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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/special-exhibit/mexico/2022-04-01/ayotzinapa-investigations?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=90ec04b9-ce44-40ef-b57d-9960c4d0af1f">nsarchive.gwu.edu</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Ayotzinapa Investigations</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">April 1, 2022<br></div>
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<div><p><strong>Ayotzinapa Investigations</strong> is a special page
dedicated to the work of the National Security Archive and others in
documenting and seeking justice for the 43 disappeared students of the
Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College. The National Security Archive
advocates for the declassification of documentary evidence in fighting
impunity amidst the unprecedented crisis of forced disappearances in
Mexico. </p>
<p>On the night of September 26 and in the early morning of September
27, 2014, a group of students was attacked by local police in the town
of Iguala, Guerrero. The night left six people dead, dozens injured, and
43 students forcibly disappeared. The violence committed against the
unarmed young men by the police in collusion with the drug cartel
Guerreros Unidos sparked mass protests throughout the country. </p>
<p>Then-President Enrique Peña Nieto opened an investigation that would
prove deeply inadequate and ultimately fraudulent. Domestic and
international criticism over the official investigation led the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to sponsor a group of
independent, international experts (GIEI) who arrived in Mexico in March
of 2015 to work on the case. The GIEI’s efforts throughout 2015 and
2016 revealed the Mexican government’s falsification of records,
destruction of evidence, and systematic use of torture against detainees
and suspects throughout the official investigation.</p>
<p>In March 2022, the GIEI presented its third report on the Ayotzinapa
case, exposing the involvement of high-level government officials and
institutions in the cover-up. The revelations include documentation of
the Mexican military’s infiltration and surveillance of the Ayotzinapa
Rural Teachers College before, during, and after the events in Iguala in
September of 2014, as well as the manipulation of the Cocula crime
scene by members of the Mexican Navy. </p>
<p>The nature and scale of the crime, the apparent involvement of state
actors, and the persistent impunity that has blocked efforts to seek
justice for the students have made the Ayotzinapa case a powerful symbol
of state-sponsored criminality in Mexico and emblematic of the
pervasive problem of forced disappearances that occur daily throughout
the country. The Mexican government’s conspiracy to sabotage its own
investigation represents a cruel double-disappearance for the families
of the students: of their sons and of their hope for justice.</p>
<p>Since 2017, the National Security Archive has filed hundreds of
Freedom of Information Act requests for U.S. documents related to the
case of the 43 students, the “war on drugs” and its consequences, and
U.S. security assistance to Mexico. In 2020, Kate Doyle and the National
Security Archive partnered with reporter Anayansi Díaz-Cortes and
Reveal News from the Center for Investigative Reporting to develop the
podcast series “<a href="https://revealnews.org/article/after-ayotzinapa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">After Ayotzinapa</a>,” released in January 2022. Two months later, the Spanish-language version “<a href="https://adondemedia.com/despuesdeayotzinapa/#latest" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Después de Ayotzinapa</a>”
was released in co-production with Adonde Media and Animal Politico.
The investigation of the 43 disappeared students remains ongoing with
the appointment of a new special prosecutor’s unit in Mexico in 2019,
the publication of the third GIEI report, and sustained support from the
international human rights community. The National Security Archive
continues to investigate the case with our partners at Centro Prodh and
Reveal.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
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