Mexico will soon observe the fifth anniversary of a gruesome mass murder. This horrific crime has received international attention. An international commission on human rights came to some serious conclusions of close ties between the Mexican Army and organized crime.
On the night of September 26th, 2014, 57 students set out to commandeer local buses, as they had for years. They were to travel to Mexico City to commemorate the Student Massacre of 1968, Plaza Tlatelolco. This yearly custom was well known by locals. It was an inconvenience, but the vehicles were usually returned.
This night did not end as it had in the past. The buses that the young men “borrowed” were to have been used for a celebration that the mayor’s wife organized each year to congratulate herself on her civic pride and accomplishments. The commission that investigated the murders pointed to the mayor of Iguala and his wife. Neither has faced charges or been convicted!
According to eyewitnesses, the local police set up roadblocks and began firing on three busloads of students. The students tried to drive away. Finding the roads blocked, most escaped into the hills on foot. The local police from Iguala and the nearby town of Cocula rounded up 43 of 57 students. Claiming they were part of a drug cartel, police handed the students over to members of a local crime syndicate.
As the mother of three young adults, this case will never disappear from my memory. I have seen the signs, with tears in my eyes. Families demanded justice, praying for their beloved children to return, while the Mexican government stonewalled their case.
Now the government of Manuel Lopez Obrador is in the spotlight. The election promised reforms, after the widespread corruption of the Enrique Pena Nieto regime. What will be done about Ayotzinapa now?
—Comrade in Los Ángeles (USA)