Photo: La Izquierda Diario

Read Spanish version from La Izquierda Diario Mexico, June 27th.

After nine months since that dark night in Iguala (Guerrero), thousands of people in Mexico City joined the parents of the 43 missing normalistas to demand justice.

Shouting slogans in unison: “They took them alive, we want them alive!” and “now they must return the disappeared alive and punish those responsible!” the contingent arrived at the Central Alameda, near Bellas Artes.

They installed tents, and, for 43 hours straight, they received anyone who wanted to become a part of this social protest that is against the absence of their fellow students from Ayotzinapa and that is denouncing the multiple abuses committed by the PRI, PAN, and PRD governments.

Despite attempts to divert the discontent and to shelve the investigation, new evidence continues to reveal the state’s involvement in the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.

The march was accompanied by of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), a representation from the Telephone Workers Union of Mexico (STRM), the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and various student contingents such as the Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM) and the Institute of Education (IEMS).

Also present were contingents of political and social organizations that have become part of the struggle for the return of the 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Education School such as 100 some youth from the Movement of Socialist Workers (MTS) and a contingent from the Independent Francisco Villa Popular Front (FPFVI).

Arriving at Bellas Artes, protesters joined the sit-in where they held various political and cultural activities throughout the weekend such as performances, orchestras, meeting spaces and analysis, theater, films, concerts, dance, poetry and a variety of workshops.

Translation: Oscar Fernandez