BajaNomad - Remains of 43 students buried in mass grave found, ordered by mayor in Mexican town; thousands demand answers

Remains of 43 students buried in mass grave found, ordered by mayor in Mexican town; thousands demand answers

EnsenadaDr - 11-10-2014 at 10:42 AM

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tens of thousands of people marched down Mexico City's main boulevard Wednesday evening to protest the disappearance of 43 young people in the south of the country and demand the government find them.

Mexico: Mayor linked to deadly attack on students Associated Press
[$$] Mexico Police Detain Fugitive Mayor in Case of Missing Students The Wall Street Journal
Mexico: Burned remains probably are 43 missing Associated Press
Thousands Demand Return Of 43 Missing Students In Mexico Huffington Post
'Enough, I'm tired' comment from the Mayor suspected of kidnapping and killing college students rallies Mexico protest -Associated Press

The largely young crowd carried Mexican flags with black mourning bands replacing the red and green stripes, counting off the numbers from one to 43. Protesters also chanted: "They took them away alive, and alive we want them back."

In Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, groups of protesters angry about the government's inability to find the missing used hijacked trucks to block all three highways leading into the city for several hours.

The missing youths were enrolled at a rural teachers college in Guerrero who were taken away by police after a confrontation in the city of Iguala on Sept. 26.

Prosecutors say the students were later handed over to a drug gang, some of whose members have claimed to have killed the youths. But despite a widespread search, authorities have been unable to find any sign of the students.

Many of the parents of the missing youths joined the Mexico City protest march Wednesday, carrying hand-painted portraits of the young men.

View gallerythe mayor of the city of Iguala and his wife
FILE - In this May 8, 2014 file photo, the mayor of the city of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, right, and …
"The disappearance of the students has detonated all the accumulated pain of the thousands of disappeared people in this country," said Camila Bernal, a 19-year-old Chilean who is a communications student at Mexico's National Autonomous University.

The Mexican government estimates 22,322 people have disappeared since the start of the country's drug war in late 2006.

The 43 students have received far more attention than other disappeared, in part because allegedly corrupt police in Iguala so clearly played a role in their disappearance. Officers there are alleged to have worked for the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, which authorities charge had ties to the former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda.

The couple went on the lam shortly after the students disappeared. They were arrested by police in a raid Tuesday, hiding out in a gritty Mexico City slum.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said federal agents were tipped off to the couple's presence by trailing a female associate, Noemi Berumen, who apparently accompanied the couple or aided them in their flight from justice. Berumen was also detained in the raids.

View galleryChildren place candles next to six mock coffins
Children place candles next to six mock coffins, representing those who died in a police attack in G …
"The house they were found in looked as if it were abandoned," Murillo Karam said. "The reason we started to suspect this person (Berumen) ... was that she appeared to be entering an abandoned house."

Authorities have uncovered clandestine mass graves and the remains of 38 people during the search for the students, but none has been identified as one of the missing youths. Besides Tuesday's arrests, at least 56 other people have been taken into custody, and the Iguala police chief is also being sought.

Before they fled last month, the mayor and his wife ran Iguala like a fiefdom in cooperation with the Guerreros Unidos, officials say. Abarca allegedly received up to $220,000 every few weeks as bribe money and to pay off his corrupt police force.

The missing students attended a radical rural teachers college with a history of rowdy protests. They had gained the enmity of Abarca because of a previous demonstration in Iguala, Murillo Karam said. Abarca believed they planned to disrupt a speech by his wife, who aspired to succeed him as mayor, and he ordered police to detain the students after they hijacked four buses to provide transportation to a coming protest.

Three students were shot dead in the confrontation and later three bystanders were killed in a separate attack.

Police picked up the other 43 students and took them to the nearby town of Cocula, Murillo Karam said. At some point they were loaded aboard a dump truck and taken, apparently still alive, to an area on the outskirts of Iguala where some mass graves have been found, he said.

Detained gang leader Sidronio Casarrubias told authorities one of his lieutenants told him the students were sympathizers of a rival gang, the attorney general said.

