On September 26, 2014, 150 students from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa went to the city of Iguala to raise funds to travel to Mexico City. They were planning to attend events marking the October 2 anniversary of the government massacre of hundreds of students and others in 1968, at the height of the student movement there and shortly before the Olympic Games were to start in Mexico City.¹

That evening, the Ayotzinapa students took buses from the bus yard, winning over the drivers to give them a ride home—a time-honored tradition in Mexico. On their way out of town, they were fired on. Two students died on the spot. Another student was found dead in the bushes, with his face torn off and eyes gouged out. Three passers-by were also killed in the gunfire. Forty-three of the students were carried off by the perpetrators of the assault and “disappeared,” never to be heard from again to this day.

Facts that were soon uncovered made clear that those responsible for this vicious crime were the forces of “law and order,” including high-level officials in the Mexican military and government, acting in coordination with drug cartels.

The Role of the Students’ Families

Students at the Ayotzinapa teacher training college come from very poor peasant and/or indigenous backgrounds. The rural teachers colleges in Mexico in general, and Ayotzinapa in particular, are known for their tradition of instilling radical ideals and militant struggle, stemming from their founding in the early years after the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which overthrew the reign of a U.S.-imposed dictator in Mexico and enacted limited agrarian and constitutional reforms.

The violent attack on the Ayotzinapa students and the disappearance of the 43 sparked widespread protests in the immediate aftermath, and the protests have continued since then. A revcom.us article in December 2014 (“Mexico Burns, U.S. Needs to Feel the Heat”) gave a picture of the widespread protests in weeks after the murder of six people and the disappearance of the 43 students in Guerrero, including:

• Tens of thousands marched in Mexico City on November 20; they were attacked by truckloads of police.
• 100,000 college students went on strike on November 22, with some colleges and schools on strike continuously since then.
• Federal highways were blocked by students, teachers, and armed self-defense groups from rural and indigenous communities.

And around the world, there were vigils, marches, and die-ins in many cities, ranging from London and Madrid to India, South Korea, and Australia—many at Mexican consulates but also at universities. In the U.S., actions at Mexican consulates mobilized much larger numbers of immigrants than have been seen for years, including many hundreds in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. There were also dozens of actions at colleges and universities across the U.S.

The students’ families have led and been at the core of protests, mobilizations and other actions since 2014, including delegations to the United Nations and other international bodies. These families have been driven by anguish at what happened to the young men and fury at the lies and criminality of the government and military.

A father of a disappeared student said in 2014, “We would be willing to take up arms… because we’re not going to have any alternative.” This kind of sentiment was hotly debated and defended in social media and on the streets. Another father of a disappeared student, Epifanio Álvarez, said in November 2014 at an encampment that relatives set up at the Ayotzinapa school, “These are nights from hell… It is something that does not let us rest, we have in our heads: where will our son be? Jorge liked to play the guitar and when I listen to one of his songs, I cannot bear it.”

Cristina Bautista, mother of one of the disappeared students, said in 2017, “The Mexican government is responsible for all the forced disappearances in our country... we will not rest, we will be demanding the presentation alive of our sons until we find their whereabouts, until we get truth and justice. We really want those responsible to be punished. We don’t want to hear any more lies.”

Shaking Up the Situation in Mexico

The main demand of the students’ families and others has been: “They were taken away alive. We want them back alive!” This struggle has taken to the streets of many Mexican cities, and beyond. A caravan of family members and an Ayotzinapa student who escaped the attack criss-crossed the United States in 2015, building support for their struggle.² The pressure kept up by the families and others over the years has shaken the Mexican ruling classes and repressive forces (Army and police), calling into question the legitimacy and credibility of the whole system in Mexico.

In November 2014, the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico (OCR, M), wrote:

We are living a crisis of the reactionary state, caused primarily by the bestial crimes of this state in Iguala and a broad wave of popular anger and protest that stretches across Mexico. Despite attempts by the federal government to minimize the slaughter of six people and the forced disappearance of 43 student teachers by state forces, and even trying to criminalize the victims, more and more people are realizing that this state is murderous and criminal. The student protests increasingly extend across Mexico and other sections of the people are beginning to join the battle... Hardly any cultural or intellectual events occur where no voices are heard demanding justice. In over sixty cities around the world there have been demonstrations against the Mexican government and demanding justice.

Since September 2014, the Mexican ruling classes—from the highest levels of the government and of the military, and under two different presidents—have manufactured a series of lies and cover-ups of the murders and disappearances that would make Donald Trump proud.

The president at the time of the 2014 brutal assault, Enrique Peña Nieto, promoted a pack of lies he called the “Historical Truth” (in reality, “Historical Lie”) that blamed the entire crime on the local mayor, authorities, police, and drug cartels in Guerrero. This was an attempt to totally absolve from blame higher-level government and military officials or police forces.

The current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as “AMLO”) came into office in 2018 claiming to be the head of a so-called “government of change.” Among the promises he made was to get out the truth about the disappeared Ayotzinapa 43, and now his government has come out with a report that admits to some of the truth. But as the August 20 article from Aurora Roja, voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico, points out, the report continues the outrageous coverup by announcing “in advance impunity for former President Enrique Peña Nieto” and other high-level officials, “in addition to continuing to cover up the atrocious crimes and the unspeakable motives of the Army, the Navy and the government…”