Don Rafa’s voice had a kind of enraged despondency as he spoke. “I was in Ayotzinapa,” he said. “I was in the Army. My life is with the government. My son did not deserve to be killed. I want him to be found, dead or alive. He’s my son.”
It’s taken years for the Mexican government to put together a detailed report about what happened to the forty-three students on the night of September 26, 2014. Investigators have pieced together fragments of information, and pieced together a scenario that they believe to be true.
During the first few hours of the investigation, it became clear that the local police in Iguala, Huitzuco, and Cocula had distributed the students among the members of the Guerreros Unidos. A text exchange between an Iguala police official and a Guerreros Unidos leader showed the man ordering the police to hand over all the detainees to the Guerreros Unidos.
The students were beaten and, in some cases, killed. Some investigators believe that the decision to kill the students was made before dawn, when members of the Cocula police visited the house of one of the Guerreros Unidos leaders for several hours.
Remains of the students were scattered and burned. Some were burned beyond recognition, while others were never found. Some investigators believe that the students may have been kept alive longer, or disposed of differently.
The decision to release the military members involved in the massacre was made by the President, who negotiated the arrest of five military members with the high command of the armed forces. The President ordered twenty arrests, but the Attorney General’s office only released twenty-one.
The President’s relationship with his perceived adversaries has grown more fraught. He has denounced Centro Prodh and Centro Tlachinollan, and he has read the names of journalists who have criticized him. His relationship with the military is tense, as he has criticized the military’s involvement in the massacre.
Priyam Gera