During the march, protesters carried banners with the slogan: 'They took them away alive, we want them back alive.' Last September 26 marked 11 years since the disappearance of the young men, and the case remains unsolved, although Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has committed to clarifying it. Hilda Hernández Rivera, mother of César Manuel González Hernández, told EFE that the 'immense love' for her children is what gives them 'strength and keeps them standing' to continue demanding justice, despite the authorities' indifference. The search mother described the case as 'stagnant' since the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), who 'only worked for two years, then stopped insisting, and everything fell apart.' She stated that with Sheinbaum, 'there has been no progress.' We can't get out of this hole. Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, 2024, has promised 'new lines of investigation' to locate the students and has opened the door to contacting former members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), who left the country in 2023 after denouncing a lack of cooperation from the authorities. Hernández expressed her 'hope and faith' that the GIEI experts can resume the investigations, as the mothers and fathers have insisted in their meetings with Sheinbaum. 'She committed to contacting them so they could return,' the mother said, and commented that 'both Carlos (Beristain) and Angela (Buitrago) are in the best position to return.' Finally, Hernández clarified that she is 'not against the government' for 'pointing out what is not advancing.' Relatives and classmates of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa marched on Friday to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to reiterate their demand for truth and justice, after more than 11 years of impunity in the case and despite the government's promises to solve it. As every December, the families of the student teachers who disappeared in September 2014 in Ayotzinapa, in the state of Guerrero, traveled to the country's capital to entrust their search to the Virgin of Guadalupe, one of the most symbolic expressions of their struggle. The mobilization departed from the Glorieta de Peralvillo, in the center of the capital, and advanced towards the religious enclosure, located north of the city. 'The president should take this as something that can serve her to continue moving forward,' they concluded. The day concluded with a mass at the Basilica of Guadalupe, where the relatives thanked the shrine for never closing its doors to them. 'We continue to believe in miracles,' expressed Emiliano Navarrete, father of José Ángel Navarrete. The Ayotzinapa case occurred that night in 2014, when 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College disappeared while heading to Mexico City to protest the anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre, which occurred on October 2, 1968. This case is an emblematic example of disappearances in Mexico, where to date, there are more than 133,000 missing persons, according to data from the National Registry of Missing and Unfound Persons (RNPDNO).