In statements to the media soon after the disappearance, Abarca maintained he spent the evening of Sept. 26 dining out and said he ordered police to leave the students alone

Hook - 11-10-2014 at 11:35 AM

"Abarca believed they planned to disrupt a speech by his wife, who aspired to succeed him as mayor, and he ordered police to detain the students after they hijacked four buses to provide transportation to a coming protest."

Is this just a poorly written news article? I dont recall hearing about the students supposedly hijacking the four buses to attend a protest. Did they? Or is this just poorly written and the writer means that the police hijacked the buses with the students already on them?

Either way, this is a really big deal. I could see this growing into a huge movement.

Now comes word that the first lady was given a "loan" by a Chinese company that was just granted a 3.7 billion dollar contract by EPN's administration.

DENNIS - 11-10-2014 at 11:48 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/opinion/enrique-krauze-mex...

Hook - 11-10-2014 at 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/opinion/enrique-krauze-mex...

Well written article. I agree with him. This has the makings of becoming a watershed event.

This really isn't about the deficiencies of any politician or political party. It is just exemplary of a system that is completely corrupt and swallows everything; even the average worker who sees all this corruption above him and adopts these attitudes as the only way to make it in Mexico.

How much more can the nationals or we, as ex-pats, ignore?

I think my winter vacation plans are going to involve trips to Panama, Thailand and maybe Colombia or Ecuador. I have to start considering other alternatives to Mexico. The corruption is winning out. It possess too much money, to not win out.

My God, a few hundred thousand every few weeks. How can people raised amidst corruption resist that????? :no:

[Edited on 11-10-2014 by Hook]

EnsenadaDr - 11-10-2014 at 05:17 PM

Many businesses and governments are corrupt, it's a very healthy sign that the populace is starting to rear their heads and say enough is enough. I have to agree with you, that article by the New York Times correspondent evidently born in Mexico writes better than most Americans I have seen write editorials, and gives you true insight into the history of this travesty. Thank you Dennis for posting that exceptional article. Rafael Solorzano, a Mexican attorney posted a link that China has now cancelled a deal with Mexico, and it could be the link between the dirty hands of the Mayor's wife accepting a million dollar loan from the Chinese and at the same time being instrumental in the murders of young innocent college students. And all because the Mayor was afraid they would ruin her speech and give the Chinese a bad impression.

Quote:

Originally posted by Hook

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/opinion/enrique-krauze-mex...

[Edited on 11-10-2014 by Hook]

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by EnsenadaDr]

EnsenadaDr - 11-10-2014 at 05:36 PM

Looks like the article was translated from Spanish, so my accolades go to the translator.

Hook - 11-10-2014 at 06:04 PM

No, it wasnt the mayor of Iguala's wife that accepted the loan. It was EPNs wife that accepted the loan, according to other AP reports.

I probably shouldn't have mixed these two news reports into the original article of the post.

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by Hook]

EnsenadaDr - 11-10-2014 at 06:06 PM

Holy Mackerel!! What was the loan for? A national chain of Panda Expresses Mexico?

Quote:

Originally posted by Hook
No, it wasnt the mayor of Iguala's wife that accepted the loan. It was EPNs wife that accepted the loan, according to other AP reports.

I probably shouldn't have mixed these two news reports into the original article of the post.

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by Hook]

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by EnsenadaDr]

bajabuddha - 11-10-2014 at 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hook

How much more can the nationals or we, as ex-pats, ignore?

I think my winter vacation plans are going to involve trips to Panama, Thailand and maybe Colombia or Ecuador. I have to start considering other alternatives to Mexico. The corruption is winning out.

Señor Hook, you will not win out either, in any of the other Countries mentioned. Thailand is mititary-controlled, and Colombia or Ecuador? Really. I think what's 'winning out' is your mortality. We all (Baja Rats) come here, knowing we're in a different country, walking a knife-edge, and keeping the Third Eye alive, which in turn has kept us all alive; the Spirit of Adventure, and El Spiritu Baja. It ain't fair in Mexico. It ain't fair just about anywhere; I always like to ask, was it your mom or your dad that lied to you when they told you life was supposed to be fair?

Stories like this are everywhere, including 'Mississippi Burning', Freedom Riders, Nuns raped and killed, and we spend too much damned time ruminating horrors of corruption; Mexico is rife with it now, no doubt about it. This muck-raked sensationalistic story happened in the poorest, most strife-stricken area in southwest mainland Mexico that survives ONLY on Cartel monies, bribery and corruption.

