Chilpancingo, Mexico — Mexican students demanded on Saturday that the federal government honor its commitments to the parents of the 43 Ayotzinapa students who disappeared in 2014, during a protest in the city of Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero.
Members of the Federation of Socialist Peasant Students of Mexico (FECSM) and the Democratic Bloc of Organizations gathered for what organizers described as the final protest of 2025, marking 11 years and three months since the students vanished.
The demonstrators traveled by bus to several sites where three Ayotzinapa students were killed during the night of Sept. 26–27, 2014.
At the industrial zone where the body of Julio César Mondragón Fontes was found, the students laid floral wreaths and held a rally criticizing successive governments for failing to clarify the case.
They later moved to the Periférico area, where Julio César Ramírez Nava and Daniel Solís Gallardo were killed when students were attacked by gunmen linked to the criminal group Guerreros Unidos, according to federal authorities.
Criticism of government inaction
During the protest, students urged Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to fulfill her pledge to investigate the case and determine the whereabouts of the missing students.
“We will continue to raise our voices until those promises are fulfilled,” one demonstrator said.
Another student criticized former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024), accusing his administration of halting investigations once they reached the Mexican military.
“They refuse to hand over 800 pages of documents that could clarify the case,” said a student who requested anonymity. “If those files were released, we could know what happened to our comrades.”
A case that remains unresolved
Students also accused previous administrations of attempting to conceal the truth through the so-called “historic truth” presented under former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018).
“That’s why we demand that the president give priority to this case,” another student said. “She is giving more importance to the World Cup than to Ayotzinapa.”
Protesters highlighted the toll on the victims’ families.
On Dec. 4, 2025, Genoveva Sánchez Peralta, mother of the disappeared student Israel Caballero Peralta, died, bringing to seven the number of parents who have passed away without learning their children’s fate.
The Ayotzinapa case remains one of Mexico’s most emblematic human rights cases. According to official data, more than 133,000 people are currently missing in the country, underscoring the scale of the crisis.