain in this series.
All previous contributions of the series can be found here.
The front door does not close Hilda Legideño basically. It could be that her son will come home one more day: five years after he has disappeared. "Then," she says, "the door should be open to Jorge Antonio."
Hilda Legideño, mother of three from Tixtla in southern Mexico, refuses to believe that her second eldest son was shot and burned. So it wanted to persuade her Mexico's former government. Together with other mothers, the 47-year-old struggles to find out what really happened on September 26, 2014. The day Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño disappeared. And with him 42 more students of the Teacher Seminar of the city Ayotzinapa.
"We do not want to hear lies anymore, but finally find out the truth," says Hilda Legideño to SPIEGEL. And with millions of Mexicans demanding the same thing, the case of the missing 43 students is now being rolled up again.
DPA
Parents of the missing students call for education and remind of their sons
Violent crime, kidnapping and murder are part of everyday life in Mexico. But the events of September 26, 2014, are still stirring up people. Because 43 innocent young men were the victims of a crime - in which possibly high politicians and officials were involved. And because the case is so mysterious.
On September 26, around 100 students from Ayotzinapa, Guerreri, had seized several buses. They wanted to go to the capital, Mexico City, for a demonstration against poor working conditions for teachers. Such seizures have been a tradition in impoverished regions like this for years. They were nothing out of the ordinary. Probably the reaction of the security forces.
Armed forces attacked the buses in the city of Iguala. They stopped. Opened without warning the fire: partly with G36 assault rifles of German manufacturer Heckler & Koch, who had fallen into their hands illegally. And they hunted the students through the city.
An alleged "historical truth"
Six people were killed in the massacre, 25 were severely injured; one is still in a coma today. Forty-three students, including Jorge Antonio Legideño, were arrested by the police - and then disappeared without a trace. What happened to the 43, is still unclear.
Immediately after 26 September, the judiciary started its investigation. The investigators interviewed witnesses, interrogated suspects, arrested dozens of people. In January 2015, the then attorney general declared that the case had been resolved. The local police handed over the students to the drug cartel Guerreros Unidos. Then the gangsters would have killed and cremated the 43 people. Members of the military or federal police would have nothing to do with it. This is the "historical truth," the Attorney General claimed. And then-President Enrique Peña Nieto called on the citizens to look ahead now. The case should be filed.
But then independent appraisers disproved the Attorney General's allegations. The forensic scientists found that the burnt mortal remains presented as "evidence" did not come from the students. When the experts expanded their investigation and wanted to question the military as well as the federal police, they were denied. A little later, they even had to leave the country because Mexico's then government did not renew their mandate.
Henry Romero / REUTERS
Hilda Legideño with a picture of her missing son Jorge Antonio
"Someone from this government has ordered the attacks," says Hilda Legideño. She is not alone. Millions of Mexicans believe that high politicians and security agencies are involved in the case. It would not be the first time that civil servants have cooperated with organized crime. The author Anabel Hernández, who has written a book about the 43 disappeared, is convinced that none other than the then President Peña Nieto was one of the backers of the attack. The politician denies that decidedly. Hernández can not prove her theory.
Unanswered is also the question: Why were these buses being attacked? There has long circulated the rumor that drug traffickers hid a large amount of heroin in one of the vehicles in order to smuggle the drug. The method would not be new. However, this hypothesis is not proven.
Either way, the 43 disappeared have become a symbol: for about 40,000 missing people in the Mexican drug war, whose fate is still unclear. Among them are not only gang criminals, but also civilians who got caught in the middle or became eyewitnesses to crime. Again and again, mass graves are discovered with human remains. Or chemical kegs in which corpses were dissolved.
Rifles from Germany by Heckler & Koch
Hilda Legideño and other mothers went to the streets again and again, demanding information from the state. Hundreds joined them. But under Peña Nietos presidency faltered the investigation.
Meanwhile, there was a process in Germany: against Heckler & Koch. For at least seven of the weapons used in the massacre were G36 assault rifles that had entered the country illegally. In view of the poor human rights situation in Mexico, the export authorities had not issued an export license. Nevertheless Heckler & Koch sold more than 4500 G36 rifles to Mexico between 2006 and 2009. In February 2019, the Stuttgart Regional Court sentenced in the first instance two employees to suspended sentences - and the company to a fine of 3.7 million euros. The verdict is not final, as all convicted have lodged an appeal against it. Now the proceedings before the Federal Court.
Something is happening in Mexico now, thanks to a vow of the new President. Andrés Manuel López Obrador had promised in the 2018 campaign to reopen the case. And indeed, he created equal to taking office in December 2018 a "truth Commission". The relatives of the victims have a right to know the truth, "AMLO" explained how many citizens abbreviate his name. Members of the victims, including Hilda Legideño, were appointed to the commission alongside security experts and state officials.
At the end of September, search parties dug up a landfill near the village where the 43 disappeared. For days they scoured the huge heap, but found no trace of the missing. Now the search continues in other places. So far it is not known that new clues have been discovered.
Whether the new investigation will bring to light the truth about the students' fate? Questionable. "The case is already five years old, many information has been suppressed and blurred," says Sofía de Robina, a lawyer with the Prodh Human Rights Center, which supports the relatives. Her client Legideño also knows that there are still officials in the state apparatus who work for the cartels.
But giving up is out of the question for the mother. And so she is not only involved in the commission, she also goes on the road to demonstrate. The fight for enlightenment and justice has become her life's content.
She still hopes to see her Jorge Antonio again one day, says Hilda Legideño. "But I can not just sit at home and wait for him, I have to look for my son."