Can a country restore trust after students disappear? Mexico takes responsibility.

For eight years, the families of 43 students who went missing in September 2014 have been clear about who they believe is responsible for the crime: “Fue el estado.” (“It was the state.”) The phrase is regularly featured on banners at public demonstrations and graffitied across streets and buildings in Mexico.

This month, a government official for the first time publicly agreed, labeling the haunting disappearances “a state crime.”

In the days following that announcement, former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam was arrested for his role in the initial investigation. At least another 80 arrest warrants have been issued for government officials – from local police to soldiers – and gang members implicated in the case.

And just last week, Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who heads up the case’s truth