Iguala mass kidnapping

On September 26, 2014, forty-three male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College disappeared after being forcibly abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Iguala and Cocula in collusion with organized crime, with later evidence implicating the Mexican Army.

Official obstacles put in the way of independent investigations of the disappearances provoked international protests and social unrest, including protests leading to the resignation of Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero on October 23, 2014.

The students were preparing to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, following a tradition where they commandeered several buses to travel to Mexico City. The police set up roadblocks and fired weapons to intercept the students, but what happened during and after the stopping of their buses remains unclear. Among the many explanations for the students disappearance include that the buses hijacked by the students contained drug cartel product or that a rival cartel had infiltrated the student group.

An early investigation under Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto concluded with a 7 November 2014 press conference identifying corrupt municipal police from Iguala and neighboring towns, following orders from mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez, had turned 43 of the students over to the local Guerreros Unidos ("United Warriors") drug cartel, who killed the students and destroyed their remains. Federal police and military were absolved of any involvement.

This official version from the Mexican government (also called "the historic truth") was widely rejected by families of the students, and disputed by some experts. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) assembled a panel of experts who conducted a six-month investigation in 2015. They stated that the government's claim that the students were killed in a garbage dump because they were mistaken for members of a drug gang was "scientifically impossible". Investigative journalist Anabel Hernández also alleged a cover-up, claiming that two of the buses were secretly transporting heroin, without the students' knowledge. She states that the 27th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army was directly involved in the kidnapping and murder, and that a drug lord ordered the battalion's colonel to intercept the drugs; the students, witnesses of the attack, were killed as collateral damage. There are also reports linking federal forces to the case, some stating that military personnel in the area deliberately refrained from helping the students in distress.

On December 3, 2018, newly elected President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the creation of a truth commission, to lead new investigations into the events. In June 2020, José Ángel Casarrubias Salgado, known as "El Mochomo", leader of the United Warriors cartel, was arrested on suspicion of being responsible for the abductions and murders. In September 2020, the government announced it was seeking the arrest in Israel and extradition of former official Tomas Zeron, one of the authors of the official "historical truth" report. In August 2022, Jesús Murillo Karam was arrested over multiple charges (torture, forced disappearances, and offenses against the administration of justice) during his tenure as attorney general. Later that month, the Truth Commission alleged that six of the students were held alive before being turned over to a local army commander, who ordered them to be killed.

At least 80 suspects have been arrested in the case, 44 of whom were police officers. Three students have been confirmed dead as of 2020 after their remains were identified by the Austria-based University of Innsbruck.