[ot-caption title=”Protestors marched in Mexico City on Oct. 22, carrying signs that read in Spanish ‘They took them alive.’ (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)” url=”https://pcpawprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AP921916728339.jpg”]

On September 26, 2014, students from the Normal Rural Luis Villarreal teacher’s college demonstrated in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico, against what they perceived to be unfair practices in hiring teachers. On the day students were scheduled to leave Iguala, municipal policemen opened fire on three buses carrying the unarmed students and another bus filled with locals. The students attempted to flee the area, but policemen gave chase and continued firing. Officers were accompanied by armed men in plainclothes, suspected by Mexican prosecutors to be members of a local drug gang called Guerreros Unidos. Six people died and seventeen were injured as a result of the shootings.

The next day, students who had escaped the attack gathered at the prosecutor’s office in Iguala to retrieve their fellow classmates, assuming that the detained students were being held in police custody. What they found instead was the body of one of their classmates on a nearby street, tortured and killed in a manner that suggested the work of Guerros Unidos.

After the incident, fifty-seven of the protesting students were reported missing; fourteen have since been found, leaving forty-three unaccounted for. Eyewitness accounts claim that the missing students were last seen being forced into police vans. Twenty-two local police officers are being investigated in connection with the disappearances and have been accused of working with local gangs as hitmen. Some officers have allegedly confessed that they handed the students over to gunmen from Guerreros Unidos.

[ot-caption title=”A woman marches with a leaflet of a missing student during a protest in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)” url=”https://pcpawprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AP467994620808.jpg”]

On October 5, a mass grave containing twenty-eight charred bodies was found near Iguala. So far, forensic testing has shown that none of the bodies belong to any of the missing students. However, on October 14, four additional mass graves were found, with an indeterminate amount of bodies. It is feared that they may contain the bodies of the missing students.

The mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, have not been seen since September 26. Iguala public safety director Felipe Flores Velásquez has also disappeared. All three have been accused of being the masterminds behind the shooting. A warrant has been issued for their arrest.

[ot-caption title=”Demonstrators carry a sign that reads in Spanish ‘Pena Quit!’ in Mexico City on Oct. 8. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)” url=”https://pcpawprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AP1952023589821.jpg”]

Demonstrations have begun in cities all across Mexico. Tens of thousands of people stormed the streets of Mexico City, protesting the corruption of the politicians who had a part in the Iguala disappearances and carrying photos of the missing students. President Enrique Peña Nieto has faced enormous criticism for the disappearances, as he promised in his presidential campaign to reduce gang-related violence in Mexico.

The Mexican government has offered 1.5 million pesos, or about 110,000 USD, for any information regarding the students’ whereabouts.

Sources: ABC News, BBC News, The Guardian, NBC News