Why Were the Students Targets of Violence?

Ayotzinapa was founded in 1926 and since 1935 its students have all belonged to the left-wing Mexican Federation of Rural Students (FECSM). The FECSM groups together all the Rural Teachers College student bodies and is the oldest student organization in Mexico.  Murals on school buildings at Ayotzinapa depict renowned revolutionary figures like Che Guevara and ’70s-era guerrilla leaders Lucio Cabañas and Genaro Vázquez, both Ayotzinapa graduates. Several murals memorialize two students who were killed by police in 2011 during a protest demanding an increase in the school’s enrollment and meal budgets.  

One of the most common “activities,” as the students call their organizing actions, is commandeering buses. Traveling to observe teachers in rural areas is an essential part of the curricula, but the school has never owned enough vehicles or had a budget to rent or acquire them.  The students have long secured transportation by heading to nearby bus stations or setting up highway blockades, boarding a stopped bus, and informing its driver and passengers that the vehicle would be used for “the educational purposes of the Ayotzinapa Teachers College.”  

Government officials decry the students’ actions as outright robbery. The students insist they are not thieves and that they always “reach an agreement” with the bus companies and drivers that includes payment. The bus drivers don’t abandon the vehicles; sometimes they camp out at the college, with meals provided, for weeks and occasionally months. 

The tactic of commandeering buses to be used in protests is not unique to Ayotzinapa, but what distinguishes the tactic here is that by 2014 it had become integrated into the basic functioning of the school.

It remains unclear why local and state police chose to attack the buses on Sept. 26. 2014. Some suggest local political leaders found the practice an unwelcome distraction during a political rally.  Perhaps, but why were the Guerreros Unidos gang members involved, too? More recently, investigators have suggested the attack was more pragmatic: The students may have commandeered a bus that gang members and law enforcement officials, working together,  had filled with drugs or cash.