We’re Not Selling Our Kids: Ayotzinapa Families Reject Payoff

Parents of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students rejected government offers to be paid out as compensation for “damages” related to the loss of their loved ones, while the families still wait for adequate answers a year and a half after the students were forcibly disappeared, Mexico’s La Jornada reported Friday.

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Ayotzinapa families spokesperson Felipe de la Cruz told La Jornada that rather than accept compensation, the group plans to continue their search.

And it’s not the first time the government has offered the families money.

“For a long time federal and state authorities have come even to the houses of the families to offer a certain amount of money, but it has been rejected,” said Cruz.

“They have come to offer money, but they forget that for the parents of the families of the 43 disappeared students, that’s what interests us the least,” he added. “We are not going to sell our children and the stance of the movement remains the same.”

The families have urges authorities to comply with expectations to keep the independent experts working on the case involved in the next stage of the investigation.

The international experts have called for a “diagnosis of the social impacts” of the disappearance of the 43 students.

The Interior Ministry also told La Jornada a compensation payment plan for families of the victims will be based on a psycho-social analysis.

Families of the 43 Ayotzinapa students and supporters will demonstrate in Mexico City on Saturday and in Iguala, Guerrero, on Sunday to mark 18 months since the students were forcibly disappeared in the violence-plagued state in September 2014.