Mexican mayor and wife wanted over disappearance of 43 students

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Mexican mayor and wife wanted over disappearance of 43 students

Students went missing from Iguala in the south-western state of Guerrero after clashing with police in September

Reuters in Mexico City
The Guardian, Thursday 23 October 2014 03.42 EDT

A Mexican mayor and his wife were the “probable masterminds” behind the disappearance of 43 student teachers last month, the country’s attorney general has said as he issued arrest warrants for the pair.
The students went missing on 26 September from Iguala in the south-western state of Guerrero after they clashed with police. The incident sent shockwaves across Mexico and undermined President Enrique Peña Nieto’s claims that Mexico is getting safer under his watch.

So far, federal authorities have arrested 52 people in connection with the incident, including dozens of police with links to a gang called Guerreros Unidos, or United Warriors. The gang’s leader, Sidronio Casarrubias, was caught last week.

Thousands marched in Iguala on Wednesday to protest against the disappearance of the student teachers. After the march, masked men set fire to the municipal offices with Molotov cocktails and smashed the windows.

In Mexico City, the attorney general, Jesus Murillo, said Casarrubias had told prosecutors that Iguala mayor, José Luis Abarca, and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda, had ordered two local police forces to stop the students from disrupting a political event that day.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/23/mexican-mayor-disappearance-students-iguala

[Hissyspit]

2. Jesus Christ.

They're like some incompetent cartoon villains in a movie.

[lunasun]

3. This whole story has to come out and more people arrested.

[Grins]

4. Abuse by government has been a problem for a century...

...and another reason Mexicans choose to "vote with their feet" and cross the border into the U.S.

It's not a border fence we need. It's pressure on Mexico's central government to govern fairly and decently.

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. This is shining a spotlight on the sordid connections between officials and organized crime.

I just read, I think in the AP, that Guerrero Unidos was paying the mayor $150,000 to $200,000 every few weeks. The local cops basically worked for the cartel.

In Mexico, it seems like some things never change.