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AUTHORITIES ARE INVESTIGATING whether several bodies found in clandestine graves in southern Mexico are those of 43 students who disappeared after a deadly police shooting last week.
The pits were found Saturday on a hill in a community outside Iguala, the town where the students were last seen and where witnesses say municipal police officers whisked several of them away.
Inaky Blanco, chief prosecutor for the violence-plagued state of Guerrero, declined to say how many bodies were buried in the pits outside Iguala, 200 km south of Mexico City.
“We still can’t talk about an exact number of bodies. We are still working at the site,” Blanco told a news conference in the state capital, Chilpancingo.
But two police officers at the scene in the community of Pueblo Viejo told said that at least 15 bodies were exhumed from the site, which was cordoned off and guarded by scores of troops and police.
Juan Lopez Villanueva, an official from the National Human Rights Commission, said that six pits were found up a steep hill probably inaccessible by car.
Four forensic services vans left for the morgue late Thursday carrying bodies in silver bags. Authorities are conducting DNA analysis to identify the victims.
The graves were found after some of the 30 suspects detained in the case told authorities about their location, Blanco said. The detainees include 22 police officers and gang members.
If the students are in those pits, it would be one of the worst slaughters that Mexico has witnessed since the drug war intensified in 2006, leaving 80,000 people dead to date.
The students from a teacher training college disappeared last weekend after Iguala police officers shot at buses that the group had seized to return home after holding fundraising activities on 26 September. Three students were killed.
Another three people died when police and suspected gang members shot at another bus carrying football players on the outskirts of town.
A survivor said in an interview that the officers took away 30 to 40 students in patrol cars.
Blanco said investigators had confirmed suspicions that a criminal organization, the Guerreros Unidos, was involved in last week’s crimes and that local police officers belong to the gang.
Authorities have issue an arrest warrant for Iguala’s mayor, who has fled.
‘Savagely massacred’
Governor Angel Aguirre appealed for calm in his state, which is mired in poverty, gang violence and social unrest.
“I call on all (Guerrero state residents) to maintain harmony, non-confrontation, and avoid violence,” he said, offering his support to the families of those who were “savagely massacred.”
The missing students are from a teacher training college near Chilpancingo known as a hotbed of protests.
Thousands of students and teachers blocked the highway between Chilpancingo and Acapulco for hours on Thursday, demanding help from federal authorities to find the missing.
The police’s links to organized crime has raised fears about the fate of the students in a country where drug cartels regularly hide bodies in mass graves.
Around 30 bodies were found in mass graves in Iguala alone this year.
“We are very worried. The families are very anxious,” said Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing relatives of the missing.
The United Nations has called the case “one of the most terrible events of recent times.”
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$kum . If caught, Send their parents the bill, or take it out of their dole. Would stop fairly quickly
@DMurph: I was listening to a radio show a couple of days ago, and apparently your not allowed to call them $cum anymore, they would prefer if you would refer to them as children under conflict.
It’s not the kids fault, they had tough upbringings.
….blah, blah, blah
@DMurph: …because the children of middle class families are little angels.
@Matt Connolly: you are the first to mention class.
@DMurph: How do you know they are the kids of the unemployed, have you given the info to the Gardai as you seem to know quite well who the kids are? Children of employed people can be skum too.
Skobes will be skobes
Would a curfew be a solution,imposed on children of a school going age ,with financial liability for any damage done put on the parent /parents,?civil liberty comes with civic responsibility.
It’s worth noting that this a lovely area to live generally, with great amenities and close to town. It has become more settled in the last number of years and a home to many new, young families. Therefore it is crucial that this recent spate of arson is dealt with so that we can all return to enjoying the community we live in. Also, locals have been very supportive since the fire and have volunteered their time to the home owner to help her with repairs to her home. A great testament to community spirit in the midst of this very challenging and upsetting behaviour!
Zero tolerance is whats need in this country now if it can be done in N.Y it can be done here!
The bin companies have a role in this particular risk, in requiring that bins be out before 6 am, which leads to putting them out overnight.
Not alone are they a fire risk, but also a footpath obstruction for prams, wheelchairs & sight handicapped persons.
Also, bin day should also be a no parking day, so that the trucks, & other services can clear gutters, drains, & the bins placed off the paths.
Pyromania is an early indication of a sociopath,I do hope it’s not youngsters,what will they develop into ?The Gaurds should have a free rein,and all the resources necessary to bring these people to book ,and the judiciary be given the powers to impose long sentences on them. The one good thing to come out of this incident is that the community gave support to the victim and only the community can cough the perps up.
Sc00mbags
The new bollards erected to cut off traffic between Millbourne and Millmount Ave travelling to Ferguson and Walsh road is going to encourage more anti social behaviour with less traffic in the area to deter these youths from running riot……
Nightmare store of loons who are criminal and will become worse as they get older?
Locals have a very good idea about who is committing these acts, they’ve have been at it for over two years now. Most of the people who live there have been made aware that this is a bad bad sign for things to come. Guards say there is little they can do. With what I hear about the traffic changes there, its going to go only one way with these young people. While Drumcondra is a good place to live, its actions like this, that made me happy when my youngsters moved.
have your say