Protesters Demand Justice 11 Years After Disappearance of 43 Mexican Students

Eleven years after 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College disappeared, families and supporters marched through Mexico City on Friday, demanding answers in a case that remains unresolved and continues to spark national outrage.

Among them was Delfina de la Cruz, whose son was among those who vanished on September 26, 2014. Battling the rain, she led the protest alongside other mothers of the missing students, voicing deep frustration over the lack of justice.

“We are back where we started,” she said. “I just want to know what happened to my son—where he is, if he’s even still alive.”

The students, known for their political activism, had commandeered buses to travel to a protest in Mexico City when they went missing in Iguala, Guerrero. The case is one of Mexico’s most infamous human rights tragedies and part of a wider crisis of enforced disappearances in the country, where more than 120,000 people are officially missing.

So far, only the remains of three students have been found and positively identified. Investigations suggest the students were abducted by a drug cartel in collusion with local police, but the full truth remains elusive.

On Friday, demonstrators also criticized the government’s handling of the case. Holding a banner, retired university professor Jesús Gumaro condemned former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, for failing to bring clarity or justice.

“We had hope that this administration would resolve it, but nothing has happened,” said Gumaro, 66.

Although dozens of individuals, including a former attorney general and military officers, have been prosecuted, no one has been convicted. The victims’ families accuse the military of withholding critical information. Anger escalated on Thursday when protesters rammed a truck into the gates of a military barracks in Mexico City during a demonstration no injuries were reported, and the facility remained secure.

The Ayotzinapa case has drawn international condemnation and become a symbol of Mexico’s broader crisis of impunity and drug-related violence, which has claimed over 450,000 lives since 2006.

An initial official version of the events labeled the “historical truth” under then-President Enrique Peña Nieto claimed the students’ bodies were incinerated and dumped in a river. That account has since been discredited.

In 2022, a truth commission established by López Obrador’s government declared the disappearances a “state crime,” citing the military’s direct or indirect involvement. The commission reported that army personnel had real-time knowledge of the abduction but failed to intervene.

As the years pass, the victims’ families continue to demand justice, vowing not to remain silent until the full truth is known.