Demonstrators march to mark the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, in Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A demonstrator marches to mark the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from an Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, in Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Demonstrators march to mark the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, in Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Demonstrators march to mark the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, in Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Families of Mexico’s 43 disappeared students demand truth and justice 11 years later
MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 The words 鈥渢ruth and justice鈥 rang out from crowds of protesters flooding a central boulevard in Mexico City on Friday, just as they have every Sept. 26 since the disappearance of 43 Mexican students that shook the country in 2014.
Demonstrators march to mark the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, in Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 The words 鈥渢ruth and justice鈥 rang out from crowds of protesters flooding a central boulevard in Mexico City on Friday, just as they have every Sept. 26 since the disappearance of 43 Mexican students that shook the country in 2014.
Friday’s protest came exactly 11 years after students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers鈥 College in the southern state of Guerrero vanished in 2014. Authorities believe the students were abducted in the town of Iguala as they traveled by bus to Mexico City for a protest and with ties to government and military officials.
The case has fueled deep distrust of authorities because of a government cover-up that followed by investigators who created a parallel version of events. Despite dozens of people 鈥 including a former attorney general, local officials, military and police officers 鈥 being arrested in connection with the case, no one has ever been convicted.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Because of that, the case has become a symbol for ongoing corruption, cartel violence and the plight of the more than 133,000 disappeared people in Mexico. The number 43 and the faces of the students continue to dot the country’s capital in monuments and graffiti as a constant reminder of one the greatest crimes in Mexico’s modern history.
While authorities say investigations are ongoing, families of victims protesting on Friday said they still don’t have clarity over what happened to their loved ones, something that infuses their cries for justice with more pain every year.
鈥淎fter 11 years, the demand remains the same: their whereabouts; the truth, however painful it may be; and justice,鈥 said Hilda Hern谩ndez, mother of C茅sar Manuel Gonz谩lez, in a video where several relatives invited Mexicans to march with them on Friday.
That鈥檚 why indignation often erupts at protests, such as one Thursday outside a military base in the capital that ended with a truck rammed into one of its gates and then set on fire. Since 2022, relatives have demanded that the armed forces hand over hundreds of documents that could be key to clarifying the case, but the military has not done so.
On Friday, downtown Mexico City was heavily guarded to try to prevent any outbursts.
The Ayotzinapa case has been considered a 鈥渟tate crime鈥 since 2022, because prosecutors say the youths were attacked by police colluding with a local cartel that trafficked heroin, acting in complicity with local, state and federal officials, including the military.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Neither the motive nor the fate of the students is clear, though burned remains of three have been found.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated Friday that her commitment is 鈥渢o get to the truth and justice and to find the young men.鈥 Although she replaced the special prosecutor on the case and said there are new lines of investigation, the families still see no progress.
鈥淕overnments come and governments go,鈥 lamented Clemente Rodr铆guez, father of Christian Rodr铆guez, in the same video, 鈥渂ut the case remains unresolved.鈥
More than a hundred people have been arrested in connection with the case. Some were freed due to procedural irregularities, but dozens remain on trial 鈥 among them former Attorney General Jes煤s Murillo Karam, charged with torture, forced disappearance and obstruction of justice.
Key arrests and extraditions remain pending. Among them is the case鈥檚 first chief investigator, Tom谩s Zer贸n, who is hiding in Israel, and several others in the United States 鈥 extraditions that President Sheinbaum said she was pressing for with U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration.
____
Follow AP鈥檚 coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
