AYOTZINAPA: A NIGHT OF TERROR IN IGUALA
“No country can go forward without knowing the truth to which victims and society are entitled. The events of Iguala oblige us to reflect on the moment in Mexico: they portray with crudeness the degradation of the institutions” (Anabel Hernandez, 2016)
It was September 26 in 2014 when about 100 students headed from Ayotzinapa to Iguala to collect some money so that each could afford their trip to Mexico City to commemorate the Massacre of Tlatelolco occurred in 1968. Ironically, they were massacred too. Ayotzinapa is a small town located in the municipality of Zitlala in the Mexican state of Guerrero. There, farmers and housewives walk on the streets and children play in the field. All of them are traumatized by such a horrible event. None of them smile anymore. Somewhere else in the town is located the Escuela Normal Rural: Raul Isidro Burgos (community college with a single major in education). Students are not attending classes anymore. They are hungry for justice. They want to let people know the truth.
The students who enroll in this college are poor people. The college doesn’t get enough funds. As a result, students and teachers themselves tend to go out to the streets to collect some money from donators. They usually take commercial buses [borrowed] without permission. Some people argue that these type of actions lead the students to such hazards. The fact is that they cannot afford tickets to travel so long. That is why they dare hijack buses because bus companies and authorities mostly tolerate it.
It was September 26, 2014. Five buses were taken, and about one-hundred students left Ayotzinapa towards Iguala. The city had always been a source of collections. Unfortunately, none of the students imagined the terrible nightmare they were about to experience. Three buses head toward northern beltway, two toward southern beltway leaving for Ayotzinapa. Before they could move some miles toward, the shooting began. The reason of such drastic enforcement remained a mystery until recently information came to light.
At first, the police officers started firing warning shots. The students were not stopped by them and started throwing rocks at a police car to make it move from blocking the street. As they started to move again, the police started shooting directly to the buses. Students threw themselves flat but told the driver to keep moving. Several yards ahead, a police vehicle had blocked the road so students had no choice but getting off the bus. As they approached the bus door, the officers opened fire on the group making them seek on the floor. Aldo Gutierrez, one of the students was shot in the head and died instantly; another student was shot in the hand and a third one was struck in an arm. The same thing happened to the other buses. Four hours of terror. Amid such a chaotic situation, “the students felt confusion, terror, and helplessness” said human rights experts from Latin America. The third bus was intercepted and students were prompted to get off. They were taken in five or seven patrols. These were among the 43 students who disappeared. A sixth bus and several civilian vehicles came under attack, all of whom didn’t have to do with the students. Los Avispones, a soccer team that had gone to play in Iguala was returning to Chilpancingo. The police opened fire on the bus. As a result, one soccer player was killed and seven more were severely injured. Meanwhile, a 40-year-old woman was killed while riding a taxi. After midnight, the remaining students started getting out of hiding in the wood. By that time, journalists, teachers, and students began to appear and gather to commence an impromptu news conference. As they were taking photos with cellphones in the middle of the roads, a sports utility vehicle and a black car drove by. Witnesses say they occupants were wearing bulletproof vests and hoods. They also say that they saw a police car nearby. Fifteen minutes later, those cars appeared again and without advertising start firing against them. They killed two students in the scene. The survivors fled for their lives. Julio Cesar Mondragon fled apart from the group and was later found killed lying in the middle of a street. Autopsy revealed about sixty fractures in different parts of his body. His skin was stripped off his face, and his cranium showed multiple traumatisms. As that was not enough, his internal organs were ruptured. Experts believe Mr. Mondragon was tortured before being killed. The reasons of such atrocities are recently becoming clear.
Parents of the normalistas (stands for teacher students) claimed for investigations, they made marches and protests. Finally, country’s attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam gave a press conference. He said the investigation led them to 99 people involved including Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife. Both were arrested and are now serving sentence. They were linked to organized crime. Jose Luis Abarca was found as the commander of the attacks. On November 7, 2014, Office of the General Prosecutor (PGR in Spanish) closed the case informing that the students were murdered, incinerated in a garbage dump and thrown into a river by the organized crime because they were mixed up with enemies. Local police officers were among the executors. Investigators later claimed that they were related to organized crime under the order of Iguala’s Mayor Jose Luis Abarca. PGR based much of his investigation in more than 386 declarations. Nevertheless, Argentinian forensics argue that it is impossible the students could have been incinerated as it is necessary high levels of temperature. As a result, it would have been difficult for the executors to keep the fire to such an extent that all students were burned to the ashes. In addition, “it was raining in Cocula the night if the events” witnesses say. Nevertheless, PGR states that the students were burned and they based his statement on the fact that only two students were identified through DNA in pieces of theirs bones that remained less damaged. However, none of the other 41 students has been encountered.
Parents of the students, teachers as well as civilians rejected the final result of the investigation. They protested and marched in several cities throughout the state of Guerrero and in Mexico City. The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI in Spanish) gave a completely different version. They state that the students could not have been incinerated because high levels of energy would have been needed to commit such atrocity. In addition, there is no enough evidence to support the PGR result except for two students identified so far.
Another concerning is that investigations lead to many authorities involved in the case. They were federal police, state police, and municipal or local police. Moreover, people claimed to investigate the army. Mexican Army 27th Battalion was also involved in the massacre. Survivor students informed that they ask the army for support. Despite the desperate invokes, the army replied that they could not do anything as they had to jurisdiction in that area. Nevertheless, a student said that later that night, soldiers approached to the scene crime. In addition, they went to the clinic where injured people were being attended. According to a survivor declaration, an army officer told the students that they “deserved what had happened.”
A few weeks ago, journalist Anabel Hernandez published her book named La Verdadera Noche de Iguala (which stands for The Truly Night in Iguala). In her book, Hernandez states that according to her investigations, the Mexican Army was involved in the massacre.
PGR instructed to investigate 27 Infantry Battalion. But presidential orders stopped such investigation. The agent was threatened to change his version and was also prompted to leave his job.Hernandez states that a powerful drug dealer who controls mostly all the state of Guerrero, learned of five buses that were stolen by students. Such buses were carrying heroin, with an estimated cost of 2 billion dollars. That was the main reason for which the students were hijacked and killed.
Works Cited
Semple, Kirk. "Missing Mexican Students Suffered a Night of ‘Terror,’ Investigators Say." The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
Redacción, AN. "“La Verdadera Noche De Iguala”, La Historia Que Se Ha Querido Ocultar #PrimerosCapítulos." Aristegui Noticias - Desde Cualquier Medio, Periodismo En Libertad. N.p., 25 Nov. 2016. Web.
Redacción, AN. "Fue El Ejército… Iban a Recuperar La Heroína: #LaVerdaderaNochedeIguala." Aristegui Noticias - Desde Cualquier Medio, Periodismo En Libertad. N.p., 25 Nov. 2016. Web.
"Classmate of 43 Missing Mexican Students Was Tortured, Report Says." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 11 July 2016. Web.
"Identifican Restos De Otro Normalista Desaparecido De Ayotzinapa." La Jornada. N.p., n.d. Web.
