MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 Chanting from one to 43, relatives of students abducted nine years ago counted out the number of the missing youths as they marched through Mexico City Tuesday to demand answers to one of Mexico's most infamous human rights cases.
With President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador's term ending next year, family members face not only the prospect of a ninth year of not knowing what happened to their sons but fears that the next administration will start the error-plagued investigation over from scratch yet again.
In 2014, a group of students were attacked by municipal police in the southern city of Iguala, Guerrero, who handed them over to a local drug gang that apparently killed them and burned their bodies. Since the Sept. 26 attack, only three of their remains have been identified.
After an initial coverup, last year a government truth commission concluded that local, state and federal authorities colluded with the gang to murder the students in what it called a 鈥渟tate crime.鈥
Ulises Gutierrez Solano joined the march in honor of his brother, Aldo, a student who survived the initial kidnapping but was left in a 鈥渧egetative state鈥 since 2014 after police shot him in the head while the others students were being abducted.
鈥淭his is an atrocity to humanity, to society,鈥 said Solano. 鈥淗ow could they do so much harm to so many people?鈥
L贸pez Obrador had pledged to solve the case and recent years have seen a painstakingly slow release of documents from the abduction, as well as a slew of arrests. But activists and human rights organizations say the government has not done enough to atone for the murders, investigate exactly what happened, and punish the culprits.
Tensions rose just hours before the march, when the families and their lawyers rejected a series of documents the Mexican government offered to make public, claiming the specific military files they requested months ago were not included. The army said it didn't have those files.
鈥淪ince August the families have been asking, but they just gave us part of the information鈥 said Nicholas Mend茅z, leading a group of students from the 好色tv Autonomous University of Mexico. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 worrying because we鈥檙e changing government next year.鈥
L贸pez Obrador鈥檚 six-year term ends in September 2024 and, Mend茅z feared, petitioning a new president for information could mean starting from scratch.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 have another six years of nothing,鈥 Mend茅z said.
In a press conference Tuesday morning, Mexico's president insisted all of the relevant documents had been released.
鈥淲e have principles; we have ideals, and we speak the truth,鈥 L贸pez Obrador said, promising also to publish government social media messages about the case.
The students from a radical teachers' college had travelled to Iguala to hijack buses to get to a protest in Mexico City, but were intercepted by corrupt police linked to the Guerreros Unidos gang. Iguala officials thought the students were going to disrupt a local political event, and one of the hijacked buses may have carried a drug shipment.
Recent years have seen a run of government and army officials from the time arrested, but no more remains have been found.
Then-Attorney General, Jes煤s Murillo Karam, and the head of his anti-kidnapping unit have been arrested for their initial, botched investigation following the abductions. Almost a dozen military personnel, including the commander of the area where the students were abducted, have also been arrested.
After evidence used to assemble an expert report in August was undermined, the case鈥檚 chief prosecutor, Omar G贸mez Trejo, resigned. Just this year a party from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission which has been investigating the incident since 2015 also withdrew from Mexico.
As families marched through the city, they passed barricades erected to protect monuments. The march was peaceful, notwithstanding isolated incidents of violence when demonstrators attacked and damaged some stores, according to local media.
At one traffic circle, activists had plastered posters in remembrance not just of the 43 students, but of all Mexico鈥檚 missing.
The Ayotzinapa atrocity has taken on symbolic significance for a country with more than 110,000 missing people.
Pablo Hector Gonzalez has traveled from Guerrero every year to join the march.
鈥淎fter nine years, in force, we will insist until the truth appears and until all the guilty are punished,鈥 he said.
