Relatives of the 43 missing students march on September 26, 2025. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
#NosFaltan43
Text and photos by Sofia Pontiroli /@sofia.pontiroli (IG)/@SofiaPontiroli (X)
Rural Normal Schools in Mexico
Rural normal schools were created in 1922 with the goal of training teachers who would later work in marginalized and remote areas of the country, where the majority of the population was illiterate. These schools emerged in a Mexico where, according to 1921 figures, there were more than 14 million inhabitants, of whom almost 7 million were illiterate, and 80% lived in rural areas (Redilat, 2023). These institutions prepare teachers for the most remote regions of the country, where a large part of the population belongs to indigenous or marginalized communities.
Normal schools became focal points for social struggles and political activism due to the injustices they suffered over the years: closures and political repression, especially from the 1960s onward, when the government began labeling them “nests of communists” (Redilat, 2023).
Currently, most rural schools operate with minimal financial resources and are sustained by their own students, who, in addition to studying, are responsible for cultivating gardens, raising animals, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining the buildings. These are self-sufficient schools that require very little external support and have a clear social mission: they seek to provide education to children who would otherwise have little access to it, and, in turn, teach them how to provide education to marginalized youth groups.
Students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College march in Mexico City. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
The Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa, located in the state of Guerrero—a state known worldwide for its high levels of violence—is one of the most emblematic. Founded in 1926, it has always been a benchmark, thanks to the social commitment of its students and teachers.
Eleven years ago, in September 2014, forty-three students from the college disappeared in the city of Iguala, Guerrero. The evidence demonstrates the involvement of authorities, the police, and local criminal groups, who made them disappear without a trace. Since then, their mothers and fathers have fought tirelessly to find them, without success.
The night of September 26th, 2014
“I thought, what do you mean, forced disappearance for coming to study? I mean, these kids disappear for coming to study. It doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, as time has passed, we’ve seen our reality, our truth as parents: that we haven’t found our children.”
Mario González is from Huamantla, Mexico, a small town in Tlaxcala. A quiet place, where people know each other and crime rates are relatively low. His son, César Manuel, is one of the 43 students who disappeared on the night of September 26, 2014.
“My son is like any other 19-year-old. Charismatic, fun. I can’t say he’s a perfect 10, because there aren’t any. He’s a young man with flaws and virtues. He’s my son, and for me, he’s the best thing in the world,” Mario says during an interview. On his shoulder, under his short-sleeved shirt, you can see a tattoo with his son’s name.
César Manuel was studying at the Autonomous University of Puebla; he wanted to become a lawyer. Suddenly, he decided to leave the law school to enroll at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College.
“He told me, ‘I’m leaving, Dad.’ ‘Where are you going?’ He was carrying a backpack, by the way. ‘I’m going to study at a teachers’ college I found in Guerrero.’ I asked him if he was crazy. ‘I’m not going to be an accomplice to your nonsense.’ I considered it dangerous because of the situation in Guerrero. If I had known the context, I would never have allowed him to go there.”
César Manuel, along with about 100 other students from the Ayotzinapa school, had decided to participate in the October 2nd demonstration in Mexico City, organized to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of unarmed students in Tlatelolco, perpetrated by the armed forces. They managed to finance the trip through fundraising and a common practice among students of rural teachers’ colleges in Mexico: the temporary occupation of buses to travel without paying the fare. Although this custom sometimes provoked violent reactions, it was generally carried out without incident, reprisals, or legal sanctions (GIEI, 2015), in a kind of tacit agreement between students, transportation companies, and authorities.
After occupying five buses, the students began their journey to the capital. However, on the night of September 26th, 2014, around 9:00 p.m., the municipal police began shooting at them, blocking the buses and preventing them from leaving the city. The state police and the federal army were present during the attack, without offering any help to the students, who began to shout and plead for help. It was then that the 43 students were kidnapped, and six people lost their lives: three students and three civilians.
“That same 27th we left for Guerrero. When we got there, I started feeling really bad, just from not finding him. I swear I thought it was a different Mexico. I had no idea that so many bad things existed in Guerrero. I stopped every bus and yelled, ‘Manuel!’ And nothing, he didn’t answer me.”
