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The families of the 43, eight years later: "We have not achieved truth or justice"

2022-09-27T04:46:53.530Z


The parents of the disappeared students in Ayotzinapa show their tiredness in the face of little progress and ask the Government for action in an armored Zócalo


Eight years later, the families of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa have returned to the main square of Mexico to ask for justice.

In an armored Zócalo, the words of one of the parents of the disappeared youth resounded after almost a decade of struggle: "We have not achieved truth or justice."

The march for the normalistas began this Monday afternoon at the Angel of Independence with a thousand people, including students and groups from all over the country.

Upon arrival at the National Palace, around 7:00 p.m., the protesters asked the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to finally clarify what happened on September 26, 2014.

The date marked on the calendar indicates the day on which a group of 43 normalistas, teacher students from a rural school, disappeared in the town of Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, without the reason being yet clarified.

So far, only small portions of bones from three of them have been found.

The current Executive presented a report a few weeks ago in which it implicates the Army in the disappearance of the students and has requested arrest warrants against at least twenty soldiers.

This new reconstruction contradicts the so-called "historical truth", the theory formulated by the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.

One of the architects of the previous version, former prosecutor Jesús Murillo Karam, was arrested last month and charged with forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice.

A protester paints over a photograph displayed in the streets of the Historic Center of Mexico City.Mónica González Islas

Since the beginning of this Monday, the protesters have presented posters that read a message: "It was the Army."

One of them was worn by Minerva Nájera, a teacher at a high school in Mexico City.

“There is no truth, only fragments of truth.

It is what has been convenient for governments, they are fragments of truth”, said the Mexican teacher.

That same message has been reiterated by relatives.

“From the beginning, this president was committed to clarifying the case, perhaps to gain popularity and confidence.

When it came to the point of touching the Army, everything fell apart, ”said one of the parents, who has shown a discontent shared by all those gathered in the central square of the capital.

"I never thought there would be such a cowardly and inhuman government," he criticized.

The clarification of the Iguala attack was one of López Obrador's star promises when he came to power.

Under his mandate, a commission and a unit were created within the Attorney General's Office (FGR) dedicated to studying the case.

The last few weeks, with the presentation of the report and the new arrests, everything has rushed.

"Like the previous government, they lie to us", said Hilda Hernández, mother of César Manuel González, who has assured that they will reach the "truth".

Hernández and Hilda Legideño, mother of Jorge Antonio Tizapa, have recalled one of the main claims of the families: the presentation of the remains of their children.

"There is talk of the death of our children, but they do not give us evidence," said Legideño.

To the cry of “alive they took them away, alive we want them”, the Zócalo square, which the night before was filled with a festive atmosphere due to the Grupo Firme concert, has reached the other extreme in less than 24 hours with the demonstration of hundreds of people.

In a country that has already exceeded the figure of 100,000 disappeared, this Monday's march went beyond the 43 disappeared from Ayotzinapa.

Professor Minerva Nájera has assured, pointing to the hundreds of demonstrators from Jalisco to the State of Mexico who have attended the protest: "They are demonstrating for the thousands of disappeared in Mexico."

Protesters walk in front of the "Little Horse" sculpture, which was painted during the march with the phrase "It was the army." Nayeli Cruz

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Source: elparis

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