Who Sent the 43 Students to Die in Mexico a year ago?

By Luis Pazos

The UN Commission on Human Rights, "intellectuals," civil associations and parents of the 43 seek justice for the wanton murder of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa normal school.

I concur with this request. However, after a year since this repugnant crime almost none of the petitioners of justice have asked for clarification of the true causes why, on the night of Friday, September 26, 2014 a group of mostly new students were sent, without any academic reason, to a far off city, Iguala, that is closer to Mexico City (190 kms; 2 hours) than the Ayotzinapa Normal School (246 kms; 3 hours).

Not the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), nor the Secretariat of Government (Gobernación), nor any human rights commission have given a clear version of who sent, and why, the 43 students to Iguala. Some say that they were to "seize" trucks, that could have made it to the capital of Guerrero, Chilpancingo, in less than 2 hours from the normal school (145 kms).

Others say they were to "botear" (transport passengers), ask for money from passing motorists, or to protest against the wife of the "narco-mayor" of Iguala. One version from "experts" of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is that "mistakenly and unknowingly they took a truck with drugs," or perhaps it was an order by their leaders who knew what the abducted truck carried. These points have to be investigated.

No authority nor human rights commission has questioned the leaders of the normal school regarding the reasons why they sent those students to Iguala to seize trucks, to "a narco war" or to use the students as protection in order to steal drugs from one cartel commissioned by another, as authorities watch the trucks abducted by "students."

It is now time for the PGR to open a line of investigation as to the real reasons why the 43 students were sent to die, an act that we condemn, while at the same time investigating who set up those deaths in order to gain political and economic benefits, and give places of honor and impunity to radical groups for their crimes.

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Luis Pazos (e-mail: [email protected]), who heads the Free Enterprise Research Center (CISLE) in Mexico City, holds a master's degree in Public Finance and a doctorate in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).  A prolific writer and forethoughtful analyst, Dr. Pazos' commentaries on Mexican economics, finance and politics have appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout the Americas.  As well, he is the author of numerous books.

Edited translation by MexiData.info.