In September 2014, 43 Mexican students were abducted from rural Mexico. Unfortunately, the Mexican government has done an insufficient job of resolving the case and it may even have been involved in the abduction itself. The abducted students had been planning to protest at a conference held by the mayor of Iguala, a city in the southwestern state of Guerrero, Mexico.
The presumed story is that the mayor had asked the police to restrain the students, and when the students resisted, the police abducted the group and hired a local gang to murder the students that had not been captured. This January, after many hoped that they would be discovered alive, Mexico’s attorney general officially confirmed the deaths of the students. It is abominable that so many government officials have allegedly played central roles in this tragedy.
The Mexican government has failed to solve this issue in many different ways. The government has failed to be transparent and will not disclose many details regarding the case. Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, has been at a loss for words on how to deal with this matter properly. Yet, the ex-mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife have been arrested because they are suspects in the disappearances of the students. This issue is emblematic of a larger issue with the Mexican government—the government and the gangs are often one and the same.
When the incident happened in 2014, it was a major crisis for Mexico. Many have hoped to exterminate corruption in the Mexican government, but this incident has clearly proved the country has a long way to go before that can be achieved.
How do supposedly honorable elected officials have such disregard for their own people? It is repulsive that corrupt officials and gangs are possibly guilty of participating in crime, yet they clearly feel no remorse. The protesters are justifiably upset because this is more than just ordinary gang violence—this time, a corrupt government was directly involved. This issue affected the families of 43 students—imagine how many family members were hurt by what happened to their brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters, yet feel powerless because of their government’s inaction.
There is nothing the people of Iguala can do but raise awareness of the issue, hoping that doing so will appeal to the emotions of the government. However, in our globally connected world, people living outside of Mexico can make an effort to educate themselves about the conflict, and can join the citizens of Iguala in pressuring the government to rectify its wrongs.
Although the deaths of the disappeared students have been confirmed, the issue is still relevant a year afterwards. The families of the missing students still lead protests, demanding justice for the kidnapped students.
Unfortunately, there is little that the protestors can do because of the rampant government corruption in Mexico. Ideally, Nieto would take control of the situation, admit to the government’s mistakes, apologize to the families, and move forward in the search for the bodies. However, until Nieto attempts to resolve the conflict, it is not only the responsibility of the citizens of Iguala to speak up –it’s on all of us.
