On the night of September 26, 2014, Iguala city police forces opened fire on buses carrying students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College who were en route to a demonstration in Mexico City. When federal forces later arrived, it was only to watch and participate in the shooting and abduction. By the end of the long night, six people were dead and 43 students were forcibly disappeared.
Ten years later, there are still no conclusive answers as to who ordered the attack, or under what motive. What is clear, however, is the federal government’s direct involvement in the disappearances and its subsequent attempts to discredit independent investigations, protect officials implicated in the attack, and lay responsibility at the feet of cartels. Mexico as a whole continues to face a forensic crisis of epic proportions: just this year, AMLO laid off 104 forensic experts from the National Search Commission, even while an estimated 52,000 unidentified bodies remain in Mexico’s morgues and unmarked graves.
Despite these maneuvers and the passage of time, demands for justice and the lasting conviction of state culpability—“fue el estado”—persist. This article collection explores how longstanding connections between the government and cartels in the Guerrero region created the conditions for the mass disappearance, and how two successive administrations continue to obstruct activists, investigators, and families from knowing the truth.
The Instruction: How the López Obrador Administration Blew Up the Ayotzinapa Investigation (Part I)
John Gibler | November 20, 2023
Mexico’s president promised to deliver truth and justice for the 43 disappeared students and their families. The former special prosecutor reveals what happened instead.
Israel, Cybersurveillance, and the Case of the Ayotzinapa 43
Suhail Gharaibeh | September 14, 2022
Tomás Zerón de Lucio, a key figure in the forced disappearance and subsequent government cover-up of the Ayotzinapa case, is hiding out in Tel Aviv thanks to his close ties to the Israeli cybersurveillance industry.
Chasing the Murderers of Ayotzinapa’s 43
Christy Thornton | September 17, 2018
Examining the disappearance of 43 students in southern Mexico four years ago can lead to only one conclusion: culpability lies with the Mexican state.
Grassroots Action Confronts Impunity Three Years After Ayotzinapa
Dawn Paley | September 26, 2017
"The government, after they disappeared the 43, they tried to say it was an isolated case, and we screamed ‘no!’ It isn’t an isolated case, it is systematic. It happens many times a day in different parts of the country."
Time Stands Still for the Mothers of Mexico's Disappeared
Nidia Bautista | November 19, 2015
The mothers of Mexico’s disappeared have become some of the most important voices denouncing the Mexican state’s role in perpetuating femicide and other forms of violence in the country.
Unearthing the Truth: Mexican State Violence Beyond Ayotzinapa
Jesse Franzblau | December 22, 2014
Declassified files on migrant massacres reveal impunity and Mexican state complicity in human rights atrocities that predate the recent Ayotzinapa disappearances.
The Spectre of Ayotzinapa Haunts the Continent
Richard Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui | December 8, 2014
The continental capitalist offensive in Mexico has been backed up by both state and private violence, and has produced many Ayotzinapas.
Impunity and Mass Disappearance in Ayotzinapa
Laura Carlsen | October 29, 2014
Mass protests over 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa raise questions about state complicity in the murder and disappearance of Mexican youth.
