Disappearances, Deaths of Leftist Mexican Students Spark Federal Investigation

Responding to the discovery of a mass grave thought to contain the bodies of dozens of students who were attacked by local police last month, Mexican federal agents on Monday were dispatched to the city of Iguala in southern Guerrero state to investigate the scene.

On September 26, two busloads of students from a local teachers college, the Raúl Isidro Burgos Ayotzinapa Normal School, were attacked. According to surviving students who were interviewed by VICE News, local Iguala police and other armed men “surrounded and confronted the buses on the outskirts of Iguala,” and opened fire.

After the gunfire, six students were dead and dozens of the survivors fled the scene or were detained; forty-three have been declared missing. On October 5, authorities said they had discovered mass graves containing the burned remnants of “at least” 28 bodies thought to be the missing students. However, proper identification through genetic testing could take up to two months, say officials.

President Enrique Peña Nieto called the deaths “outrageous, painful and unacceptable” and said that he had ordered a newly created preventative unit of the federal security forces to take over security in the city, “find out what happened and apply the full extent of the law to those responsible.”

Charged with keeping “law and order” in the city of 140,000, the paramilitary-like forces and convoys of Army trucks are now patrolling the streets of Iguala, while federal soldiers man checkpoints.

According to the Associated Press, “The Guerrero state prosecutor Iñaky Blanco said there was no known motive for the attack, but officials have alleged that local police were in league with a gang called the Guerreros Unidos.” Twenty-two officers from the Iguala force have reportedly been detained.

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT