In Mexico City, Academic Takes Top Prize & Protests Ayotzinapa Disappearance (01/13/2018)

La Cartita --- At an awards ceremony held by the Mexican Academy of Sciences, Rosaura Martínez Ruiz, a Mexican academic, wore a shirt bearing the protest slogan Nos Faltan 43 'We Are Missing 43' (eng.), in reference to the 43 Mexican students disappeared by state authorities in Guerrero. She received her prize from the MAS for her work in the humanities and social sciences.

Ruiz held a brief exchange with the president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. She told him that the case needed to be clarified, and that the state bore responsibility over the disappearence of the Ayotzinapa students.

I'm Sorry To Say They Are 'Dead' - EPN Responds To Academic Protestor

The Mexican president responded that in all likelihood the 43 Ayotzinapa students are dead. He cited the AIC investigation conducted since October of 2014 by discredited Mexican state officials, but as a rebuttal Ruiz said 'other details need to be analyzed by the Mexican governemnt', and cited the investigation conducted by Inter American Court of Human Rights'.

Organization of American States Conducted Investigation: Evidence Pointed At Federal Government.

The IACHR conducted an investigation about the Ayotzinapa disappearance that indicated various federal and local security forces participated in the mass kidnapping of the students.

On the surface, the Mexican government permitted the investigation by allowing the OAS to send their small group of independent investigators. However, the OAS' Independent Group of Investigative Experts was stonewalled for information, testimony and smeared publicly with demonstrably false charges. They were forced out of the country by the Mexican government. Their investigation was halted on Spring of 2016. The OAS experts presented their official findings to the general public, but the Mexican government sent no official to their press conference.

'They Are Neither Dead Or Alive.'

In a statement to La Jornada, Ruiz said that the Ayotzinapa case represented a deep failure of the Mexican government. The tragedy was imposed on the Ayotzinapa students parents. They are tortured at the thought of not knowing exactly what happened to their children. The contradictorial stances the Mexican government has taken on the case has led to widespread distrust in security forces.

Now, an increasingly oppositional press is murdered at a rate comparable to Syrian reporters. The violence in Mexico is the highest recorded in the modern era, with the US State Department considering the state of Guerrero as dangerous as Syria.