By Faviola Robles

On Sept. 26 devastation hit Mexico.

Forty-three students from a school in Ayotzinapa disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero. Before any evidence was shown to these families, many people already knew what had happened. They were aware their local police had played a large part in this crime. As a result, parents and students throughout the cities in Mexico protested and demanded the return of their students.

It was not until Nov. that answers unraveled. The attorney general Jesus Murillo called for a press conference and released all the information and evidence they had. He explained step by step what happened to these all male 43 students. Around 74 people have been arrested including many local police officers. The arrested include the mayor from Iguala Jose Luis Abarca and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda, who had cowardly hid after the disappearance for a couple of weeks in Mexico City. The attorney general confirmed the mayor and his wife had ordered the local police to kidnap the students.

Three members of the drug cartel, called Guerreros Unidos, confessed to the police what they had done. They confessed that the local police brought the students to them, and they brutally handled it from there.

The cartel members killed most of the students and burned them for about 15 hours in a dumpster. They then took their remains and dumped them in a river in Cocula. As the attorney general showed the clips of the criminals confessing what they had done, I was shocked to see that they said this as though it was nothing. As though these 43 human beings meant nothing.  Their heartless descriptions fit the evidence the police had found. Near the river they discovered black bags filled with remains. The attorney general announced that the remains they found will be sent to be examined by forensic experts and the time of getting results back is unknown.

However, these were not the answers families of the victims and people of Mexico were waiting for. Due to the fact that the majority of the arrested people are police officers, they no longer trust what the police and government have to say on this matter. They believe it won’t be taken care of, and they are sick of the injustice that continuously occurs. At this point, Mexican have the right to want a new form of government because the one they have now has showed them they won’t take care of people’s rights. Despite the evidence presented to them, people refuse to believe that the students are dead. Many of the parents of these victims believe the students are alive and they continue on with their searches and protests.

When I first heard of this I was in shock. I couldn’t believe people would do this to other human beings. All for what? For money? For power? Let alone to know that the mayor and his wife had potentially set the destiny for these students. Today’s Mexicans are living in a country unable to express their opinions at the risk of being “disappeared.” This is not the first time something like this has happened. In 1968 police officers and military troops shot into a crowd of unarmed students. At that time government only reported a small amount of the deaths, and the citizens said otherwise.  At this point, the people of Mexico aren’t listening to their government and protests continue to spread through the cities.