MEXICO CITY — Tests have identified the remains of one of 43 trainee teachers abducted 10 weeks ago in southwestern Mexico, a source close to the investigation said on Saturday, apparently confirming a feared massacre the government has blamed on drug gang henchmen.
The brazen attack has sent shockwaves through Mexico, shining a spotlight on the nexus between impunity, corruption and drug gangs that has blighted Latin America's No.2 economy for years. President Enrique Pena Nieto is facing his deepest crisis over his government's handling of the probe. The government says the students were murdered and incinerated, their remains then tipped into a garbage dump and a river.
Thousands marched in Mexico City on Saturday evening, chanting "Out Pena" and "They were taken alive, we want them alive."
"If these disappearances and executions have grown over the years, it is because the authorities have permitted this to happen," said Itzel Silva, a 38-year-old human rights lawyer. "People are fed up with impunity." The source close to the investigation said that Argentine forensic experts working in Mexico had told the family of the identified trainee teacher.
The students were abducted by corrupt police on Sept. 26 during a demonstration in the town of Iguala in the southwestern state of Guerrero, and handed over to a drug gang, the attorney general has said.
IN-DEPTH
- Mexican President Submits Police Reform Bill
- Mexico Massacre Protest Turns Violent as Thousands Take to Streets
- Mexican Officials Detail Horrific Ordeal for Missing Students