Statement from the Latin American and Caribbean Anti-Militarist Network (RAMALC), in solidarity with the Ayotzinapa victims and all the disappeared in Mexico

The Latin American and Caribbean Anti-Militarist Network (RAMALC), in the city of Mexico on September 23, 2015, with representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay Brazil, Bolivia, Serbian anti-militarists and United States, together with their peers from Mexico, would like to express our solidarity with the mothers, fathers and relatives of the 43 student teachers of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College, disappeared in the State of Guerrero.

The events took place during the night of the 26th and the early hours of the 27th of September, 2014, in which federal and municipal police pursued and attacked students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College, journalists and civilians. The attack left at least 9 people dead, 43 students missing and 27 wounded - it has become one of the most emblematic events of human rights violations, not just in the Mexican Republic but in all latitudes.

Within days of the disappearance’s first year anniversary, the victims' families began a fast, to demand that their children appear. We are united with citizens from Mexico and around the world in solidarity to their right to peaceful protest in the demand for proof of life, justice, truth and no impunity.

Likewise, in commemoration of the anniversary of this terrible event and the lack of answers, and given the results of the CIDH experts committee research, we'll march in support and solidarity with this fight; it's not just the victims' families - everyone seeks events like this are never forgotten and never repeated, and that the disappeared appear and that there is not injustice or impunity.

We remember that everyone has the right to peaceful demonstration, fasting, concentrations, marches and protests, what it means to express in public, individually or collectively, and by non-violent means, discontent, disagreement or indignation with events and situations that affects them directly, in the demand of their rights, truth, justice and no impunity in the frame of a free and democratic society.

Fasting is a tool of nonviolent struggle, included in the right to pacific demonstration enshrine in Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It must be respected and guaranteed by having the authorities taken all the protective measures, so it can be fully implemented. We remind that Human Rights International Protocols oblige States to guarantee the no intervention under any form of duress and the strikers' protection, as well as demonstrators accompanying them during the day.

The severity of the events that took placed in Ayotzinapa and the worldwide commotion and consternation in the face of these disappearances, forces the Mexican State to dispose of all actions and resources to provide an immediate answer to the victims' families, and not allow this case to constitute one of the most deplorable events in Latin America and the world's recent history.

Furthermore, we demand that the Mexican authorities must allow access to the families and CIDH experts to all places, including the military facilities and fields, where it's suspected the students could be located.

The CIDH experts' committee's first results oblige the Mexican State to fulfil its duties, intensifying the search efforts for the disappeared, in search for the truth, justice and no impunity.

The enforced disappearance constitutes one of the worst crimes against humanity, we advocate the clarification of all cases before and after Ayotzinapa and those responsible punished.

Alive they were taken, alive we want them back!