Day for the undead: Mothers of vanished Mexican students believe sons may have survived September 2014 massacre

It’s been two years since Benjamin Ausencio Bautista and Martin Getsemaní Sánchez disappeared.

They were among 43 missing students at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Mexico, who vanished after police and armed men ambushed their caravan of commandeered buses in Iguala, Guerrero, a state in southern Mexico. Six others were killed in the confrontation, with one student found with his face and eyes mutilated. The 43 were detained, fed to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, incinerated and dumped in a mass grave, according to a federal investigation.

But Cristina Bautista Salvador and Joaquina García Velázquez don’t trust the official reports. They believe the attack wasn’t just an inside job between the cartel and local authorities, that the federal government was involved and, most of all, that their sons may still be alive.

“We don’t have any confidence in the Mexican government,” Bautista Salvador told a packed UC Davis classroom on November 2, El Dia De Los Muertos, “the Day of the Dead.”

The mothers were 2,500 miles away from their homes in Guerrero, and not alone. Joining them were six other women as part of the Caravan Against Repression in Mexico, an 18-city U.S. speaking tour intended to bring awareness to a myriad of social movements in Mexico.

Each of the women—some family members of political prisoners or victims of cartel violence and government oppression—shared their personal stories to about 30 students and teachers. The issues ranged from indigenous land rights to femicide in border cities, the exploitation of field workers by large agricultural corporations like Driscoll’s, and political imprisonments and assassinations.

Alicia Bustamante Perez, a native of the indigenous community in the state of Xochicuautla, Mexico, protested the construction of a freeway over her ancestral land. Bustamante Perez said that she and her colleagues have been intimidated and criminalized by the government since their fight started 10 years ago.

“They send folks to hassle and murder us,” she said through a translator. “The kids get really scared when the see the patrol cars.”

A common solution proposed was the cancellation of the Merida Initiative. Under that agreement, the U.S. government has appropriated $2.5 billion for the Mexican government since 2008 to combat drug trafficking. Funds have been used to train government officials, install border censors and arm the military with more advanced aircraft and weaponry.

The agreement has instead strengthened corrupt government players who use the military to silence dissidents through violence, said Rosa María Barajas, a coordinator on the caravan.

“With this money being sent, the U.S. is giving the government the weapons to oppress the people, not the narcos or the drug traffickers,” she said. “And do you know how it’s being funded? With our taxes.”

Many of the women called on the students to spread their message.

<p.“We want you young people to let everyone know what’s happening,” said Lucía Gutiérrez Nicolás, a teacher in Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, who was among protestors attacked by federal forces during a march against education reform in June. “The truth is, it can feel like we’re all alone.”</p>

Erica Rubio, a local activist and UC Davis student who helped coordinate the event, said she felt heartbroken and inspired to hear the women’s stories. “I felt sad, because I couldn’t believe that this was happening,” she said. “But I also felt empowered. There’s more incentive for why I should keep being an activist and fighting for justice for these people.”