Protesters take to the streets to mark the two-year anniversary of Mexico's missing students

Record ID: 85300

  • Title: Protesters take to the streets to mark the two-year anniversary of Mexico's missing students
  • Date: 27th September 2016
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 26, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING PLACARD THAT READS "THEY TOOK THEM ALIVE" AND WITH PHOTOS OF MISSING STUDENTS BELOW VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING, HOLDING SIGNS OF STUDENTS BANNER THAT READS "STOP MILITARISATION" PROTESTERS CARRYING LARGE PLACARD WITH PHOTOS OF MISSING STUDENTS PROTESTERS CHANTING PLACARD THAT READS "NO APOLOGY. I WON'T FORGET" MORE OF PEOPLE MARCHING POSTERS WITH PHOTOS OF MISSING STUDENTS RELATIVES OF MISSING HOLDING POSTERS WITH PHOTOS OF MISSING STUDENTS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FATHER OF MISSING STUDENT, MELITON ORTEGA, SAYING: "Two years of uncertainty for parents, two years of more pain, of insomnia for us. Two years of searching, for the truth, the dependence of the Federal Government on the Attorney General, who is responsible for carrying out the investigation. We have not had the response we have wanted." VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) REPRESENTATIVE FOR PARENTS OF THE MISSING STUDENTS, FELIPE DE LA CRUZ, SAYING: "Regarding the incidents we continue to demand justice for two years. Since the first days we have said that if they (government) cannot give us answers then we need to go to Los Pinos (presidential headquarters) because he (President Enrique Pena Nieto) is inept and cannot continue as president of our country." MORE OF PROTESTERS MARCHING BANNER THAT READS "RESIGN PENA NIETO" BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (SEPTEMBER 26, 2016) (REUTERS) PENA NIETO SPEAKING AT LECTERN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEXICAN PRESIDENT ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, SAYING: "Today is an occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the commitment of the Federal Government to reach the end of investigations which is ongoing and furthermore which has seen the participation of international organisations, particularly the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Mexico has opened up a space so they can get to know, to help with the corresponding work of the authorities responsible for concluding the investigation which is the Attorney General."
  • Embargoed: 12th October 2016 03:44
  • Keywords: protest Mexico missing students justice two year anniversary
  • Location: MEXICO CITY, IGUALA, COCULA, TIXTLA, GUERRERO, MEXICO / BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
  • City: MEXICO CITY, IGUALA, COCULA, TIXTLA, GUERRERO, MEXICO / BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA00151CB32B
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Thousands of Mexicans marched through the country's capital on Monday (September 26) to mark two years since feared massacre of 43 students, demanding justice be done for the victims and their families.
    Marching on the capital, families of the missing students and their supporters called for justice with some going as far as calling for President Enrique Pena Nieto's resignation and for the students to be returned alive amidst accusations the government has put obstacles in the way of the truth.
    "Two years of uncertainty for parents, two years of more pain, of insomnia for us. Two years of searching, for the truth, the dependence of the Federal Government on the Attorney General, who is responsible for carrying out the investigation. We have not had the response we have wanted," said father of one of the missing students, Meliton Ortega.
    Earlier this year, a panel of international experts, commissioned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), accused Mexico's government of undermining their probe into the fate of 43 trainee teachers apparently massacred in 2014, the most notorious human rights case in Mexico in recent years.
    The independent panel, known as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE), said the government's stonewalling stopped them from reaching the truth as they wrap up their work and prepare to leave Mexico.
    "Regarding the incidents we continue to demand justice for two years. Since the first days we have said that if they (government) cannot give us answers then we need to go to Los Pinos (presidential headquarters) because he (President Enrique Pena Nieto) is inept and cannot continue as president of our country," said Felipe de la Cruz, representative for parents of the missing students.
    The Mexican government has responded, saying it held numerous meetings with the experts and had fulfilled the majority of their hundreds of requests for information.
    Mexico's government claims that corrupt police in late 2014 handed the student teachers in the southwestern city of Iguala over to drug gang henchmen, who believed the trainees had been infiltrated by a rival gang. They then incinerated them at a garbage dump in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero.
    But the remains of just one of the 43 students has been identified from a charred bone fragment.
    Speaking in Bogota at the Colombian peace signing, Pena Nieto defended his government's handling of the case.
    "Today is an occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the commitment of the Federal Government to reach the end of investigations which is ongoing and furthermore which has seen the participation of international organisations, particularly the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Mexico has opened up a space so they can get to know, to help with the corresponding work of the authorities responsible for concluding the investigation which is the Attorney General," he said.
    The experts say that the government's theory the students had been burned is scientifically impossible given the heat needed to reduce human remains to ash, and the experts raised further questions in the report about the government's story of finding the bone fragment in the river.
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