I Couldn't Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us

by John Gibler

  “Sure, man. No worries.”

  We kept walking and Cochi said to me:

  “Compa, I need more people. We’re going to get some buses.”

  “Okay, no problem.”

  “Lend me the activists.”

  “That’s not my decision. That’s up to the COPI,2”— and right there was the compa in charge of the COPI and Cochi asked him.

  “Hey, lend me the activists so we can go bring some buses.”

  The COPI asked me directly:

  “Are you going?”

  “Yeah, I’m going,” I told him.

  “Alright then, take ’em.”

  And so the activists came out and got on the bus.

  The atmosphere on the bus was fucking cool, for real. We were joking around. We were on two buses, two Estrellas de Oro. I was riding with the driver that everyone called Chavelote, Big Kid, and behind us, in the other bus, there were two other bus drivers. One was called Ambulancia, Ambulance, and the other Manotas, Big Hands. Manotas was driving the bus and Ambulancia was just going along for the ride. The atmosphere, I tell you, was fucking awesome. The freshmen were all joking around, and those of us sophomores at the front of the bus were doing the same.

  The ones who were riding with Manotas and Ambulancia stayed behind at a place called Rancho del Cura, to ask for donations, and we went to the highway to grab the buses. We stopped and were just waiting for some buses to drive by so we could grab them. But there we noticed something strange. When some buses started to approach on the highway, the federal police stopped the buses, made the passengers get off, and sent the buses back. And the passengers came from the tollbooth on foot.

  That’s when I said to Cochi: “No, man, the jig is up, we aren’t going to be able to grab anything.” We were going to go back to the college when we got a call that some other compañeros, who had grabbed a bus that was going to drop its passengers off at the station, were being detained. So we took off fast, we went straight to the bus station to bust out the compañeros being held there.

  ÓSCAR LÓPEZ HERNÁNDEZ, 18, FRESHMAN. There in Huitzuco we started to keep a look out for buses. First we grabbed a Costa Line. Right then we asked the driver to take us to the college, because we were going to go to an event on October 2, the march they hold every year. And yes, the driver said, okay, and ten compañeros got on the bus because first the driver was going to drop off the passengers in Iguala. Ten compañeros got on the bus. About ten minutes went by and they hadn’t come back, so the guy from the committee said to call those compañeros, because a lot of time had passed. We tried to reach the compañeros. Then one of them called us and said: “Compas, we’ve got a problem here with security, the bus driver won’t let us out, he locked us in the bus.”

  URIEL ALONSO SOLÍS, 19, SOPHOMORE. First we went to the Huitzuco stop and the first bus arrived. We spoke with the driver and he said yes. There were about five of us who got on the bus. We arrived at the bus station and that’s when he said, “No, can’t do it, nope. . . .” He had changed his mind and said no, not anymore. And since we were already there and we didn’t have any money with us to get back, we called the compañeros.

  “You know what, come get us,” we said. “We’re in the bus station. The driver changed his mind. We’re trapped on board the bus, the driver already got off. He locked us in.”

  “Hold tight,” they said, “we’re on our way.” And that’s when they came.

  EDGAR YAIR, 18, FRESHMAN. We left around five-thirty, I think. We left in two buses from the parking lot here. I was in the second bus. The bus was sort of packed, there were a bunch of us. We arrived at the entrance to Iguala. We got out where we were going to do the action. It was around six or seven at night. Around eight o’clock a bus drove by. The driver was going to help us out, you know, getting to the march. But he had passengers. So the driver needed to drop off his passengers at their destination, which was the bus station in Iguala.

  Ten of our compañeros, about ten, got on the bus. They left with the bus and we stayed back in the same place where we’d been. Well, we’d been out there for about another hour and we saw that our compañeros didn’t return. It was night at that point, it was already dark. Then we got a call from a compañero who said they’d been held at the bus station. We had to go and set them free. So we went. We got there and we all covered our faces with our T-shirts, so they couldn’t identify us, to protect our identities. We were there demanding that they let our compañeros out. At last they let them go, but we were angry by that point, and we grabbed three buses from the station there. We forced the drivers to take us in the buses. Two buses went a different way out of the station and the other three buses went out toward Avenue Juan N. Álvarez.

