MEXICO CITY—For the past three years, protesters have staged a monthly demonstration outside the office of Mexico’s attorney general. The participants, most of them impoverished farmers from the southern coastal state of Guerrero, include the parents and loved ones of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College who, in September 2014, were abducted after they hijacked buses for a political protest in the city of Iguala.
Mexican authorities have said the abductions were carried out by corrupt municipal police officers who handed the students over to drug traffickers. But the case is still mired in controversy, with families complaining of a government cover-up, and the likelihood of a satisfactory conclusion to the saga growing more distant by the year. The motive for the atrocity, and the whereabouts of the students, are as disputed as ever.
Listen to Paul Imison discuss this article on WPR’s Trend Lines Podcast. His audio starts at 24:48.