Thousands of Mexicans marched through the center of Mexico City on Sunday to demand the clarification of the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa in the state of Guerrero.
"In memory of them we are going to demand justice and
we are going to continue walking until we find the whereabouts of the 43 students,
" said one of the parents during the march.
The disappearance of the 43 students turned seven on Sunday, and during that time
only the remains of three of the youths have been identified.
In addition, the person in charge of the investigation in the previous government, Tomás Zerón, is at large in Israel.
Relatives of the 43 Ayotzinapa students protest in Guerrero, almost 6 years after their disappearance
Sept.
22, 202000: 51
The demonstration started in the emblematic Angel of Independence of the capital, led by the parents of the young people, and passed through the center of the city towards the Zócalo Square, where the National Palace, the presidential headquarters, stands.
“Those of us here are not going to step back until we know the truth.
If we have to die, we have to die, but standing up and demanding justice
for our children, ”said a relative interviewed by the EFE agency.
Before leaving, a priest officiated a mass in memory of the disappeared, whose faces were printed on the banners carried by their families.
The protest took place between chants such as
"They took them alive, we want them alive" and "Where are they?"
.
According to the controversial version of the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), the 43 students of the Ayotzinapa school for teachers were arrested on the night of September 26, 2014 by corrupt policemen in Iguala (Guerrero) and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel , who murdered and incinerated them in the Cocula garbage dump and dumped the remains in a nearby river.
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But that version, known as the “historical truth,” was questioned by the relatives and by an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which indicated that the bodies could not be burned. in that place.
The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador reopened the case in 2018 and definitively collapsed this version by identifying unburned remains of two of the students, Christian Rodríguez in 2020 and Jhosivani Guerrero last June, both in the Carnicería ravine, outside the dump.
These two identifications are in addition to that of Alexander Mora, whose remains were found in the river in 2014.
Thousands of people marched for the seven years since the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, in Mexico City, on September 27, 2021.
In a meeting held last Friday, López Obrador explained to the parents that he asked Israel for the extradition of Tomás Zerón, the architect of the “historical truth,” while the families criticized the disdain they perceive on the part of the Prosecutor's Office and the Army for clarify what happened.
After years of investigations, Mexican authorities have found dozens of clandestine graves and 184 other bodies,
but have only recovered three bone fragments from the missing students.
AMLO meets with the parents of the 43 normalistas of Ayotzinapa
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Here are
five keys
to understanding the investigations of the case that is reaching its seventh anniversary with some progress, but with the growing demand from family members and civil society to find out what happened to the young people and who is responsible.
["It is not convenient for the State to identify so many remains": Mexico faces a forensic crisis with more than 52,000 unidentified bodies]
The "historical truth"
According to the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), a group of corrupt police officers from Iguala, Guerrero, detained students from the Ayotzinapa normal school for teachers on the night of September 26, 2014, when they took buses to attend the October 2 march in the capital.
The version of the Peña Nieto Administration, which it called "the historical truth," indicates that the agents handed over the students to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, which
murdered and incinerated them in a garbage dump in the municipality of Cocula
after an attack that also left six dead. of the 43 missing.
What the experts deny
But the relatives and the IACHR investigation questioned the "historical truth" by pointing out that they could not burn the bodies in that place.
The GIEI concluded that “there is no evidence to support the hypothesis”, after a six-month investigation in which it argued that
the fire that would have generated a 300-meter column of smoke could not go unnoticed
by the inhabitants of the surrounding areas.
Mexican authorities identify the remains of one of the 43 Ayotzinapa students
July 7, 202000: 54
Student identification
Likewise, the Truth Commission, created by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador after taking office in 2018, identified in 2020 the remains of Christian Alfonso Rodríguez and last June of Jhosivani Guerrero in the Carnicería ravine, located one kilometer from the garbage dump. and without traces of fire.
For this reason, the current government considers that this finding collapses the "historical truth" of Peña Nieto.
In addition to Christian and Alfonso, authorities identified Alexander Mora's remains
in December 2014.
Omar Gómez Trejo, the lead investigator on the case, recently said that bone fragments found in the vicinity of a garbage dump near Iguala match three of the 43 students.
[The worst cases of police brutality in Mexico show that abuses are daily]
Gómez Trejo pointed out that some bone fragments were found in a place almost half a mile away, and some were not burned.
"Many of them did not present exposure to fire, but to the elements," he
added.
Instead of resorting to a single site and a single method to dispose of the remains, Gómez Trejo pointed out that cooperating witnesses, some of whom participated in the removal of the corpses, have mentioned "several sacks in different sections."
A woman who participated in the protest for the seven years since the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, in Mexico City, on September 26, 2021. EFE
Involved and detained
President López Obrador has reported
a total of 80 detainees in the case, although the prosecution has been hampered by acts of torture against the prisoners
, for which the judges have released some of those involved.
Among those arrested are members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, federal and municipal police.
Since June 2020, one of the main detainees is
José Ángel Casarrubias, known as "El Mochomo", identified as the leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel
and one of the alleged orchestrators of the disappearance.
In addition, the Government recognized last August the murder of at least eight people linked to the case, including six unidentified suspects, Moisés Brito “El Bandam”, of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, and his “right arm” and one of the alleged operators of disappearance.
Last July, Mario Casarrubias, one of the leaders of the Guerreros Unidos cartel who was in prison for the disappearance, died of COVID-19.
'El Mochomo' falls in Mexico, identified as one of those responsible for the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa
June 30, 202000: 25
Suspicions about the authorities
In addition to searching for students, authorities are investigating the role of government officials.
That is why they asked the Israeli government to extradite Tomás Zerón, former director of the defunct Criminal Investigation Agency,
accused of hiding evidence and torturing witnesses in the case
.
Zerón is considered one of the key authors of the "historical truth."
Mexico commemorates four years of pain for 43 missing youth
Sept.
26, 2018
But some leaks in the case also link the Army.
Last January, the testimony of “Juan”, a protected witness, was released to the press.
According to his version,
the military participated in a joint operation with the police and hitmen to arrest the students
and 30 other people in the 27 Infantry Battalion of Iguala, where they later handed them over to the cartel for their disappearance.
Last year,
Captain José Martínez Crespo,
attached to that battalion
,
was arrested and
became the first military man to be prosecuted by Ayotzinapa.
With information from EFE and AP