Ayotzinapa vive! A month with Mexico's student protesters

Twenty thousand people are currently missing in Mexico. But the disappearance of 43 students has struck a nerve in this country like few other crimes in its recent history. Protests happening almost on a daily basis are pressuring the government to find the missing students and end the kind of systematic corruption, and narco-infiltrations that many believe led to the tragedy.

The missing students were attacked by municipal policemen from Iguala on Sept. 26, after they had commandeered three buses in a protest. Investigators believe that policemen turned the students over to a drug-trafficking gang that had ties to Iguala’s mayor.

RELATED: See exclusive video of missing Ayotzinapa students before their disappearance

Gang members who have been arrested in connection with the case have told investigators that the students were executed and dumped in clandestine graves, which have yet to be found. Relatives of the students believe that their kids could still be alive, held somewhere in the mountains of Guerrero State.

Over the past month, the student protests at Aytozinapa have spread to other universities throughout Mexico and attracted the solidarity of activists around the world. Protesters in Mexico have staged marches, boycotted classes, burned public buildings, blocked highways, sacked supermarkets, and taken over tollbooths in their bid to pressure the Mexican government to find the missing students.

MORE: Artists paint portraits of missing Ayotzinapa students

Throughout October, Fusion followed members of the protest movement in Ayotzinapa and Mexico City to document their struggle
. We asked them about their tactics.

“Some people may say that we are violent and that we affect the local population, but this problem of crime, corruption, impunity, has been around for years,” said Omar Garcia, a second year Ayotzinapa student. “It affects everyone and no one seems to raise their voice; no one protests. It’s time to eradicate this problem once and for all.”

See Fusion’s full coverage of the Ayotzinapa case.

CREDITS:

In Mexico

Producer/Reporter:   Manuel Rueda

Cameraman/Editor: Jose Maria Alvarez

Cameraman/Editor:  Cesar Lopez

In Miami

Producer: Jared Goyette

Editor:  Jonathan Duncan

Manuel Rueda is a correspondent for Fusion, covering Mexico and South America. He travels from donkey festivals, to salsa clubs to steamy places with cartel activity.