This archive report was first published on 27 September 2019.
Published on September 27, 2019, the disappearance of 43 students in southern Mexico continues to haunt the country five years later.
The students, who were on their way to a protest, were detained by corrupt police and handed over to drug-cartel hitmen on September 26, 2014.
Local police opened fire on the buses, killing six people, and then rounded up the remaining students and handed them over to Guerreros Unidos, a cartel with ties to the police.
According to Alejandro Hope, a security expert and former Mexican intelligence officer, there are two facts that don't seem to be in doubt: the students were kidnapped by police and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel.
However, what happened after that remains a mystery, and it is uncertain whether the world will ever know the truth about the disappearance of the students from the teacher training institute in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.
Despite promises from new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to bring the case to justice, the investigation has been marred by allegations of official incompetence and corruption.
Investigators have been chasing a fresh lead, excavating at a different garbage dump near Iguala, where witnesses reportedly say some of the men were executed.
