January 23: the Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish acronym) in the Ayotzinapa case, denies concealing information from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) and the relatives of the 43 students disappeared from Ayotzinapa in 2014.

January 26: despite the difficulties encountered in the investigation to find their children, the parents of the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa continue their search and their demand for justice and truth. Six months after suspending dialogue with the government, they declare that next February 9 they will meet with the government.

February 5: The Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center denounces the escalation of the unstopable violence that is being experienced in the state of Guerrero “where visible power is absent and moreover complicit with criminality.”

February 6: the Council of Damaged Communities of La Montaña (CCDM in its Spanish acronym) calls for a massive mobilization in Tlapa de Comonfort “given [the] fault of the authorities to guarantee basic rights in the mountain of Guerrero” more than three years after the devastation of Hurricane Ingrid and Storm Manuel.

March 2: in the city of Altamirano, the journalist Cecilio Pineda is shot dead. Pineda was 38 years old and was the director of the newspaper La Voz de la Tierra Caliente and a contributor to El Universal newspaper.

March 17: 30 months after the disappearance of the 43 student teachers of Ayotzinapa, a hearing is held within the framework of the 161st regular session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to monitor the progress of the follow-up mechanism to the recommendations of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE).

March 28: in Guerrero, one of the most violent states in Mexico and also one of the most militarized, a forum on militarization entitled “Security or human rights: a false dichotomy” is held during which civil organizations, victims, representatives from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico defend different reasons for rejecting the initiative of the Internal Security Law.

April 17: the parents of he 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa consider not to attend meetings with the PGR and the IACHR because of the statements made by the undersecretary Roberto Campa Cifrian affirming that the main line of investigation continues to be the incineration of the student teachers at the garbage dump of Cocula, although this hypothesis was scientifically denied by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE).

April 19: the Me’phaa Indigenous Agrarian Community of San Miguel del Progreso calls for injunction 429/2016 to be resolved in accordance with the highest international standards regarding the collective rights of indigenous peoples and not to allow mining concessions to be obtained from the highest bidder, whether national or international, in over 80% of the territory of San Miguel del Progreso.

April 19 to 21: On its second official visit to Mexico, the Follow-up Mechanism on the Ayotzinapa case notes “the lack of speed in reaching conclusions, both in the search activities and in the effective clarification of the different lines of investigation indicated by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI)”.

April 20: the parents of the 43 disappeared students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa go on demanding that the authorities reveal their children’s whereabouts with a march in Mexico City where they start an indefinite sit-in.

April 25: relatives of the 43 student teachers from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa are violently evicted by the Federal Police from the facilities of the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) with tear gas cannisters while they were waiting to be met by the Secretary of the Interior, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.

May 13: seven journalists are ambushed and stripped of their work equipment, cell phones and one of their units by a group of about 100 armed men.

June 3: Marcela de Jesus Natalia, an indigenous Amuzga native of Xochistlahuaca and reporter with Guerrero Radio and Television (RTG in its Spanish acronym), is shot and seriously injured by a bullet.

June 4: a chase and fighting between groups of armed civilians and state police in Tixtla leaves a toll of two dead civilians, and various injured.

June 9: For the seventh time in four years, Ezequiel Flores Contreras, the correspondent of Proceso in Guerrero, is victim of intimidation by unknown and allegedly armed individuals.

June 10 and 11: the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres gets the local government to recognize their right to choose authorities according to traditions and customs and form their own communitarian government which will take office in July 2018.

June 12: the head of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI in its Spanish acronym), claims that the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center is implicated in misappropriation of public resources destined to indigenous communities of Guerrero Mountain, after the effects of the hurricanes Ingrid and Manuel in 2013. Tlachinollan denies these allegations and denounces slander and defamation against its members.

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June 18: families’ members of the 43 disappeared student teachers from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa and of 6 others that were murdered in that framework start a caravan in the South-Southeast of the Republic including Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas in their search and to demand justice.

From June 19 to 21: relatives of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa are repressed in the framework of the 47th OAS meeting in Cancun. On their way to Cancún, the bus that was transporting them is stopped by policemen in Puebla, Veracruz and Quintana Roo.

