Ayotzinapa parents protest on 8th anniversary of students’ disappearance

By Inés Amarelo

Mexico City, Sep 26 (EFE).- Activists and family staged a mass protest in the Mexican capital on Monday on the eighth anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa in the southern state of Guerrero in Mexico.

“They are not going to silence us,” they said.

Hundreds of students – not only from the rural school of Guerrero, but also from the capital and other parts of the country – as well as activists accompanied the parents on a march from the iconic Angel of Independence to the Zocalo, the city’s main square where the National Palace is located.

Although the public buildings were sealed and businesses shuttered, the march went off with little violence.

The parents made their demands using a microphone, including for scientific evidence after the most recent report by the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice that said that there was no indication that the students were still alive.

“There are no signs of life but there are no signs of death,” Blanca Nava, mother of Jorge Álvarez Nava who disappeared in September 2014, said during the rally.

“We haven’t stopped (protesting) in the streets for eight years and they haven’t given us an answer. Enrique Pena Nieto (the country’s president between 2012 and 2018) misled us with the historical truth and I say to this new government that they don’t mock us anymore, that they do not make fun of pain and suffering. We want to know the truth,” she added.

The commission’s most recent report acknowledges the involvement of organized crime and Mexican authorities, with which it has sought to refute the version of events proclaimed in 2015 as “the historical truth” by the administration of Nieto.

On Aug. 19, a day after the report was released, it came to light that 83 arrest warrants had been issued for persons allegedly connected with the case, but on Sunday a national media outlet reported that 16 of them were canceled.

So far, several soldiers have been arrested along with former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam, considered one of the architects of the “historical truth.”

“We are here to demand that the Mexican government, which made commitments to us, get to the truth of where the students are. I don’t agree with this report that says our children are dead. Where are they?” Clemente Rodriguez, father of missing Christian Rodriguez, said in an interview with several foreign media outlets.

A piece of a bone from Christian’s foot was identified but his father insists that its not the same as handing over a body.

“Hope is still alive, (that) my son is alive and all 43 (students) are alive. If not, that they tell us where they are. We want the bodies, we want justice,” Clemente said.

President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said at his daily press briefing on Monday that the case, which the government described in its last report on the matter as a “state crime,” is going to continue to be investigated.

“We are not going to close the matter,” the president said. EFE

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