  ALEX ROJAS, FRESHMAN. The two buses stopped near Huitzuco along a part of the highway that’s really straight. There’s a restaurant near there; I think it’s called La Palma. We stopped there by the restaurant. There’s a little chapel there where a number of us who are believers went to pray and make the sign of the cross. The first bus left. I don’t know exactly where it went, but it took off toward Iguala and I think they went to the tollbooth. I think they were going to do the action there. We stayed there, near the restaurant, where the highway is really straight, to avoid any accidents.

  We started to do the action, and sure enough, a bus passed by, which we stopped and commandeered. The bus had passengers on board. So as not to affect the bus riders, we decided to take them to the station. I got on that bus with another seven compañeros and a member of the committee. We boarded the bus and left. I was talking with some of the passengers on their way to Iguala. They said to me that they were afraid and asked us not to do anything to them. I told them not to worry, that we never did anything to citizens, to the people, that we only did this action because it was necessary since we don’t have any vehicles at the school to use for transportation to our actions, whether it’s going to the march to commemorate the student massacre, or fundraising activities, or the classroom observations and exercises that the sophomores, juniors, and seniors all do.

  I was talking with a woman and some other people in that part of the bus, telling them not to worry, that we never mean to inconvenience them, much less harm them, that we were just kids who were at the college to study, but that it was necessary to do this to be able to carry out our activities and attend some events at the other rural teachers colleges. That’s what I was talking with them about. A number of passengers were talking with us, and we were all getting along well.

  “Yes, guys, we understand, but we still got scared when you all stopped the bus.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said to them, “we’re going to the bus station, we’ll let you all off there without any problems and we’ll then continue with our action like we do every year, totally normal.”

  We arrived at the bus station and yeah, all the passengers got off. We stayed on board the bus and told the driver that we had to get back. The driver agreed and asked us to wait a moment. But after about fifteen minutes, we got nervous that he wouldn’t want to come back. We told him:

  “Let’s go now, driver!”

  But the driver said no, that he had to get authorization, and well, he was just stalling. That’s when we called our compañeros so they would come help us. We were just eight kids, with the guy from the committee, nine, I think. So we called the ones who were out on the fundraising action.

  ERICK SANTIAGO LÓPEZ, 22, SOPHOMORE. During that time a number of strange things started to happen. We were already out by the Iguala tollbooth. A red motorcycle started driving by. And a bit later a Policía Federal truck passed. . . . That truck went through the tollbooth to the other side and started to stop all the buses. The police started to make the passengers get off of all the buses that arrived—Estrella, Futura, Costa Line, Diamante, any bus that approached. They started to stop them. So they weren’t going to let us grab any buses. After a bit, my compañero, a guy who was in the committee and had stayed back arou
nd Huitzuco, he called my friend telling him that the compas had grabbed a bus out by Huitzuco, it was a Costa Line, but that when they got to the bus station they had been detained. They were being held there.

  SANTIAGO FLORES, 24, FRESHMAN. We went to the Iguala tollbooth. We were hanging out with Churro, joking around. But at that time there were some police cars patrolling there, they were driving around and you know, I get a little scared just seeing them. What I did was look around to see where I’d run, thinking: “Okay, if they come after us, I’m going to run that way, head over that way, and grab rocks over there.”

  Behind us there was a fence and on the other side there was some construction, there were a bunch of rocks over there, like bricks that were already broken up. I thought: “Okay, there are rocks over there.” But no, nothing happened. In fact, at the tollbooth, when the buses came up, they didn’t pass through the tollbooth. They turned around and went back because the police were making the passengers get off and the bus didn’t come through the tollbooth. We asked the passengers why the buses weren’t driving through, and they told us because the bus had broken down. We were there for a while. After a time the committee told us to get back on the bus, that we were going to the bus station.

