I Couldn't Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us. John Gibler

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 even 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.

      “Hey, you, excuse me, sir: Is this the way to Chilpo?”

      “Yeah, keep going straight.”

      COYUCO BARRIENTOS, 21, FRESHMAN. And so a municipal police squad truck pulled up and cut us off just at the zócalo. The police officers in the back all