Ayotzinapa: the timeline of a tragedy

On September 26, 2014 , 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College were the victims of enforced disappearance in Iguala , in the state of Guerrero . The burned remains of one of them were found weeks later but the other 42 are still missing .

Here’s a timeline released by Amnesty International . It contains some of the key events in one of Mexico's most tragic event s.

September 2014

September 26:

Around 100 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in Ayotzinapa travel to the City of Iguala , located 120 km away. They aim to raise money and borrow buses to attend a demonstration in Mexico City to mark the anniversary of the October 2, 1968 , Tlatelolco massacre.

The students were traveling in two buses and “borrow” three more from the bus station to continue the journey.

At around 9 pm that night, municipal police violently confront the students at different events throughout Iguala town. The authorities open fire against them. State and federal police , as well as the military , witness the attacks without protecting the students; it is still unclear if they had a more active participation.

The events lead to the extrajudicial execution of three students and three bystanders that night. 25 people are injured. 43 students are forcibly disappeared.

September 27:

The body of 22-year-old student Julio César Mondragón Fontes is found skinned and his eyes removed . The relatives of the 43 students declare them disappeared.

Guerrero’s Attorney General

opens an investigation into the events.

September 28

:

Local authorities blame members of the drug cartel Guerreros Unidos for the crimes and arrest 22 Iguala police officers.

October 2014

October 1

: Iguala’s Mayor José Luis Abarca goes into hiding.

October 5

: Mexico’s Federal Attorney General opens another investigation into the students’ disappearance , in parallel to the investigation led by Guerrero authorities.

At the request of the victims’ families , the Argentinean Forensic Anthropology Team starts its participation in the forensic investigation , alongside the Federal Attorney General’s investigation.

October 6:

President Enrique Peña Nieto

addresses the students’ disappearance in a televised speech for the first time. He says “Mexican society, and the families of the young students who are sadly missing, rightly demand clarification of the facts and that justice is done.”

October 8:

Thousands of people march across Mexico City to demand the students are found.

October 10

: Mexico’s Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam reports the detention of four people over the disappearance of the students and the finding of four more mass graves in Iguala , Guerrero .

October 14

: Officials from Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office say that 28 of the bodies found in the first mass grave do not belong to the students.

October 15

: Iguala police find six more mass graves in the area.

October 16

: Enrique Peña Niet o says solving the case is a “ priority ” for the Mexican government .

October 17: Mexico’s Attorney General, Jesús Murillo Karam

, announces the arrest of the alleged leader of the drug cartel Guerreros Unidos , Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado , in connection to the disappearance of the students .

He also reports that 36 municipal police officers from Iguala and Cocula , in the state of Guerrero , have been arrested, alongside 17 members of criminal gangs and that three more mass graves were found in Iguala .

October 22: Murillo Karam

says tha t Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca and his wife ordered the attack against the students.

October 23

: The governor of the state of Guerrero , Ángel Aguirre , resigns.

October 29

:

The families of the missing students meet President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City for the first time.

November 2014

November 4: Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca and his wife, María de los Angeles de Pineda

are arrested in Mexico City. Abarca is sent to a maximum-security prison.

November 7:

The Mexican government claims that the students were killed by members of local drug cartel Guerreros Unidos and that their bodies were incinerated in a local dumpster .

November 11: Argentinean forensic experts

state that none of the remains found in Cocula , Iguala , and La Parota have been identified.

November 12

: Representatives of the Mexican government and the relatives of the students sign an agreement for a group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to assist in the investigations.

November 18

: The head of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances , Ariel Dulitzky , says “ There’s no analysis capacity or useful intelligence, this shows the state’s lack of will in the case, or if it is really willing, is incapable to investigate, judge and sanctions cases of forced disappearance ”.

November 24

: Relatives of other people who had disappeared in Iguala in earlier events find eight mass graves in the area.

Argentinean forensic expert

s report that three of the 30 bodies found in mass graves in Pueblo Viejo, in the municipality of Iguala , do not belong to the students.

November 27

: President Peña Nieto announces a 10-step plan to reform the police and judiciary . He proposes the creation of 32 state-level police forces and eliminates more than 1,800 municipal police teams that, he says, might be infiltrated by organized crime .

December 2014

December 6

: The Argentinean Forensic Anthropology team confirms that a bone fragment found in a mass grave belongs to 19-year-old Alexander Mora Venancio , one of the missing students.

December 7

: Murillo Karam confirms the identification of Alexander Mora. He says former Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca and his wife are being investigated for enforced disappearance.

Argentinean forensic experts

claim that there is not enough evidence to support the theory that the remains found in the Cocula River were burned in the local dumpster .

January 2015

January 14

: Iguala mayor is formally accused as the intellectual author of the enforced disappearance of the 43 students . Tomas Zerón , director of the investigation carried out by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office says all lines of investigation have been closed.

January 27

: Jesús Murillo Karam says all the students were killed and burnt to ashes in a Cocula dumpster.

February 2015

February 1

: Several police officers and members of criminal gangs detained claim they were tortured to confess to their involvement in the disappearance of the students.

February 7

: The Argentinian forensic experts challenge the official theory since its conclusions were premature and based on a biased understanding of the available evidence . The experts explain that while there is no forensic evidence to link the disappeared students to the human remains found in the Cocula rubbish dump , there is clear evidence that at least some of the remains belong to victims not related to this case.

February 27

: Mexico’s Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam is replaced by Arely Gómez , a senator of the ruling party, PRI .

April 2015

April 8

:

The testimony of two bus drivers is received for the first time, following a recommendation of the independent experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission assessing the investigation.

April 15

: The group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights informs the Federal Attorney General’s Office of the existence of a fifth bus not included thus far in the investigation.

July 2015

July 29-30

: Clothes found on the scene are finally analyzed after a recommendation of the independent experts assessing the investigation.

September 2015

September 6

: A new report by the group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the investigation of the student’s disappearance rebukes the theory that their bodies could have been incinerated in a dumpster , as claimed by Mexican authorities; and highlights serious failures in the investigation of the case, including gross mistakes in the handling of evidence.

Peña Nieto

says the investigation is still open.

September 16

: Authorities inform the media of a potential new identification of one of the remains as belonging to Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz.

September 17

: The experts of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team clarified that the genetic coincidence found during the DNA tests is not high enough for it to be considered a positive identification of Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz.

In the following years, no new findings were made while Peña Nieto was in office

In December 2018

, when López Obrador took office , he created a special truth commission to find the 43 students and solve the case.

In 2019 , several suspects are released from prison after they were allegedly tortured and their human rights violated by federal authorities. It is announced that the Murillo Karam and other former high-ranking officials will be called to testify .

In late September 2019 , it was announced that the new Mexican government will launch a new investigation and authorities excavate another dumpster in Guerrero . 1 1 new lines of investigation are opened.

Today, five years after the enforced disappearance of the 43 students, one of Mexico's worst tragedies is still unsolved.

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