Thousands Protest in Mexico Ahead of President’s Report on Missing Students

Thousands Protest in Mexico Over 43 Missing Students as Families Demand Answers

Thousands of protesters marched through Mexico City on Saturday, carrying red banners and symbolic coffins as they demanded answers over the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers 12 years ago.

The demonstration came days before President Claudia Sheinbaum is expected to present an update on the investigation. Sheinbaum, who has regularly met with the families of the missing students, is due to deliver a report on Monday following a review of evidence by the attorney general’s office.

“Because they were taken alive, we want them back alive,” read one of the slogans displayed during the protest.

Families Lead March for Missing Students

Parents of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers’ college led the march to Mexico City’s main square, where the National Palace is located.

Protesters repeatedly counted to 43 during the demonstration, paying tribute to each of the students who disappeared on September 26, 2014.

The students had travelled from Guerrero state towards Mexico City for a planned protest. In the city of Iguala, local police intercepted their buses. Six people were killed during the ensuing violence, while the 43 students disappeared.

“Another year of strain, of exhaustion, of hopelessness,” Estanislao Mendoza, one of the parents, told AFP.

“We want to know, whether it’s good or bad, alive or dead, but to know the truth, to know where they are,” he said, describing the past 12 years as a period of “suffering” and “lies”.

Official Account Disputed

Mexican prosecutors initially claimed that police officers handed the students over to members of a drug cartel. According to that account, the cartel members killed the students, burned their remains and disposed of them in a river.

The explanation has been challenged by independent human rights experts, leaving the case unresolved and continuing to draw international attention.

Authorities have continued investigating the events surrounding the students’ disappearance. A former governor was arrested in August on allegations that he deleted security footage related to the incident in Iguala. The former state attorney general was arrested in 2022.

Mexico’s Wider Missing Persons Crisis

The Ayotzinapa case has become a symbol of Mexico’s wider struggle with disappearances. More than 134,000 people are officially listed as missing in the country.

Atanacio Pina, 69, whose son disappeared and was later found dead, said the authorities needed to acknowledge the scale of the crisis.

“It’s necessary to support a struggle against the indifference of a government that refuses to accept that there is a disappearance crisis,” he said.

For the families of the 43 students, Saturday’s march marked another year of demands for information about what happened to their children and where they are.