Translated by Amanda Coe
Pope Francisco’s reluctance to meet with the parents of 43 disappeared students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa sent a discouraging message to the rest of the relatives of more than 27,000 people who disappeared in Mexico throughout the last years, say the mothers and fathers who were interviewed by SinEmbargo.
Eugenio Lira, who was coordinating the Pope’s visit to Mexic, told the media one day before the Pope’s arrival in Mexico City that he would not be meeting with the parents of the 43 because it would generate more requests from groups of relatives of the disappeared.
Friday, during a brief meeting with the press aboard the papal plane, Francis said that he did not know whether he would meet privately with the families of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students and that he intends to speak out about the human rights situation in Mexico.
“I will, trying to be clear, speak out,” responded the Pope to questions from the press.Earlier, a Vatican source leaked that only three spaces were reserved for them in the front row of of the Pope’s farewell mass [in Juárez City, Chihuahua on Wednesday].
While the Holy See argued that there are several groups that wanted to meet with the Pope, members of the organization United Forces for Our Disappeared of Coahuila (Fundec)—one of the most significant groups, which unites approximately 500 families of disappeared persons in Northern Mexico—reported that they too were not able to meet with him.
María Elena Salazar Zamora, mother of Hugo Marcelino González, disappeared on April 20, 2009 in Torreón, Coahuila, said:
“We tried. There will be five members at the event in Juárez City, but we cannot bring signs or anything. We are considering what we need to do for him to see us; we need him to see what is happening in this country with the disappeared.”Salazar Zamora explained that the Pope must not let the tragedy of the disappearances in Mexico go unnoticed, and refusing to meet with the parents of the normal school students diminishes the hope of other parents who for seven years have fought to find their children.
“For him to see and realize the magnitude of what is happening. Politicians will show him the positive. We tried a thousand ways to get close to him, because we cannot go to Rome. Sadly, we see that politics outweigh victims.”
She recalled that in the seven years since founding Fundec, not a single mother has been told the whereabouts of her child.
“If the Mexican government has failed to respond to the parents of the 43, who disappeared together, imagine how much less visible those are who disappeared one by one. Personally, this gives me a discouraging message, because it has been six years since my son disappeared, I only trust in God, and if he [Francisco], who is closer to God, is not listening to us, where do we turn?”
Clemente Rodríguez, father of normal school student Cristian Alfonso Rodríguez, stated that it would have been a “big push” to the case of the 43 if the Pope met with them.
“Now I know he will not show support for the parents, nor those with missing relatives. I know he will not do that. He will not say ‘I am with the 43’.”
The father of the normal school student who disappeared September 26, 2014, along with his peers, added that Pope Francisco’s visit was a good opportunity to push for the search of their children and the thousands of other disappeared. He said:
“It would have hurt the government, because many people know the Vatican, and it could have put pressure on them. In the end, as a priest, as a human being, it is his obligation, because it is providing a service to people, so that we get along, without disputes between families, without deaths or disappearances.”Carlos Hermilo Orozco Benítez, uncle of three of the disappeared in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz, [on Jan. 11, 2016] José Benítez de la O., Bernardo Benítez Arroniz, and Mario Arturo Orozco Sánchez, said the Pope is obligated to meet with the victims; discussing the issue with President Enrique Peña Nieto is not enough.
“The thing is, if they talk, he will be talking to the key people who are causing the disappearances: the government. They will say that nothing is happening, that everything is fine. He should have met with victims.”Spanish Original