New Report Rejects Mexican Government's Story About the Disappearance of 43 Students

"Democracy Now!" airs weekdays at 9 a.m. PT on KCET.

On September 26, 2014, a group of students from Ayotzinapa teachers' college came under attack by police in the city of Iguala, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Six people were killed in a series of attacks that night, and 43 students were disappeared. The Mexican government has claimed the 43 students were killed by members of a local drug gang, and their bodies incinerated in a trash dump in the neighboring town of Cocula. But the students' families have long rejected this account, and the phrase "fue el estado," or "it was the state," has become a rallying cry at mass protests across Mexico and around the world.

Now, a new independent report commissioned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has dismissed the Mexican government's version of the students' disappearance. "Democracy Now!" speaks with journalist John Gibler in Mexico City. He outlines the report's key findings, including that municipal, state and federal police actively participated in attacks on the students and that military intelligence officers were present at at least two of the attack scenes.