WORLD
Mexico says missing students likely burned to ashes by gang
Forty-three missing students abducted by corrupt police in southwest Mexico six weeks ago were apparently incinerated by drug gang henchmen and their remains tipped in a garbage dump and a river, the government said on Friday.
Attorney General Jesus Murillo said three detainees, caught a week ago, admitted setting fire to a group of bodies in a dump near Iguala in the state of Guerrero, where the trainee teachers went missing on Sept. 26 after clashing with local police.
Then, the perpetrators set about removing all the evidence, Murillo told a news conference, showing taped confessions of the detained, photographs of where remains were found and video re-enactments of how the bodies were moved.
The government says police working with a local drug gang abducted the students after the clashes. The kidnapping triggered mass protests in much of the country and seriously undermined President Enrique Pena Nieto's claims that Mexico has become safer on his watch.
The disappearances have been the toughest challenge yet to face Pena Nieto, who took office two years ago vowing to restore order in Mexico, where about 100,000 people have died in violence linked to organized crime since 2007.
Teeth of victims found at the scene were so badly burned that they virtually turned to dust upon contact, Murillo said, adding that the remains would be sent to the University of Innsbruck in Austria for final DNA identification.
The government would continue to view the students as missing until their identities are confirmed, he added.
The case has dented Pena Nieto's popularity and derailed his efforts to turn public attention toward a string of reforms he passed in the first part of his government, which he hopes will spur stronger growth in Mexico's misfiring economy.