List of names and surnames of the 43 missing students
Ayotzinapa and Drug Trafficking
Guerrero is historically one of the most dangerous states in Mexico. As of May 16th, 2025, more than four thousand cases of missing persons had been registered (Red Lupa, 2025). These alarming figures are due to the massive presence of criminal groups in the state, which have increased over the years.
Guerrero has been under the control of drug trafficking for decades, due to the large number of poppy fields, used for the production of heroin, powerful sedatives, and other drugs.
According to a study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Government of Mexico, between July 2019 and June 2020, poppy crops totaling twenty-four thousand hectares were identified, most of them in the state of Guerrero. Twenty-four thousand hectares is roughly equivalent to thirty-four thousand soccer fields.
A soldier in a poppy field in the state of Guerrero. (Photo: Sur Acapulco)
Recent studies indicate that six criminal groups currently operate in the state of Guerrero: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Los Zetas, the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, Los Rojos, and Guerreros Unidos (Parliamentary Gazette, 2025).
Since 2017, Guerreros Unidos has become one of the main exporters of heroin to the United States, according to DEA reports. One of the main methods of transport is by land: most of the illegal drugs are hidden in trucks, buses, or cars, often without the drivers or owners knowing, and are taken to the border with the United States (DEA, 2024).
On the night of September 26th, 2014, it is suspected that not only the armed forces were involved, but also members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, who frequently used buses and trucks to transport heroin. Several statements from cartel members indicate that between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m., the order was given to move toward Iguala because it was believed that members of the rival “Los Rojos” cartel had infiltrated the Ayotzinapa student groups. Other versions maintain that the buses occupied by the students were transporting heroin, and that this was the reason for the attack.
The statements are confusing and contradictory: most official versions claim that the local police put the 43 missing students on several buses and then handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel. Other versions maintain that the armed forces were solely responsible for the attack, pointing to the participation of the state police, the federal police, and the army.
A son who wants to teach, a father who begins to search.
Rural teacher training colleges in Mexico aim to prepare teachers for impoverished communities, basing their education on values such as discipline, equality, and community. Following these principles, all first-year students shave their heads upon admission: the purpose is to create a sense of equality, without distinctions based on class, origin, or personal style. They cook together, work the fields, and raise animals—all with the goal of fostering a supportive and communal life.
The sandals worn by students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College during the march in Mexico City on September 26th, 2025, a symbol of unity. (Photo: Sofía Pontiroli)
Mario recalls that at first he didn’t understand those traditions:
“I saw him all bald, his clothes all dirty, and I pulled him along. I told him I didn’t want him to leave and I tried to put him in the car, but unfortunately he said something to me that I’ll never forget. I felt very proud of him; he told me to give him a chance to do what he loves. I think those words would move any father.”
Over time, he felt more at ease seeing him committed and happy. “He sent me very nice letters. He called me four times a day. He talked to me, he sent me pictures of the animals at the teachers’ college. I saw he was happy. My wife and I were left alone, and I missed him a lot, a lot.”
Students from Ayotzinapa with shaved heads during the march on September 26th, 2025. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
The first time Mario arrived in Guerrero was after learning that his son was in danger. On September 27th, 2014, some students from the Panotla Normal School in Tlaxcala called him to tell him that something bad had happened in Ayotzinapa. Mario and his wife didn’t know what had happened, nor that their son was missing. They imagined a run-in with the police, perhaps for having done something mischievous, like breaking windows, and that they would have to pay bail; they believed they were going to return home together.
On September 28th, they continued the search:
“I went into the municipal building, I went into the jail. Well, we asked the soldiers if they would let us into the 27th Battalion barracks, but they wouldn’t let us. In the jail, everything was wet, as if they had washed it, as if nothing had happened there.”
From that moment on, Mario and his wife were never at peace again. They began attending long meetings, locking themselves in a room with other relatives of the 43, without sleeping or eating for several days, trying to understand what had happened.