  CARLOS MARTÍNEZ, 21, SOPHOMORE. After night fell a number of federal police squad cars started driving by. They went by and what they did was to stop the buses before the tollbooth and make everyone get off. The people came through the tollbooth on foot and the police sent the buses back. The police did that with at least three buses. And we asked the people that were walking through:

  “Hey, why did they make you all get off the bus?”

  “The feds told us to get off and walk.”

  We were on the Iguala side of the tollbooth and the feds were stopping the buses that were arriving in Iguala from Acapulco, from that direction, Tierra Colorada. The police stopped all the buses that came from that direction. The passengers all got out and walked, and the buses turned around and left. So we said:

  “You know what? We need to go, because we’re not going to be able to get anything here. We’ll come back tomorrow, or we’ll come up with something later.”

  We were making that decision to leave when a compañero who had stayed with the other bus out by Huitzuco called Bernardo and said:

  “Hey, I’m here at the bus station, they’ve got me.” We told him:

  “Okay, wait there, we’re gonna come get you right now.” We all got back on the bus and we went to the bus station.

  GERMÁN, 19, FRESHMAN. I lost track of my friends in the bus station. I didn’t see them again. Once we got to the station we all spread out and I didn’t know what happened to them. I got on the bus. We pulled in, I got off the bus, and then, all of a sudden, I turned around and got back on. The gunshots started around the plaza. And we shouted out to them to leave us alone, that we were on our way out of town. We kept driving through town and there were gunshots and gunshots and the compas who were running got back on the buses. They had been trying to talk with the police, so they would stop blocking us and let us go, because we really wanted to get back to the school, fear had taken hold of us by that point.

  JOSÉ ARMANDO, 20, FRESHMAN. We grabbed another three buses and were on our way out. Some headed out toward the south, an Estrella de Oro bus and an Estrella Roja. We exited toward the north to get to the Periférico; the other three buses went that way. The first bus was a Costa Line, then another Costa Line, and the third bus was an Estrella de Oro. That’s where we were. I was on the third bus when all of a sudden, as we were leaving the bus station in a caravan, the police pulled up and started shooting at us. We didn’t have anything to protect ourselves with, because, you know, we’re students. We got off the buses and wanted to defend ourselves with rocks to make the police get out of the way so we could keep going. I got off the bus. Most guys on the third bus didn’t get off, they stayed on the bus because they were afraid. But a few of us got off, grabbed some rocks and threw them at the police trucks so they’d move out of the way and we could keep going.

  IVÁN CISNEROS, 19, SOPHOMORE. We got to the bus station. They had the compas trapped there. We busted them out. Once we were in the station Cochi said that we needed to take some buses quickly. The drivers were there. We grabbed two Costa Line and an Estrella Roja. The Estrella Roja went one way out of the station and we went out another way, the way we had come in. We went straight through the center of Iguala, straight all the way to head out toward the state capital. The other compas had gone out the station exit. On the way, an Estrella de Oro bus went off another way. So we were just the two Costa Line buses and one Estrella de Oro.

  ALEX ROJAS, FRESHMAN. The compas arrived. We talked to the guy in charge of the station. He said he didn’t want any trouble, but the bus we were on was out of service. I think it needed some kind of liquid, I don’t know, and that’s why we couldn’t take it. The compañeros said that was no problem, that they could get the liquid. Then we saw that the guy had started talking on the phone, and the bus station’s security guards were on their radios. We figured they were letting someone know what was going on. What we did was leave as quickly as possible with the two Costa Line buses. I remember that the Estrella de Oro bus was parked out on the street, and we had the two Costa Line buses we meant to take back to the school with us. The compañeros started to get on the buses. I was going to get on the first Costa Line, but then I changed my mind.

