Statement from ARE (Association of Raza Educators), Armadillos NUMM, Union del Barrio, Mecha SDCC, 43 San Diego.
Until there is justice, there will be no peace!
Ten years of struggle for truth and justice.
One hundred twenty months, 43 students, the Mexican government is guilty.
We will neither forgive nor forget.
Early morning of Sept. 26, 2024, 10 years after the kidnapping and disappearance of 43 students, many gathered in front of the San Diego Mexican Consulate in solidarity with the families of the 43 missing students and the Mexican People.
“Ten Years of Struggle for Truth and Justice”—Statement from the protest organizers.
On the night of Sept. 26, and in the early morning of Sept. 27, 2014, a criminal organization with the support of municipal, state, and federal law enforcement(mostly the army) kidnapped and disappeared 43 students and murdered 6 more people in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico.
The president, Enrique Pena Nieto, wanted to close the case quickly. To do so, he developed a theory known as “the historical truth,” which was riddled with falsehoods and rejected by national and international experts.
AMLO(President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) promised to resolve the case when he met with the relatives of the 43 while he was still campaigning and then reaffirmed his promise as president. Now, at the end of his mandate, we denounce AMLO for not honoring his promise, for sabotaging the investigation, and for protecting the accomplices in the disappearance of the 43, the armed forces.
AMLO had the time, resources, and authority to complete the investigation and bring those responsible to justice. As AMLO spoke convincingly with the mothers and relatives of the 43, everyone hoped that the boys’ fate would be known and the guilty would also be punished. Unfortunately, none of this happened since, from the beginning, it was clear that the president was seeking to prolong the investigation and at the same time protect the military forces. That wasn’t all.
The president sabotaged the investigation when he hinted at the work of Omar Gomez Trejo, the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, to the point that he was forced to resign. This happened, in September 2022. In addition, the work of the Interdisciplinary Group on Independent Experts (GIEI), which had done so much during the previous government, ended once the Mexican army, with the support of AMLO, refused to hand over important documents. These documents, in addition to helping to find the students, demonstrated the participation of the armed forces in their disappearance.
In his attempt to protect the armed forces, AMLO accused the representatives of the families of the 43 of obeying foreign interests and being part of an international campaign to discredit the armed forces. AMLO forgets, very conveniently, that if anything characterizes the Mexican armed forces, it is their repressive and unpatriotic actions. The list of the army’s repressive and murderous conduct is endless. We will only mention the massacre of Tlatlaya in 2014, and that of Tlatelolco in 1968, and the “death flights” between 1974 and 1998, which consisted of throwing more than 1,500 social justice fighters into the ocean from an Israeli-made plane owned by the Mexican Air Force.
The undersigned organizations and groups are aware that all struggles in all corners of the world are the same struggle. For this reason, we reaffirm our solidarity with Palestinians and demand the immediate total departure of the Israeli genocidal forces from the occupied territories, the boycott of all kinds against the state of Israel, the international trial of its leaders, and a definitive solution to the Zionist occupation, including recognition of Palestinian demands.
Pena Nieto’s “historic truth” did not pass the test of history. AMLO’s protection of the armed forces and the baseless accusations that go hand in hand with the former has become another “historical truth” 10 years after the state crime; there is no truth, there is no truth, there is no justice. Claudia Sheinbaum, remember that your election was possible thanks to the participation of the people and a government of the people is needed — your turn.
THEY WERE TAKEN ALIVE, WE WANT THEM BACK, ALIVE!
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, Palestine Will Be Free!
ARE(Association of Raza Educators), Armadillos NUMM, Union del Barrio, Mecha SDCC,43 San Diego (Facebook and Instagram) Email: 43sandiego43@gmail.com
