Utah Tech exhibit focuses on 43 Mexican students who disappeared in a 2014 ambush

ST. GEORGE — On September 26, 2014, 43 students from a teacher training college in Mexico disappeared in an ambush believed to have been carried out by municipal, state and federal police, soldiers and others.

Nearly a decade later, the true origins of the violence are still a subject of debate, study and speculation. Since September 13, it has also been the subject of a 10th anniversary exhibit at Utah Tech University in St. George.

Stephen Lee, dean of the school’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, is the driving force behind the exhibition, “Remember the 43 Students,” as a way to show support for the ongoing search for justice in this largely unresolved issue.

“We are a global community. We must care about others, no matter where they live,” he said.

Growing up in El Paso, Texas, Lee was struck by the stark differences in life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, sparking his interest in the subject, which has garnered international attention.

Furthermore, Lee argues that the United States bears some responsibility, however indirect, for the “political terror and drug violence” in Mexico that he says stems from the U.S. war on drugs. “We are complicit in that violence,” he said.

The exhibit, intended to mark and honor the lives of the 43 victims, all men, opened Sept. 13 and runs through Oct. 4. One component is an installation by artist Jan Nimmo, “¿Dónde Están? (Where Are They?),” featuring portraits of the 43. It is on display in the lobby of Utah Tech’s Dolores Doré Eccles Fine Arts Center.

The second part is an exhibit called “Remember the 43 Students,” created by Lee. It features 43 life-size silhouettes with information about each of the students and is on display in the main entrance to the university’s Holland Centennial Commons.

The activities mark the fourth year that Utah Tech has hosted the commemorative events that Lee initiated. He came to Utah Tech from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, where he was also involved in commemorative activities focused on the 43, and brought the idea to St. George University to continue the tradition.

The issues at the heart of the violence 10 years ago, “including political power, political violence, law enforcement, the politics of ‘enforced disappearances,’ the rise of drug cartels and the U.S. war on drugs, and violence against the least powerful in a community are all themes that are central to the humanities and social sciences,” he said. Moreover, the Sept. 26, 2014, incident underscores the broader topic of enforced disappearances — 105,000 since 2006, according to Utah Tech — in Mexico.

The 43 students from the leftist Rural Teachers College in Ayotzinapa were attacked by police in Iguala, a city in the Mexican state of Guerrero. They were there to confiscate buses to protest in Mexico City, the Associated Press reported, when the attack occurred. Authorities then handed the 43 over to members of a drug gang, Guerreros Unidos, who reportedly killed them.

In addition to the 43 disappeared students, six others were killed and more than 40 injured in the 2014 violence. “In 10 years, only three of the 43 students have been declared dead. Mexico’s obstructionist approach to investigations has resulted in few arrests and limited accountability,” Lee said.

He said demonstrations are planned in Mexico City and elsewhere on September 26 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the incident.