Parents of Ayotzinapa 43 Resume Talks with Mexican Government

Edited by Pavel Jacomino
2017-02-11 16:39:10

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Mexico City, February 11 (RHC)-- More than two years after 43 students from Ayotzinapa School went missing in Mexico's violence-ridden Guerrero state, their parents' quest for justice has reached a small, yet unsatisfying, breakthrough.

Parents of the students, who disappeared in 2014, restarted talks with the Mexican government on Friday.  The two parties, who halted talks in August 2016, reached a series of agreements about how to proceed with the investigation into what happened to the disappeared students.

The group of parents, who have continued to seek justice and truth in the disappearance of their sons and daughters, were not satisfied with the talks, EFE reported.  The parents met with the heads of the Attorney General's Office and the Interior Ministry for three hours before reaching an agreement. Roberto Campa, Mexico's subsecretary of human rights, announced the results of the conversation Friday morning.

The parents will resume monthly talks with the government, which has agreed to provide assistance to support police investigating the case and follow up on leads from international experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

In the more than two years since the students went missing, their parents have continued to criticize the Mexican government for failing to unveil the true circumstances of their disappearance and for continuing to push a narrative that has been discredited by international organizations for its inconsistencies.

According to the official story, a busload of students from the Ayotzinapa School, an Indigenous teacher training school renowned for its activism, were on their way to a demonstration for striking teachers on Sept. 26, 2014 when they were pulled over.  Corrupt police detained the 43 students and handed them over to a criminal organization, who then murdered them, burned their bodies and threw the ashes into a nearby river, according to the official account.

The Mexican government has stuck by this account of what happened to the students, but the students' parents have not accepted this version as the truth.

Independent investigations, including the work of investigative journalist Anabel Hernandez, have pointed to Mexican soldiers, federal police and the attorney general's office all playing a key role in the 43 disappearances. After these revelations were exposed in Hernandez' book, the parents began to call for the prosecution of military personnel from the 27th Infantry Battalion, which they accused of being responsible for the disappearance of their children.

The Mexican government continues to stick to their official account of events that claims drug lords and local police, despite mounting evidence of national police and military involvement.



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