Ayotzinapa 43 Disappearance: Driver Speaks Up, Offers New Version Of Missing Students Fate

On September 26, 2014, 57 students headed out on what was going to be a normal protest from the ‘Escuela Normal Rural’ of Ayotzinapa Isidro Burgos, in the state of Guerrero in Mexico, but it quickly turned into a tragedy. The students arrived in a few buses to the town of Iguala where there was a violent encounter with the local police, and after six lost their lives on site, others fled and 43 disappeared.

Now, after over 18 months of speculation and pieced information from Mexican officials, a new witness has come forward offering his version of the incident. Identified as G.J.R. he was the driver of one of the buses the students were on, and narrated the series of events that confirm the government’s involvement in the young men’s disappearance. “With teary, blurred eyes from the pepper spray, I was able to see from the police car how they were bringing down each student, when one of the policemen said, ‘we can fit any more of them in the car,’ and another said, ‘that’s fine, here come the ones from Huitzuco.’ At that moment I could perceive more police cars pulling in; they were white and blue and they I saw them drive directed to Huitzuco,” he declared.

In addition, the driver also stated that afterwards, the police also turned the students over to a criminal leader they were referring to as “El Patrón.”

This comes as a big twist in the investigation, as the driver’s initial testimony didn’t mention the involvement of the police. On the contrary, G.J.R. had said the students had forced him to take them and that he’d been attacked during the brawl; beaten, sprayed and threatened before they let him go.

Now it’s up to investigators to include the statement into the investigation, and look further into the government’s involvement in the tragic case.