Relatives of the 43 students who disappeared in 2014 from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in Guerrero state entered the National Palace in Mexico City on Wednesday for a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum, but made clear beforehand that they harbor little faith in her assurances.
Speaking to reporters as they arrived, family members said years of unfulfilled commitments from previous administrations have eroded their confidence in government pledges to solve the case, one of Mexico’s most notorious human rights scandals. The students vanished after being attacked by police and, according to official investigations, handed over to a criminal gang in the city of Iguala. Only a handful of the young men’s remains have ever been positively identified, and no full account of what happened, or who ordered it, has been established.
Sheinbaum, who took office in 2024, inherited the case from her predecessor and political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had promised in 2018 to reveal the full truth but left office without doing so. The families are pressing the current government to release remaining military and security files they believe hold key answers, and to prosecute officials allegedly involved in a cover-up.
Read the full report at jornada.com.mx for details on what was discussed inside the meeting.
Image: John Englart (Takver), BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).