News / Mexico

Mexicans protest govt. response to massacre of students

Wednesday, 27 April 2016 4:37 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 27 April 2016 8:48 AM ]

People protest against the government's investigation into massacre of 43 students in Mexico City, April 26, 2016. ©AFP

Thousands of people have staged a demonstration in the Mexican capital to express their outrage at the government’s response to the massacre of 43 students in 2014.

Some 2,000 protesters, including parents and relatives of the victims, gathered in Mexico City on Tuesday, carrying small torches as well as black and white photos of the 43 students.

The students disappeared on September 26, 2014, after participating in a protest in the southwestern city of Iguala, Guerrero State.

The Mexican government says the missing students were kidnapped by corrupt municipal policemen and handed over to the local drug gang Guerreros Unidos.

The gang apparently massacred them and burned their bodies at a garage dump, and dropped their remains in a nearby river, a government investigation concluded.

Relatives of the victims, however, dismissed the government version of the incident.

A group of international experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) cast doubt on the government’s account of the incident in a number of reports.

In a report on Sunday, the panel said the government’s stonewalling stopped them from reaching the truth.

The parents of 43 missing students hold their portraits and torches during a protest in Mexico City on April 26, 2016. ©AFP

The panel also dismissed the government’s narrative of the incident and criticized its investigation, saying there is no evidence that the 43 students were incinerated at the dump.

Mexican authorities have repeatedly blocked the panel's efforts to search and obtain evidence and the experts were not allowed to re-interview prisoners held for committing the crime.

The panel said the claim that the students had been burned is scientifically impossible taking into account the heat needed to reduce human remains to ash.

It said the remains of only one student were fully identified after they were found in a nearby river.

Also on Tuesday, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the international panel’s recent report that complains about challenges and obstacles in their investigation, including their ability to investigate government and military officials.

The UN agency’s spokesman Rupert Colville urged Mexico to "take into serious consideration" the recommendations of the experts as "there's clearly much more to be done and the final resolution of the case doesn't appear to be that close."

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