Six months gone: Marches commemorate anniversary of 43 missing student-teachers in Mexico

On Sept. 26, 2014, 43 student-teachers from Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa went missing. Protests and marches on March 27, 2015 across the globe marked the fact that there are still no answers for their families.

The 43 student-teachers went missing in Iguala, Guerrero. Mexico erupted after the students were attacked by police, after coming back home from a protest.

On Thursday March 27, 2015, amidst marches remembering the event, the families of the missing demanded midterm elections in the Mexican state of Guerrero be cancelled. Their demands were denied.

“For us, elections right now represent death, they represent more victims,” said Meliton Ortega, uncle of missing student Muricio Ortega, told Telesur.

Thousands march in the tenth ‘Global Action Ayotzinapa’ for the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students on the six-month anniversary of their disappearance. (LUIS RAMON BARRON TINAJERO/Demotix)

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has been criticized over his handling of the events and government reaction has spawned hashtags like #Yamecanse. Mexican attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam said the phrase, which translates to “I am tired”, at a press conference and has likely never forgotten that he uttered it, even after he stepped down from the position.

The current Attorney General’s office announced Thursday that 104 suspects have now been detained in connection with the case.

In Mexico City, thousands march in the Tenth Global Action Ayotzinapa, 6 months after the disappearance of the 43 students. Their parents demand to know their whereabouts and want to punish those responsible. The signs on the top right read “It was the state.” (Photo credit: Top left: Rodrigo Jardón/Demotix, top right: LUIS RAMON BARRON TINAJERO/Demotix, bottom: Débora Poo Soto/Demotix)

In the U.S., a petition campaign was launched, asking for the U.S. government to reconsider their stance on Mexico.

The video below was launched as part of the campaign.

“By funding and supporting the Mexican government, the United States government is funding and supporting the drug cartels. What do you support?” the video asks.

People carring flags saying: missing 43, during the march for six months of enforced disappearance of 43 student teachers Ayotzinapa. (Débora Poo Soto/Demotix)

Two sets of embroidered handkerchiefs for the missing students. On the left, in Mexico City, each handkerchief has the name of a missing student. (Débora Poo Soto/Demotix) On the right: another embroidery collection completed March 26 in Barcelona, Spain. The idea is to deliver the name embroidered to the relatives that will scale in Barcelona in May to denounce the violence. (Paco Freire/ Demotix)

From a letter posted by Nansi Cisneros, sister of Francisco Javier Cisneros Torres:

“As I began working to find my brother, I discovered that my family and I are not alone; I discovered that there are more than 25,000 families in Mexico who also have family that are known as “los desaparecidos,” the disappeared ones that neither President Peña Nieto or President Obama really want to talk about.”

Nearly 300 Spanish students showed their solidarity with the 43 Ayotzinapa students, missing since September 26th, 2014, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, during the 3rd day of strikes against Education Minister Wert and his university reforms. (Jorge Sanz/ Demotix)

At the protests, Epifanio Álvarez, father of missing student Jorge Alvarez, told 24 Horas he and other parents do not believe the government’s claims that their children are dead.

“Here we are with the same force and despair as when we started. How much care one cares for a child, so that nothing happens (to them) and when I needed, I was not there with him.”

Left: Protests in Mexico City, where supporters turned up in the thousands ( Rodrigo Jardón/ Demotix) Right: “6 months later, the same question: what about 43?” says a sign during the march for the six months of enforced disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers. (Débora Poo Soto/Demotix)

Mexico’s Guerrero state is one of the country’s poorest and most violent. The forcibly disappeared are not uncommon in the region, as explained by this short documentary in The New Yorker.

Candles are lit to form the shape of the number 43 at a rally organized by Amnesty International outside the Attorney General of Mexico office marking six months since 43 Ayotzinapa students went missing. (LUIS RAMON BARRON TINAJERO/ Demotix)

From María Elena Guerrero Vázquez, mother of missing student Giovanni Guerrero (as told to Fusion):

“We will not rest until we find our children. A mother’s pain has turned into fury against this government. It has taken so much from us, and now it has also taken away our fear. We are no longer afraid.”