Students Who Survived Mexico's Night Of Bloody Horror Accuse Army And Police

Two who escaped death in the attack on students in Guerrero last September testify to the murderous role of state forces
Nina Lakhani
The Guardian
Jan. 26, 2015

Uriel Alonso Solís is an affable 19-year-old, the oldest of five children from a poor campesino family. But his grittiness shows through as he recounts the terrible night his college friends – four of whom he grew up with – were seized and hauled off to face a brutal fate that still reverberates across Mexican society.

Alonso survived the horrific attack on unarmed students by state and criminal forces last September in the southern state of Guerrero, which left six people dead, 25 injured and 43 trainee teachers forcibly disappeared.

“Five carloads of masked police surrounded our three buses, and as we got out to see what they wanted they started shooting. There were bullets flying everywhere, and people started running. I saw one of my classmates go down. He’d been shot in the head, everyone was crying and screaming, but I was really surprised how calm I was. I started calling friends at the school to help us.”

Alonso was among those who managed to hide as dozens of his classmates were forced into police trucks and driven away. “I thought they would beat them, but that we’d get them back the next day. We hadn’t done anything, we were just students going to a protest.”

Omar García, 24, another survivor, was among the students Alonso called when the ambush happened. He rushed to the scene where, he says, “we started collecting evidence like bullet casings, and calling the local media. We felt calmer when they arrived, as we thought nothing would happen in front of journalists. But around midnight the police started firing again, directly at us as we tried to run away.” García helped carry one of the injured to a nearby private health clinic. “There were no doctors, but soon two trucks of soldiers arrived from the 27th infantry battalion, which has a base close by. They started accusing us of criminality and violence, as if we were combatants, not students.”

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