Trust ‘lost’ in authority after 43 students disappear

The Archbishop of Acapulco has demanded that the authorities take responsibility for uncovering how dozens of students in the town of Iguala disappeared on the way to a protest, saying the case “reaches into the political sphere”.

On 26 September, police opened fire on buses carrying students to a protest over job discrimination in the state of Guerrero, west of Mexico City. Six people died and a group of 43 students went missing. The students are thought to have been handed over to a local drugs gang by the police. Several officers accused of complicity with the cartel have been arrested.

Archbishop Carlos Garfias Merlos said there had been an alarming rise in violence in Mexico and the state had failed to act. He was worried “about the lack of trust people feel for our public institutions which have proved they are very vulnerable to criminal organ­isations”. This was “doing profound political and social damage”, he said, calling for a strategy to rebuild confidence in the institutions.

“The problems which are overwhelming people in the state of Guerrero have been made clear by this crisis,” he said in a statement published by the bishops’ conference.

This week, protesters attacked the Guerrero local government headquarters demanding the resignation of Governor Angel Aguirre.