As of: 09/25/2021 8:58 a.m.
Seven years ago, 43 student teachers went missing in Mexico. To this day, their fate has not been clarified. The bereaved do not believe the statements of the authorities – and continue to fight for justice.
It is the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and supporters who gather every year. They count to 43. Because it was 43 students who were abducted on the night of September 26th and most likely murdered. It’s been seven years since Clemente Rodríguez Moreno last saw his son Christian Alfonso. At that time he was only 19 years old. Even now he’s still looking for his son, he says on the phone: “At first we thought we’d be sure to find him the next day. Now years have passed. We miss him. We are sad and angry.”
43 student teachers disappeared
Rodríguez still doesn’t know what happened to his son. On the night of September 26, 2014, the drug cartel Guerreros Unidos, in complicity with the local police and the corrupt mayor, burned the 43 student teachers of the rural Ayotzinapa college alive in a rubbish dump and threw their remains into a river. This was presented to the public shortly afterwards as “historical truth”. But this version was refuted by lawyers, doctors and psychologists from an international commission of experts.
Rodríguez, too, has always questioned these findings. A bone in his son’s right foot was found last July, according to DNA samples examined by Austrian coroners. He says: “I continue to insist: My son is alive, I will keep looking for him. A person can go on living without his foot.”
The bereaved regularly take to the streets to remember the students.
Image: REUTERS
Government allegations
The bone fragment had been discovered in a ravine far from the kidnapping site, as had the remains of another student – Jhosiviani Guerrero. The location contradicts the investigations under the then President Enrique Peña Nieto. Santiago Aguirre from the human rights center Centro PRODH accuses his government of covering up the events.
The government at the time lied when it claimed that the student remains were all in one place and that that place was the Cocula landfill. “And since this information is the result of the ongoing investigation, they encourage us to believe that the information is true. And they say that the informants, the documents, the various sources of information are credible and that we are moving forward with regard to the whereabouts of the information other students. “
Truth Commission founded
The successor government under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had promised to press ahead with the investigation. A truth commission was set up. The judiciary has reopened the case.
Nevertheless, there are many unanswered questions that the current government is not investigating, explains human rights activist Aguirre. Admittedly, progress has been made. Charges have now been brought against a member of the 27th Military Battalion who was very likely linked to organized crime. “But this government still failed to request documentation from the military about this night. This is relevant to understand the context. There is still a great deal of resistance within the military to clarify the events.”
90,000 missing people
The current government has given the army a great deal of power in many areas of society. Given this, it seems unlikely that the Mexican president will put any pressure on it. The current government is also lacking the will to enlighten, said Aguirre. “There is no strategy to tackle the issue of ‘disappeared’. The Ministry of the Interior is taking action, but there is resistance from the prosecutor’s office. During this administration alone, 20,000 people have disappeared.” A total of 90,000 people are missing across the country.
The uncertainty is unbearable for her relatives – as it is for Blanca Nava, the mother of Jorge Álvarez. He also disappeared seven years ago on September 26th. At a protest in front of the federal prosecutor’s office, she said: “As a mother, I want to go home with my son alive, or if he is dead, then I want his body, not just a small piece of him. So we will move on. We keep going until we get answers and learn the truth. ”