Two years on, Mexicans want fate of missing students clarified

Thousands have staged a protest rally in Mexico to mark two years since dozens of students went missing after being attacked by police, with the demonstrators criticizing the government for failure to shed light on their fate.

On Monday, families, relatives, friends and classmates of the missing students along with members of student unions and people in general marched through the main boulevard of the capital, Mexico City, chanting, “We want them alive.”

Parents of the victims rallied in the front line, holding pictures of their disappeared loved ones.  

“Two years of uncertainty for parents, two years of more pain, of insomnia for us. Two years of searching for the truth…We have not had the response we have wanted,” said father of one of the missing students, Meliton Ortega.

A similar demonstration was also held in Guadalajara, the capital city of the western province of Jalisco.

On September 26, 2014, 43 young male student teachers disappeared after police stopped them on their way to attend a demonstration in the southwestern city of Iguala, Guerrero State.

Reports say violent clashes then erupted between police and the students, who were never seen again.

Six months later, Mexico’s government claimed corrupt police officers had handed the students to local drug henchmen, who then incinerated them at a garbage dump.

However, investigations by independent forensic experts later discredited the government’s claims. 

The government has so far failed to determine the fate of the missing and close the case.

During the Monday protest, the families of the students called for justice, urging Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to step down.

“Our fight continues firm; we’re still standing,” said one of the parents.

Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesman for the families, also addressed the crowd, saying, “It has been two years of pain and suffering. We will topple this rotten government with your support.”

Guerrero tragedy ‘stain’ on Mexican government

The Amnesty International, in a statement released on Monday, condemned the “reckless approach to human rights” in the Latin American country, slamming the Mexican government for its failure to address the tragedy in particular.

The rights group also described the incident as a “stain” for the Nieto administration.

“The Pena Nieto administration’s barefaced denial of what happened to the Ayotzinapa students is so deep-seated the president no longer dares to utter the word in public,” the statement added.

It further said that the time for political maneuvers was over, and that the families of the missing students “will never give up their fight” until justice and truth for their beloved ones were achieved.

To date, 128 people have been nabbed for their alleged links to the case.

Last week, Alfredo Higuera, the special prosecutor on the case, announced that the federal Attorney General’s Office intended to carry out a fifth forensic test of the dump site in Cocula, where the young men were allegedly burned.

During a recent trip to Colombia, Nieto promised to “expand the investigations” to solve the mysterious case.

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