IGUALA, Mexico, (Reuters) – Bodies found in mass graves in southwestern Mexico are feared to be those of students who went missing last month after they clashed with corrupt local police, authorities said yesterday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, local officials said that at least 34 bodies had been buried at the site.
While federal investigators, police and the army continued to pull human remains out of the plot of broken land on the outskirts of the city of Iguala, families of 43 missing students were set to stage a fresh protest to demand information on the whereabouts of their loved ones.
As dogs wandered about a rough dirt track petering out into the sierra, security officials said they believed the victims had been driven to the end of the track, walked up the hillside, executed and buried in six graves.
Police infiltrated by local drug cartels are suspected of abducting some of the students, a local security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“You really can’t call them police,” the official said, standing on the hillside above Iguala.
The security official said suspected gang members had told investigators that police had handed over the students to the people who killed them, who belonged to the gang. The suspected gang members had also helped the authorities identify the site, the security official said.