One of the mothers of the 43 disappeared students, during the demonstration on September 26th, 2025, in Mexico City. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
Government involvement
Tomás Zerón was the director of the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and became the leader of the investigation during the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto. According to the official version derived from the Agency’s investigations, the students were allegedly handed over by local police to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, who murdered them and burned them in a garbage dump in the town of Cocula, later throwing the remains into a nearby river called the San Juan.
This version was presented as the “historical truth” by former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, which provoked profound outrage among the families of the disappeared and the Mexican people. As a result, a group of international specialists was convened to clarify the facts: thus, the IGIE, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, was created.
Tomás Zerón and Jesús Murillo Karam. (Photo: AFP)
In 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Mexican government decided to form a group of experts from Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, and Spain to conduct an independent investigation, review the evidence, and propose a new line of inquiry.
The IGIE’s first report, presented on September 6th, 2015, in Mexico City, refuted the “historical truth” presented by the State: “On the State’s side, the dissemination of a historical truth without sufficient verification of information and evidence created a greater distance from the victims. Like two worlds with different visions and histories, with no possibility of connection whatsoever.” (Ayotzinapa Report I, 2015).
This report demonstrated that the 43 students’ bodies were not burned at the Cocula landfill, as the statements obtained from the alleged perpetrators did not coincide with the evidence found at the site. Furthermore, the report denounced the use of torture by the armed forces under the command of Tomás Zerón to force confessions, and pointed to the participation of the police, army, and navy on the night of September 26th.
Finally, the report confirmed the destruction and alteration of evidence by the authorities in order to uphold the so-called “historical truth.”
Forensic experts work at the Cocula landfill in Guerrero on October 28th, 2014. (Photo: El País, Rebecca Blackwell/AP)
Searching for your missing child is searching for the truth for everyone
Mario is one of the many families who received no help from the government. “I received an anonymous call in the early morning telling me: ‘Mario, don’t be fooled, they’re going to give you 20 bodies, but they’re from homeless people that the authorities were collecting to give to you.’” Indeed, that same day they were notified by the authorities, who informed them that they had found several bodies. They were asked to come and help with the identification. “They told us to bring three family members for DNA samples, to avoid any doubts. I, on the other hand, brought ten family members, to strengthen my DNA and not be misled after that call I received at dawn. Fortunately, we saw the remains, and they weren’t our relatives.”
However, the search had only just begun. “And that’s when the ordeal of 11 years of searching began, eight and a half years living in a room one meter by two meters, and finally finding the boys. Then, conflicting feelings come to mind: desperation, anger, worry, nerves, anxiety. I mean, so many things, so many things,” says Mario, shaking his head.
Since September 27th, 2014, Mario and his wife moved to Guerrero, where they lived for eight years while searching for their son. Mario, who used to work as a car salesman, now dedicates his entire life to finding the truth about what happened that night in Iguala.
“You don’t have a life, I mean, you’re just surviving because you’re looking for your kid. At a certain point you become like an actor, because you need to show two faces: first, the face of demanding your son, and then the face of pain you feel here in your chest, in your back, from fighting against everyone and everything, amidst criticism and disgusting comments.”
A protester at the September 26 march. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
Over the years, only bone fragments of three of the missing students have been found, but no one knows for sure what happened on the night of September 26th, 2014. In 2016, the Peña Nieto administration itself decided not to renew the mandate of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI). With the arrival of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the presidency, the families of the 43 missing students requested the group’s return to collaborate with the Truth and Justice Commission. In the third report presented by the GIEI in 2022, it states that:
1. “The armed forces were monitoring the students at the time of the events and subsequently did not share information with the competent authorities.”
2. “The authorities deployed significant efforts to construct the so-called historical truth”: a video recorded by a drone belonging to the Mexican Navy itself shows a group of marines present on September 27th at the Cocula landfill, carrying out activities that remain unidentified to this day.
3. “The prosecuting authorities falsified evidence and systematically used torture to fabricate their version of the case”: the falsification of important data in the investigations is confirmed, such as in the report on the search for evidence in the San Juan River. Furthermore, there are more than sixty videos that prove the use of torture by the armed forces to obtain forced confessions from fifty detainees.
