In the accompaniment process to the Ayotzinapa case, we continue walking alongside the collective of the parents of the 43 forcibly disappeared students. Despite the physical and emotional exhaustion from the eight years of seeking justice, the obstacles presented by the Federal Attorney General’s Office and the Armed Forces, and a new attempt by Mexico’s president to close the case in the media, the collective—with the accompaniment of Centro ProDH, Serapaz, Tlachinollan, and Fundar—has managed to keep political and media pressure on the government to clear up the case completely through legal follow-up, political dialogue through the Commission for Access to Truth and Justice in the Ayotzinapa Case (COVAJ, for its Spanish initials), pressure to retain observation and international technical assistance from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, for its Spanish initials), and a media strategy centered on the victims’ perspective.

These efforts have managed to demonstrate, now through a judicial investigation with a technical basis, that the Ayotzinapa case was the result of a coordinated operation between authorities on all levels and organized crime. Therefore, they have been key to provide evidence on the dangers of militarization and the lack of transparency within military institutions, and thus, to counteract the president’s current narrative in favor of the Armed Forces.