A decade later, Mexico's Ayotzinapa victims still search for truth and justice

Relatives of the students who went missing from Ayotzinapa rural teacher-training school on September 26, 2014, leave the National Palace after a meeting with Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who had earlier promised to resolve the case and then defended the armed forces accused by the foreign investigators and lawyers for the parents of the victims, of playing a role in the events, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the disappearance in Mexico City, Mexico, August 27, 2024. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/File Photo

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ten years ago, Edgar Vargas' life forever changed when he was shot in the face in one of Mexico's most notorious cases of mass violence in recent memory: the attack and disappearance of 43 students from the rural teacher-training school of Ayotzinapa.

A bullet pierced Vargas' jaw on the night of Sept. 26, 2014, as he tried to help his classmates trapped in a bus being shot at by gunmen. Vargas, then 19, survived by crawling along the road until he found shelter, though he was left with deep physical and emotional scars.