Archive-It Partner 858: Emporia State University Educational Account 2

Collection: 2014 Iguala Kidnapping and Massacre

On September 26, 2014, police and unidentified gunman believed to be drug cartel gang members allegedly ambushed a convoy of buses carrying teacher-trainee student activists from Ayotzinapa College in the state of Guerrero. In the central plaza of Iguala, six persons were shot to death. Three of the victims were students. The other three were random citizens that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The attack was brutal. Seventeen other students were wounded, and forty-three others were kidnapped. The activists were committed to helping small rural farmers and farm workers and were opposed to the new education reforms implemented by the government. The drug traffickers, their bosses, and the local politicians did not like the students' activism for various reasons. Twenty two police officers are now in custody for homicide and kidnapping along with four alleged drug traffickers. The mayor of Iguala and his wife are said to be behind the kidnapping, and the Governor of Guerrero has resigned under pressure. In the weeks after the disappearance of the students, nine mass graves have been discovered in the hills outside of Iguala. The bodies had been doused with gasoline and set on fire. It is not known if these are the bodies of the abducted students. As of December 2014, the official word is that none of the kidnapped students have been definitively found.