Overview
On September 26, 2014, 43 male students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico.
Street poster depicting the missing students. It reads, “Alive they were taken away … Alive we want them [back]. Ayotzinapa lives, the struggle goes on.”
Background
According to official reports, they had travelled to Iguala that day to hold a protest against what they considered to be discriminatory hiring and funding practices by the Mexican government. During the journey local police intercepted them and a confrontation ensued. Details of what happened during and after the clash remain unclear, but the official investigation concluded that once the students were in custody, they were handed over to the local Guerreros Unidos (“United Warriors”) crime syndicate and presumably killed.