43 Mexican students left their homes never to return on Friday Sept. 26, 2014
Flash-forward to the one-year anniversary of the disappearance.
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015 and still no answers, nothing to celebrate.
The disappearance of 43 students from a rural school in Iguala, Guerrero and the sheer indifference from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is appalling and downright sketchy.
Following the disappearance in 2014, Jesus Murillo Karam, the attorney general who investigated the case, reported that the students were abducted by cops and handed over to a local cartel.
The cartel members reportedly incinerated the 43 bodies and tossed the remains into a nearby river.
While giving his report, Karam uttered the now infamous and insensitive “Ya Me Canse” or “I’m tired” phrase and walked out of the press conference, showing little regard for the families and friends of the missing students.
It is important to note that Karam is affiliated to the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), which is also the leading party in Mexico and has been historically linked to aristocracy and corruption.
This is also conveniently the same party who was backing the woman running for office that the students were on the way to protest when they were abducted.
According to a report by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the report initially given by the government is flawed.
Their report not only found that local, state and federal forces in addition to the army were present during the night of the abduction, but dismissed the fact that the bodies were burned in the Cocula dumpster.
It simply wasn’t scientifically possible to burn that many bodies in a dump of that magnitude nor could the minimum fire be started in that location, the report stated.
This new finding is important and interesting because it goes against everything the Mexican government released as fact.
It is also important because the families of the 43 students have rejected the government’s report since day one and have been ridiculed for not believing and trusting the government.
“Caravana 43” was a tour of sorts that brought the parents of the 43 students to the United States, where they told their heart-wrenching stories doubled with hope; an example of unbelievable strength.
“I talked to my son on the phone, it was his birthday, and I told him I had his favorite dish, cake, and a hug waiting for him at home. He never returned, but I hope to give him that hug one day,” the mother of one of the rural students said.
While there wasn’t a single dry eye in that room, men, women and children, the mother of the student stood tall as she talked into a plethora of television network microphones and recounted the story of her son’s disappearance for the millionth time, this time in United States soil.
The purpose of “Caravana 43,” was to reach President Obama and garner his attention in order to bring about changes to the Merida Initiative.
This initiative allows the United States to aid Mexico in combating drug trafficking and organized crime by providing arms and training.
Although there have been no reports of Caravana 43 reaching President Obama, the momentum of the movement to find the students alive and reach some form of truth has not died.
A year later although there are no answers, hope has not vanished and although it is frightening and enraging to go 365 plus days with zero trace of 43 human beings, this human rights violation has highlighted the heartlessness, incompetence and greed of an entire political party and government.
The 43 future teachers and activists perhaps taught the most important lesson they were to teach in their lives on Sept. 25, 2014 and we can still hear their bravery loud and clear all across the world.
