What happened Ayotzinapa?

It has been over seven years since 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Guerrero, Mexico, were taken by armed men in the middle of the night. They were never seen again. Their disappearance sparked mass protests, as the 43 became symbols of Mexico’s unchecked human rights abuses.

What happened to the students of Ayotzinapa?

On September 26, 2014, forty-three male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were forcibly abducted and then disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Iguala and Cocula in collusion with organized crime.

Why did the 43 students go missing?

Since 2014, nobody has seen the students abducted from a rural teachers college. The government has insisted that a drug gang might have mistaken them for rivals and killed them. Now, international experts say Mexico’s government falsified evidence and is obstructing the investigation. NPR’s Carrie Kahn reports.

Did they ever find the 43 missing students?

Most of the students’ bodies have never been found, though burned bone fragments have been matched to three students. “It was falsified from the first day to the last day,” said former Colombian prosecutor Angela Buitrago, who is part of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights group supporting the investigation.

How 43 students on a bus vanished?

The students had made the deadly mistake of commandeering several buses in order to drive to Mexico City for a protest. It now seems clear that those buses were part of a drug-running operation that would carry a huge cargo of heroin across the U.S. border—and the students had accidentally stolen the load.

Who killed the 43 students in Mexico?

What happened to them? The first official investigation – carried out under the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto – found that the 43 were seized by corrupt municipal police officers who handed them over to members of local drugs gang Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

Who are the Normalistas?

The Normalistas are also known for their community action throughout their schooling which involves: “tending to the sick, overseeing the building of water systems, and serving as intermediaries to obtain rural bank loans for cooperatives, as well as providing disaster relief, and advocating for the country’s poor.” …

What is a Normalista in Mexico?

In many areas of rural Mexico, these college students known as “normalistas” have taken to the streets and hijacked buses in sometimes violent protests against any changes to the education system. Some protests have been going for months.