June 20: a Gender Violence Alert against Women (AVGM) is issued in eight municipalities in the state of Guerrero: Acapulco de Juarez, Ayutla de los Libres, Chilpancingo de los Bravos, Coyuca de Catalan, Iguala de la Independencia, Jose Azueta, Ometepec and Tlapa de Comonfort.

June 28: the Me’Phaa community of San Miguel del Progreso is granted an injunction (amparo), which establish their territory free for mining activity.

July 5: posible breaktrough in the Ayotzinapa Case, a small group of gunmen who are nicknamed “The Matanormalists” (the Student Teacher Killers) claim that they murdered and buried about twenty young presumed students between the night of the 26th and the morning of September 27th.

July 6: a riot between “opposing groups” for the internal control of Las Cruces prison in Acapulco leaves 28 people dead and three wounded. The National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH in its Spanish acronym) assumes the case and warns of the risk of torture in criminal prisons in Guerrero.

July 6: the Ayotzinapa hearing is held at the 163rd session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Lima, Peru. The IACHR expresses its concern about poor progress.

July 26: 34 months since the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, the mothers and fathers of the disappeared organize protests and demand the authorities to follow the four lines of investigation that would lead them to the whereabouts of their children: 1. the Mexican Army, 2. Huitzuco, 3. cell phones and 4. the transfer of drugs from Iguala to Chicago as a motive for the crime.

August 8 and 9: in the framework of the 23rd anniversary of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, the Forum on forced disappearance entitled “Against Pain and Fear: A Cry of Hope” takes place in Chilpancingo.

August 12: The Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center turns 23 and presents its XXIII report, “Guerrero: Sea of Struggles, Mountain of Illusions”.

August 24: three years after the femicide of the young Me’phaa, Florencia Sanchez Joaquin, in the municipality of Acatepec, the mother and sister of the victim receive precautionary measures from the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights Guerrero (CODEHUM), after receiving threats and damages to their property for demanding that this femicide does not go unpunished,

August 25: at 43 years of the forced disappearance of Rosendo Radilla Pacheco at the hands of members of the Mexican Army, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Prevention of Human Rights (CMDPDH) requests the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to cite to appear at 372 people as probable perpetrators, including former president Luis Echeverría Álvarez.

From August 28 to 30: the third visit of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the Ayotzinapa case is conducted to monitor compliance with the recommendations of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) investigation.

September 4: nearly a year after the murder of students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, Jonathan Morales Hernandez and Filimon Tacuba Castro, four people accused of the crime are sentenced to 60 years in prison.

September 11: the National Network of Civil Organisms for Human Rights “All Rights for All” (Red TDT in Spanish) announces the launch of an Alert for human rights defenders in Guerrero.

September 19 and 20: As the first action of said “alert”, a civil observation mission is carried out in Chilapa and Chilpancingo. They point out in their main conclusions that “the normalization of the military presence as well as forced displacement in different municipalities of the state of Guerrero is unacceptable”. They also ask “to guarantee the rights of victims, communities, individuals and organizations that defend human rights in the state”.

September 26: three years since the extrajudicial executions of six people and the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa, there is a mass and a silent march in Mexico City. Thousands of others also march in Chihuahua, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacan and Chiapas, among other states, to demand that impunity end in this case.

October 7 and 8: the National Meeting against the Mining Extractive Model is held in Malinaltepec with the participation of community and indigenous peoples leaders organized to defend their territories in Guerrero, Chiapas, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Mexico City and Peru.

14 and 15 of October: the XXII Anniversary of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities-Community Police (CRAC-PC) is celebrated in Colombia of Guadalupe, municipality of Malinaltepec.

October 24th: the third ex officio hearing for the Ayotzinapa case is held at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH in its Spanish acronym) in Montevideo (Uruguay). The CIDH declares that “the federal government has not wanted to solve it.”

November 7: The Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center denounces another false accusation of kidnapping against community officers of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC – PC in its Spanish acronym).

November 15th: El Sur reporter, Zacarias Cervantes, reports harrasment: he was stopped by about seven men, including at least one armed man, in downtown Chilpancingo who checked his car and took his cellphone.

December 14: Arturo Campos is declared innocent and released. Upon leaving prison he declares that he will fight for the freedom of his CRAC-PC compañeros who are still in prison.