Families of Missing Students Begin 43-Hours-Long Hunger Strike in Mexico

Families of Missing Students Begin 43-Hours-Long Hunger Strike in Mexico
Fecha de publicación: 
24 September 2015
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Around 7:00 p.m., some 50 people began a 43-hour-long fast in Mexico City's Zocalo square, which will conclude Friday, a day before a march to recall the disappearance on Sept. 26, 2014.

"Every hour represents the constant search for each one of the students," Vidulfo Rosales, the lawyer for the affected families, told EFE.

The families are accompanied by members of civil organizations and friends of the missing students, who shouted "They are not alone" during the protest.

At 1:00 p.m. Thursday, the parents are scheduled to meet Peña Nieto at the capital's Technology Museum, where they will hand over petitions "dealing with the matter of justice and the report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)," Rosales explained.

"We will ask for compliance with the recommendations of the report - that new lines of investigation are opened, other agencies are allowed to conduct the investigation," Rosales said.

Saturday will mark a year since the disappearance of the 43 students, who according to the public prosecutor's office, were detained by corrupt policemen of Iguala municipality, in the southern state of Guerrero, and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel.

The cartel allegedly murdered the students and burned their bodies at a garbage dump in neighboring Cocula municipality.

However, independent experts appointed by the IACHR, after six months of investigations have concluded there was no evidence to prove the students were burned at the garbage dump.

After a day of clashes Tuesday between the students and security forces in Guerrero, leaving around a dozen injured, mostly policemen, the hunger strike Wednesday proceeded relatively peacefully.

On Monday, families and friends of the missing students had attacked the premises of the state public prosecutor's office to protest insufficient response to the case by the government.

The families have urged the Mexican society to join them in their march to mark one year of the incident, urging them to remember their children are still missing.

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