  I asked a paisa from the committee if we were only going to take those two buses or if we were going to grab another one. He told me we were going to take an Estrella Roja too. And so we did, we took the Estrella Roja. The two Costa Line buses went out first, a bit before, one or two minutes before, I think. Close enough that they went in a caravan with the Estrella de Oro bus. So those three buses left the station, but what I’ve heard is that the driver of the first bus took them deeper into Iguala. Instead of taking them out to the Periférico Sur, toward Chilpancingo, he took them deeper in toward the detour to Tierra Caliente, he was taking them in that direction. But we left the station in the Estrella Roja, going by the Aurrera3 there in the city center, direct and fast to get to the Periférico Sur.

  CARLOS MARTÍNEZ, 21, SOPHOMORE. Once we were there in the bus station a compañero told us to grab some buses.

  “We should take the buses from here, let’s grab them and go.”

  It was already night. We left in the buses. I got on the first one together with some others, maybe six or seven compañeros got on that bus. From the bus I could see that our compañero Bernardo was down there organizing, he was coordinating the activity. I wanted to get back off the bus and help him, but the freshman compas wouldn’t let me. I said to them:

  “Let me get by, I’m going to get off.” Or: “Get out of the way.”

  But they didn’t hear me and so I stayed on the bus. And that bus was the first to leave the station, it went in the lead, the first bus that you see in all the photos. I was there with other compañeros. I didn’t see Bernardo again. The image I have of him is being down there directing everything.

  COYUCO BARRIENTOS, 21, FRESHMAN. We got to the bus station and started to spread out. Some compañeros went into the station. We started to take some buses. We grabbed three in total. And we had two other buses that we brought from the school. There were five. We started to leave. The first two buses went ahead. I was in the third bus of the five. We were in the middle of the caravan, but the other two buses took a different route and we didn’t see where they had gone. So we arrived at the point where there is a zócalo. And the driver was going really slowly. He wasn’t getting very far. And I think that he gave the authorities time to arrive and try to get us off the buses. The driver was moving at a snail’s pace. I was in the middle of the bus and I shouted out to the compañeros up front to make the driver step on it, and if not they should get him out of the way and drive the bus themselves, that we had to hurry up. If we didn’t, we’d get caught there. And the driver went e
ven more slowly; he didn’t pay any attention to us. In part, I blame the bus driver because he gave them time to arrive. It’s just that, that night, we didn’t know, no one knew there was a government event, that the director of the DIF4 was giving a speech right there in the zócalo. In fact, a number of newspapers say that we went to protest her speech. But that isn’t true. We were only going to our action, which was asking for donations and grabbing buses, and that was it. We didn’t even know about the government event.

  SANTIAGO FLORES, 24, FRESHMAN. We got on the bus and took off. The driver didn’t want to go because he said he was sick, or something like that, that he had to get some medicine, or go to the doctor, he was saying something like that. He didn’t want to go, he refused, and a compa from the committee took the keys from him and said that he’d drive.

  The driver said no, because if he left the bus the company would hold him responsible, I think. So he said that he would drive.

  When we were leaving the station the driver said something strange, that he didn’t know the way. That was strange, that he would say he didn’t know how to get out of town. The compas were saying if he worked for the bus company he had to know how to get to the bus station, but he said he didn’t, that he didn’t know how to get out of town, he didn’t know the streets there. We left, but really slowly, the driver was going slowly. Around then, there’s a . . . what’s it called? I think in the center there is some kind of plaza, I think, a zócalo. I was in a window seat and I saw people having dinner. We went a few meters farther and I heard something like firecrackers. I thought they were fireworks, but the compas said: “They’re shooting at us.”

  JUAN PÉREZ, 25, FRESHMAN. We went to the bus station. Everyone got on a bus and we left. In some buses twenty students got on, in others fifteen, in others ten, and so on. We left the station and we realized there were police trucks following us. A few blocks later a police truck pulled in front of the lead bus. A police officer got out of the truck and started running, shooting in the air. I was in the lead bus. All of us compañeros got off the bus to push the squad truck out of the way. Once we started pushing it, the driver backed up and took off. We kept going down the street. We were lost and so started asking people for directions.