43 Mexican students likely 'burned to ashes by gang': Grisly details of mass murder
Forty-three Mexican students who went missing six weeks ago were likely abducted by police and handed over to a local gang who murdered them and burned their bodies, Mexico’s attorney general said Friday.
Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said three members of the Guerreros Unidos gang were apprehended last week and confessed to burning a number of bodies near Iguala in the Guerrero state in an effort to remove evidence of the killings.
READ MORE: Mexico’s missing students: New mass grave uncovered
"They didn't just burn the bodies with their clothes, they
also burned the clothes of those who participated," Karam
told a news conference. "They tried to erase every possible
trace."
"I know the huge pain this information gives the families, a
pain that we all share in solidarity," he added.
The victims were young male students from an all-male liberal
college in rural Ayotzinapa. On September 26, the students
arrived in the city of Iguala where they planned to stage a
protest over a lack of government education spending. Following a
clash with police, 43 members of the group disappeared.
Karam presented videotaped confessions by the murder suspects
that included a segment showing charred bits of bone and teeth
dragged from the San Juan River in Cocula, a town near Iguala.
Authorities announced Friday they had discovered six bags of
unidentified human remains along the river’s bank.
In a telling testament to the violence now proliferating in
Mexico, the district attorney noted that human remains found in
hidden graves after the students went missing
were not those of the 43 young men.
Karam said the abductors questioned the students about their
alleged membership in other gangs, adding there was no evidence
to support the claim the missing students were involved in gang
activity.
The attorney general said the government was carrying out DNA
tests to confirm the identity of the bodies, a process that he
said “will be a challenge” due to the badly burned
fragments available to forensic experts. The remains would be
delivered to the University of Innsbruck in Austria for
concluding DNA identification, he added.
"I have to identify, to do everything in my power, to
identify, to know if these were the students," Murillo said.
Meanwhile, more details are emerging in the shocking story that
has stunned Mexico, a country that is no stranger to violence,
much of it drug-related.
This week, authorities arrested Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca,
who is believed to have ordered the abduction of the students,
and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda. Investigators say the
mayor ordered his police chief Felipe Flores Velasquez, who
remains a fugitive, to prevent the student protest in the city.
To date, 74 people have been arrested in connection to the case,
authorities said.
Meanwhile, the parents of the 43 students have been highly
critical of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who they say
didn’t do enough to track down their missing children. The
lingering frustration after weeks of failed efforts to find the
students has fueled protests and even violence across the
country. This week, thousands of demonstrators marched on the
capital, Mexico City, to protest the government’s response to the
incident.
READ MORE: Furious students burn Mexican govt. building in protest over police corruption
Peña Nieto, who was elected two years ago after pledging to
tackle gang-related violence, promised that justice would be
served.
"The investigations will be carried out to the full, all
those responsible will be punished under the law," he said.
"The capture of those who ordered it isn't enough; we will
arrest everyone who participated in these abominable
crimes."
About 100,000 people in Mexico have lost their lives in violence
related to organized crime since 2007.
