Crowds filled the streets of Mexico City on Friday as families of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students renewed calls for justice, 11 years after the young men vanished in one of Mexico’s most shocking human rights cases. Mothers like Delfina de la Cruz, who lost her son in the tragedy, stood in the rain demanding to know what happened to their children. The students, from a teacher training college known for activism, disappeared on September 26, 2014, after seizing buses to travel to a demonstration in Mexico City. Investigators say a drug cartel abducted them with help from corrupt police, but the full truth remains unclear.
Only three students’ remains have been identified, leaving the fate of the others unknown. Despite the prosecution of dozens of suspects, including a former attorney general and military officials, no one has been convicted. Families accuse the army of hiding information, pointing to a 2022 truth commission that called the disappearance a “state crime” and confirmed the military had real-time knowledge of the abduction.
Friday’s march was charged with anger and frustration. Retired professor Jesus Gumaro carried a banner criticizing both former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his successor Claudia Sheinbaum for failing to resolve the case. Protesters also rammed a truck into a military barracks gate on Thursday during demonstrations, though no injuries were reported.
The disappearance sparked international outrage and exposed the scale of Mexico’s missing persons crisis, with more than 120,000 people still unaccounted for and over 450,000 lives lost to drug violence since 2006. The official version of events released in 2015, which claimed the students’ remains were incinerated and thrown into a river, was discredited. Families now say they will not stop until they uncover the truth about their children’s fate.