Mario has no doubts about his position:
“The worst thing of all is the corruption of the authorities, of officials. What’s happening in Mexico is terrible. Now, for example, I know that the Navy also participated in our sons’ case. We have the video; that is, thanks to the experts, we know they were at the garbage dump, and they were stirring things up. What were they doing there?”
The families of the 43 from Ayotzinapa have always shown solidarity with others in the same situation. In Mexico, today, more than 120,000 people are registered as missing, a number that continues to rise. It is mainly thanks to the families that results are obtained and, sometimes, justice. “We would do anything to find the truth about what happened on September 26th. What we did was a turning point, prompting several groups to join in the search for their missing loved ones. But we did it without any intention of bothering anyone; we didn’t realize it. We didn’t realize when we started planting that seed of awareness, so that the families would understand they didn’t have to remain silent,” says Mario.
“Many people participated in the searches for the young men; bodies were found, graves were discovered. And those bodies had surnames and first names and families. Fortunately, thanks to the search for the 43, those families found their loved ones.”
Students during the demonstration on September 26th, 2025. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
The struggle continues
Currently, the Mexican government is searching for Tomás Zerón for the crimes of torture, human rights violations, and enforced disappearance. After fleeing to Canada, the government unsuccessfully requested his extradition: in 2019, he managed to escape to Israel. Despite formal requests for his location and extradition submitted by President López Obrador to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2021 and to Benjamin Netanyahu in 2023, Zerón has not been handed over to the authorities and remains a fugitive.
Thanks to the work of the IGIE and other organizations, in 2020 the Attorney General’s Office rejected the so-called “historical truth” and ordered the arrest of 46 officials implicated in the manipulation of evidence and other crimes. Among those arrested is former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, the first to have publicly presented the “historical truth” in the Ayotzinapa case. Murillo is accused of enforced disappearance, torture, and obstruction of justice, and faces a possible sentence of more than 80 years in prison, although the trial is still ongoing.
Eleven years after the events and after two changes of government, the families are still waiting for answers. This year, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum decided to create a new investigative group, comprised of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). Before 2019, the FGR was called the Attorney General’s Office, the institution Murillo Karam headed.
Sheinbaum assures that this new group will use advanced technology to conduct a thorough analysis of telecommunications related to the case. Although several arrests have been made of people involved in the attack on the students, the families still haven’t received the answers they seek.
“She claims to have top-of-the-line technology, the kind they’re using for phone records. But unfortunately, it hasn’t yielded any results. A year has passed, and we haven’t obtained anything—no other lines of investigation, nothing at all,” says Mario.
Every year on September 26th, a march is organized in Mexico City to commemorate the 43 disappeared students and demand justice. Family members, students from teachers’ colleges across the country, and citizens gather in the streets of the capital, chanting protest slogans. This year, some masked protesters carried out direct action, painting and damaging public property as a gesture of protest and an exercise of their right to demonstrate.
“I wouldn’t call them violent actions. Attacking 43 unarmed students was violent. This is a protest against the violence that they themselves—the government—have generated,” Mario concludes.
Students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos teachers’ college during the march on September 26th, 2025, in Mexico City. (Photo: Sofia Pontiroli)
The resilience of the parents of the 43
Mario hasn’t lost hope. “They told us: with time it will pass, you yourselves will forget… But it’s not true, the love for a child never ends.”
The parents of the 43 disappeared students continue fighting for truth and justice for their children.
“We have to be aware that there is a very big factor working against us, which is time. We have to be aware of what we might find. We’ve said it before, as long as it’s scientifically proven, we will accept it.” Mario sighs. “It’s difficult, that’s why I say there are far more feelings than can be explained. For example, saying, well, I’ve found him, I’ll take him back to Tlaxcala, bury him, and in the end I’ll see what I can do later, but at least I have him here. But we have nothing like this, we know nothing. And oh well, we have to keep going.”
Original article by Sofia Pontiroli, Zona Docs, November 4th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.