The European Parliament adopted by 495 votes to 86, with 56 abstentions, a resolution on the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Mexico.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE as well as Ignazio Corrao and Fabio Massimo Castaldo.

Parliament recalled that on 26 September 2014, six people, among them three students, were killed when the police opened fire on protesting teaching students from the Escuela Normal (‘Normal School’) of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Guerrero state. Since then 43 students are still missing. According to various sources those students were rounded up and driven away by police officers and handed over to unidentified armed men linked to a drug cartel;

The President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, has instructed the Federal Government and his Security Office to take immediate and conclusive measures. A roadmap for joint action has been agreed together with the missing students’ families and representatives.

Parliament strongly condemned the unacceptable forced disappearances and crimes in Iguala. It called on the Mexican authorities to: (i) investigate all the crimes, including the finding of 28 bodies in clandestine graves; (ii) take all necessary steps to act promptly and in a transparent and impartial manner to identify, arrest and bring to justice the perpetrators of the crimes, and with no margin for impunity; (iii) continue the investigations until the students have been brought to safety.

Members supported the Mexican Government in its determination to combat organised drug trafficking and welcomed President Peña Nieto’s determination to investigate and clarify these events, as well as to put an end to gang-related violence in Mexico.

They called on the Mexican authorities to protect and assist the families of the victims and keep them informed about the ongoing investigations and efforts to apprehend the perpetrators.

Underlining the fact that Mexico is a strategic partner for the EU, Parliament encouraged the Mexican Government to continue with its efforts to strengthen state institutions with a view to tackling some of the structural problems that are at the root of the human rights violations, specifically with reference to reform of the judicial system.

Parliament also called on the EU, on its Member States in their bilateral relations with Mexico, and on the European institutions:

• to step up the support they provide for human rights through programmes and financial and technical resources;
• to increase the budgetary resources allocated to cooperation in strengthening and reforming the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and prosecution services, with a view to prosecuting and punishing offenders and to setting up effective systems for protecting witnesses and victims and their families.

Lastly, the resolution stressed the urgent need to set up a unified, public and accessible national registry of missing and disappeared persons and a DNA database at federal level.