Mexico rally for disappeared students

The rally in the rain in Mexico City on Saturday was the first event organized by activists and families of the 43 disappeared students since independent experts rejected the official version of events.

The independent report said authorities knew who the students were from the minute they headed for Iguala, and at the very least did nothing to stop the attacks.

Peace and anti-crime activist Maria Guadalupe Vicencio said the students' movement "sets an example for all Mexicans to wake up, and not be silent."

According to government figures, more than 25,000 people disappeared in Mexico between 2007 and 2015. Security forces began a clampdown on drug traffickers in 2006.

The remains of only two of the 43 students who disappeared on September 26, 2014 in Iguala have been identified following investigations.

Many questions remain about the case, which has been called the "Missing 43" and dominated the political agenda in the last year.

The 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college were traveling to Iguala, in the state of Guerrero southwest of the capital, to protest what they considered discriminatory hiring and funding practices. Before they reached the town, they were apprehended by police.

The official investigation reported that the students were handed over to the local drug cartel, which later killed them, burned their bodies at a dump and threw their remains in plastic bags into a river.

The town's mayor and his wife were alleged to have close ties to the cartel. They fled to Mexico City and were arrested. Two local police chiefs also fled. One was arrested but the other is still on the run. To date, authorities have detained more than 100 people, the majority of them local police.

IACHR investigation

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) carried out an independent investigation into the disappearances. Their report was released this month. It said the Mexican government's investigation was wrong about the nature of the attacks and the motive.

The IACHR report said the attacks were a violent and coordinated reaction to the students, who were hijacking buses so they could get to a demonstration. They may have unknowingly interfered with a drug shipment on one of the buses.

Mexico's investigative procedures and conclusions were strongly criticized in the IACHR report, which cited key evidence that was manipulated or that disappeared.

Last week, President Enrique Pena Nieto told the families of the students that he would appoint a new special prosecutor for all of the country's thousands of missing people. The 43 students are still officially considered missing.

jm/lw (AFP, dpa)