Thousands of people participated in the Mexico City marches along the Paseo de la Reforma on Saturday, Sept. 26, for the first anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students in the city last year.
The activists aim to bring justice for the students who disappeared despite having only identified two of them from the DNA of their bone fragments, the Associated Press reported. Last year's case has opened a new door to let the public know how often people have gone missing ever since the drug war in Mexico began almost a decade ago in 2006.
The parents of those disappeared carried photos of their long lost relatives to demand justice. They say they do not agree with the statement of the government that these students were transferred under police custody in Iguana, but instead they were handed to a criminal gang that took their lives. Non-government-related investigators suggest that these missing students were allegedly killed for mistakenly taking a bus that carried loads of illegal drugs and that the government did not do anything to defend the students, BBC reported.
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Over 25,000 people have been reported missing by the government from 2007 until July this year. Bodies that are difficult to identify often appear in shallow graves where gangs dump, them but most of these missing people are never found again.
The 43 students were from a teachers college known for radical movements. They disappeared on Sept. 26 in the city of Iguala, located in Guerrero, where a clash happened between them and the police, the Guardian reported.
Parents of the students during the Mexico City marches have not given up and say they are still hoping that their children can still be found. "If they are betting on us getting tired, they're wrong," Mario Cesar Gonzalez said, father of one of the missing students, the Guardian added.
