Norway – Kristiansand: 10 years since the Ayotzinapa students disappeared

We hereby publish an unofficial translation of a report of actions published by Kampkomiteen.

Kampkomiteen has put up posters for the 43 Mexican students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training school who disappeared on 26 September 2014. On the posters there are pictures of the 43, and it says “Ayotzinapa 43” and “Because they took them alive, we want them back alive!”

The students were attacked by the police when they seized buses to travel to the capital to attend a demonstration commemorating a student massacre in Tlatelolco Square in 1968. Over 20 were injured and 6 were killed on the spot. A 21-year-old father of a young child and student were found the next day. His face was skinned, his ears cut off, his eyes gouged out and he had several torture marks on his body. 43 students were abducted by the police. They are believed to have either been killed by the police or handed over to a criminal group that killed them, or that they are still alive and being held in prison.

Enforced disappearance is a method the State uses against activists and revolutionaries. They make people disappear through murder or kidnapping, but deny knowing about it. This is done to stop opponents and community leaders, to spread fear in the population and scare them from political work. Enforced disappearance is widely used in Latin America, and in Mexico over 116,000 have disappeared. Many of the disappeared may be presumed dead, but they may also be held in secret captivity. The uncertainty surrounding what has happened to them is a great burden for the relatives, and it makes it difficult to get the guilty parties convicted. The families and the revolutionary movement in the countries do not give up and demand that the disappeared be presented alive, and that the guilty be held accountable.