A student from a rural teachers college in Mexico was shot and killed by police officers on Thursday night in the western part of the country. This incident occurred during a period of heightened tension between the government and the students at the college, which has ties to a tragic event in Mexico’s recent past.
The shooting took place in Guerrero state after state police officers attempted to stop a stolen white pickup truck and were met with gunfire. According to state authorities, during the ensuing shootout, Yanqui Kothan Gómez Peralta, 23, was shot in the head by the police and later died in a hospital. Another individual in the truck was arrested, and a firearm and drugs were discovered in the vehicle.
Ludwig Reynoso, the Guerrero state secretary general, stated that Mr. Gómez Peralta was a student at the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, a teachers college known for its history of activism and social protest.
In 2014, a group of 43 students from the same school were attacked by gunmen, including local police officers who were reportedly under the influence of local drug traffickers. The students were abducted and remain missing to this day, with only three bodies officially identified a decade later.
The teachers college condemned the police actions in the recent encounter with the pickup truck, suggesting it was an unwarranted attack. The school stated, “We hold the state government directly responsible for the armed attack.”
State officials expressed regret over the killing but explained that the officers were responding to a reported crime.
René Posselt, a spokesman for the Guerrero state government, stated, “There is no attack on a student, since we didn’t know he was a student, but on a person who was driving a vehicle with a theft report and didn’t stop at the request of the authorities.”
The death of Mr. Gómez Peralta occurred following a protest by demonstrators demanding answers about the missing students. The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, referred to the protest as a provocation.
After Mr. Gómez Peralta’s death, students from the teachers college staged a protest in the state’s capital, setting fire to a police vehicle. José Filiberto Velázquez, a local minister and human rights group director, disputed the official account of the incident.
Mr. Velázquez labeled the killing as an extrajudicial execution and criticized the use of excessive force by state authorities in Guerrero. Santiago Aguirre, the lead lawyer representing the missing students’ families, called for a thorough and unbiased investigation into the incident.
President López Obrador expressed concern over the killing and pledged a comprehensive investigation. He reiterated his commitment to uncovering the truth about the missing students.
The teachers college and the families of the missing students have criticized the government’s handling of the investigation. Last year, an international panel investigating the abduction of the students ended its inquiry, citing deception by the Mexican armed forces regarding their involvement in the crime.
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