“43” Parents Demand Extradition for Tomás Zerón & Ulises Bernabé

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Carolina Gómez Mena originally appeared in the September 26, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. In a statement marking the eleventh anniversary of the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students, the students’ parents asserted that “they will not deceive us again with a historical truth” and that “we will not let up until the army hands over the documents in its archives and is held accountable for the disappearance of our children.”

At a rally held in front of the fences protecting the National Palace, Hilda Legideño, mother of Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, read the document in which they also demand the extraditions of Tomás Zerón de Lucio, a “refugee” in israel, and Ulises Bernabé, an asylum seeker in the United States.

They also asked international organizations to continue monitoring the investigations into the case of the 43, “because our struggle has no political or partisan interests. All we want is to find our children and return home.”

They warned that “our fight will continue until we achieve truth and justice.”

Relatives of students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College in Ayotzinapa criticized the fact that the entrance to the Zócalo esplanade is fenced off with concrete structures, which prevented the entry of the van leading the march from the Angel of Independence to the Zócalo square, which was carrying audio equipment for the rally.

However, they sought alternatives, and the sound system finally arrived. They also criticized the fact that they had previously been prevented from entering the stage for the rally.

“There is no freedom of demonstration. We regret that the authorities are repeating their authoritarian policies. They have closed the main entrances to prevent this demonstration from reaching the Zócalo.

They blocked the entry of comrades who were going to set up a platform in this place with cement bars, as if we were a movement about to confront them. Where is the change Mexico so desperately longed for? We absolutely reject these actions,” they said.

Under a drizzle that hasn’t let up since the demonstration began just after 4 p.m., they said on the esplanade that “we will search every corner so that no case of the disappeared goes unpunished” and they assured that they are “convinced that sooner or later we will succeed in tearing down the wall of impunity and injustice, and the truth will come to light and justice will be done for our missing children.”

Although the protest was generally peaceful, a group of hooded individuals armed with hammers, picks, sledgehammers, and metal pipes smashed the windows and security guards of some commercial buildings located in the entrances, even removing a refrigerator that was left lying on 16 de Septiembre Street.