ST. GEORGE — On Sept. 26, 2014, 43 students from a teacher’s college in Mexico disappeared in an ambush carried out by suspected municipal, state and federal police, soldiers and others.
Nearly 10 years later, the true origin of the violence remains a topic of debate, study and speculation. As of Sept. 13, it’s also been the focus of a 10th anniversary exhibit at Utah Tech University in St. George.
Stephen Lee, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the school, is the force behind the exhibit “Remember the 43 Students.” He sees it as a way of showing support in the ongoing search for justice in the matter, still largely unresolved.
“We are a global community. We need to care about others, irrespective of where they live,” he said.
Lee grew up in El Paso, Texas, and seeing the sharp disparities in life on the two sides of the U.S.-Mexico border stuck with him, figuring in his interest in the topic, which has drawn international attention.
What’s more, Lee maintains that the United States bears a measure of responsibility, however indirect, owing to the “political terror and drug violence” in Mexico that he says stems from the U.S. war on drugs. “We are complicit in that violence,” he said.
The exhibit, meant to mark and honor the lives of the 43 victims, all males, opened Sept. 13 and goes through Oct. 4. One element is an installation by artist Jan Nimmo, “¿Dónde Están? (Where Are They?),” featuring portraits of the 43. It’s on display in the lobby of Utah Tech’s Dolores Doré Eccles Fine Arts Center.
The second part is an exhibit called “Remember the 43 Students,” created by Lee. It features 43 life-sized silhouettes with information about each of the students and is on display inside the main entrance to the university’s Holland Centennial Commons.
The activities mark the fourth year Utah Tech has held commemorative events launched by Lee. He came to Utah Tech from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, where he had also been involved in commemorative activities focused on the 43, and brought the idea of carrying on the tradition at the St. George university.
The issues at the center of the violence 10 years ago “including political power, political violence, law enforcement, the politics of ‘forced disappearances,’ the rise of drug cartels and the U.S. war on drugs, and violence against the least powerful in a community are all themes central to the humanities and social sciences,” he said. Moreover, the Sept. 26, 2014, incident underscores the broader topic of forced disappearances — 105,000 of them since 2006, according to Utah Tech — in Mexico.
The 43 students from the left-wing Rural Teachers College in Ayotzinapa were attacked by police in Iguala, a city in the Mexican state of Guerrero. They were there to commandeer buses to get a protest in Mexico City, according to the Associated Press, when the attack occurred. Authorities subsequently turned the 43 over to members of a drug gang, Guerreros Unidos, who allegedly killed them.
Aside from the 43 students who disappeared, six others were killed, and more than 40 were wounded in the 2014 violence. “In 10 years, only three of the 43 students have been confirmed dead. The obstructionist handling of Mexico’s investigations has led to few arrests and limited accountability,” Lee said.
He said demonstrations are planned for Sept. 26 in Mexico City and elsewhere to mark the 10th anniversary of the incident.
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