Conflicts between police and college students protesting local gang corruption in a rural Mexican town led to a discovery of a mass grave and 43 missing citizens. The mayor of Iguala has been ordered arrested by the Mexico government for ordering an attack on the students, which left six dead.
Along with Iguala’s mayor Jose Luis Abarca listed as a “probable suspect” in the case, his wife and an aide are also charged with putting the September attack in motion. Police and parents of the missing students have been searching for the students, with many rallying under the “#HastaEncontrarlos” slogan, which means “Until They Are Found.”
Thus far, Mexican officials have not been able to find any evidence leading to the missing students, who all disappeared on September 26. On Wednesday, the Iguala city hall was set ablaze by outraged supporters of the missing.
CNN has more:
Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam said Wednesday his office has issued arrest warrants for former Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca; his wife, Maria de los Ángeles Pineda Villa; and the city’s former public safety director, Felipe Flores Velásquez. Murillo said they are considered “probable masterminds” of events that occurred in Iguala on September 26.
According to the attorney general, on that day, a group of students from a teachers college in the nearby town of Ayotzinapa were on their way to stage a protest in Iguala. When the former mayor and his wife learned the protest would disrupt an event led by the mayor’s wife, they gave orders to their public safety director to send police forces to prevent the students from protesting.
“The order to confront those people came from the police department’s command center, straight from A-5, code name used to identify the Iguala mayor,” Murillo said. The attorney general also said his office learned this information from interrogations of police officers and gang members detained in the last month who were allegedly involved in the incident.
Since the incident, 53 people have been arrested, including 36 officers and 17 gang members.
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Photo: BBC News
