Text messages uncover the truth.
Technology can benefit anyone.
In the 21st century, ever since mobile phones were created. Our technology through messaging evolved significantly as text messages can be recovered. Text messages were an important piece of evidence in uncovering the truth behind the 43 students who went missing in a Mexican state of Guerrero in 2014. No one knew what happened to these 43 students, their families are heartbroken due to the fact their bodies were never found either.
"California Students for Ayotzinapa - UCSC Collective at Beyond Borders" by nopalmedia is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
The truth comes out
Until on September 26th, 2014, Francisco Salgado Valladares a deputy chief of the municipal force in the town of Iguala, he texted Gildardo López Astudillo who was the local leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel at the time. These text messages contain reports that Salgado’s officers had arrested two groups of students for having taken buses. Unfortunately, the students made a deadly mistake of taking these buses because they were part of a drug-running operation that would carry a huge cargo of heroin across the U.S border and the students had accidently stolen the load.
Lopez responded to Salgado by arranging a transfer point on a rural road near the town, saying he “had beds to terrorize” the students in. The cartel leader refer his plans to torture and bury them in clandestine grave sites.
"Protest Booth for Missing 43 Students - Zocalo - Papantla - Veracruz - Mexico" by Adam Jones, Ph.D. - Global Photo Archive is marked with CC BY 2.0.
Salgado text afterwards that there are 17 more students being held “in the cave,” to which Lopez replied that he “wants them all.” Both of them made plans for their underlings to meet a place called Wolfs Gap, and Salgado reminded Lopez to send enough men to handle the job.
"California Students for Ayotzinapa - UCSC Collective at Beyond Borders" by nopalmedia is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Later that night, Salgado informed the crime boss that “all the packages have been delivered.”
Who was really pulling the strings?
The Daily Beast was informed by Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former chief of international operations, he strongly implies that Lopez was calling the shots all along, ordering Salgado to arrest the students.
These students were all enrolled at the Rural Teachers College in the nearby town of Ayotzinapa. They planned to take part in demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the 1968 student massacre at Tlatelolco. This massacre sparked protest across Mexico reflecting the previous government is discredited since this new massacre reveals the corruption in Mexico’s government. Stephanie Brewer, the Mexico director at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the new evidence reflects how often in Mexico “organized crime is comprised of both state and non-state actors.”
"SOA Watch Delegation to Mexico" by closethesoa is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Was there justice?
Salgado is already incarcerated for his alleged role in the massacre, López was arrested and then released over an apparent failure of due process, and remains at large.
These 43 students had their human rights violated, and it's tragic how it had took years to uncover the truth of their disappearance. If those text messages never existed, all those families wouldn’t have known the truth behind their children’s disappearance. This massacre reflects Mexico government is corrupt by they didn’t acknowledge the truth behind the 43 students. Technology has given these families the answers they have been looking for years.
Congrats for this article. The structure and the perspective is interesting, The topic is so relevant.