This is what the journalistas want; to sell stories, to sell anxiety, TO SELL NEWSPRINT. Trouble is, there are a lot of addicts involved; addicts of drugs and corruption, and ADDICTS OF NEWS. You are fuelling their economy also. Glued to the TV, CNN, FAUX NEWS, PBS, you name it. Wringing hands, worrying, and your body producing pheromones making you addicted to their shows, your need for 'a news FIX' planted in your body.

Fine, find a safer place. La Baja may miss your pesos, but they'll still get mine. My 'senior position' has changed my habits in Baja, i'm not as 'bravo' as I used to be, but still, La Buena Vida, La Vida Loca, and Por Que Ch*nga No.

Hook - 11-10-2014 at 07:26 PM

In other words, you cant afford to move from Las Cruces or Baja. Well, maybe to Globe or Quartzite, AZ?

I can afford to leave Mexico.

Oh, wait a minute. Leaving Baja would mean you'd have to change your board name. OMG!!!

This story didnt need any muchraking or sensationalism. No, sadly, it didnt. It speaks for itself, with the military garrison just up the road and the state police and the National Gendarme, that allowed all this cartel involvement to go on, unnoticed.

Unnoticed, my AZZZ.

Mississippi Burning? Freedom Riders?? Geez, dude, that was 50 years ago.

America evolved. Mexico is devolving. You need to live down here, full time, to really feel it.

motoged - 11-10-2014 at 08:38 PM

Doc,
You should read more American editorials...and try and get your facts straight before pontificating your assumptive theories....

Your reading comprehension sucks...

MEXICO cancelled the deal....NOT China :

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/cancelled-crcc-contract-weighs-on-mexico-at-summit/article21525964/

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
..... that article by the New York Times correspondent evidently born in Mexico writes better than most Americans I have seen write editorials, and gives you true insight into the history of this travesty. Thank you Dennis for posting that exceptional article. Rafael Solorzano, a Mexican attorney posted a link that China has now cancelled a deal with Mexico, and it could be the link between the dirty hands of the Mayor's wife accepting a million dollar loan from the Chinese and at the same time being instrumental in the murders of young innocent college students. And all because the Mayor was afraid they would ruin her speech and give the Chinese a bad impression.

Quote:

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by EnsenadaDr]

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by motoged]

dtbushpilot - 11-10-2014 at 08:50 PM

You've got a "thing" for the Doc don't you ged... :spingrin:

motoged - 11-10-2014 at 08:56 PM

yeah....it's intuitive...

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by motoged]

EnsenadaDr - 11-10-2014 at 08:57 PM

Yes, initially though, China had grave doubts about the offer because the rapidly devaluing peso and fears that Mexico could not come through with the cash, which set the impetus for the withdrawal of the deal from EPN, who was insulted by the comparison of Mexico as being not as stable as the US and China. And also, Mexico withdrew because of an outcry of accusations of corruption from the 16 other companies worldwide, and one of Pena Nieto's shareholders gave his wife millions of dollars through Grupo Higa. Because the deal looked shady, EPN withdrew through public outcry. However, EPN is there now trying to smooth things over. There is always a cause and effect Motoged, your reasoning is overly simplistic but then again I don't criticize someone who just skims over a topic and doesn't scratch below the surface.

http://www.workforce.com/articles/20867-made-to-trade

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by EnsenadaDr]

bajabuddha - 11-10-2014 at 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hook
In other words, you cant afford to move from Las Cruces or Baja. Well, maybe to Globe or Quartzite, AZ?

I can afford to leave Mexico.

Oh, wait a minute. Leaving Baja would mean you'd have to change your board name. OMG!!!

This story didnt need any muchraking or sensationalism. No, sadly, it didnt. It speaks for itself, with the military garrison just up the road and the state police and the National Gendarme, that allowed all this cartel involvement to go on, unnoticed.

Unnoticed, my AZZZ.

Mississippi Burning? Freedom Riders?? Geez, dude, that was 50 years ago.

America evolved. Mexico is devolving. You need to live down here, full time, to really feel it.

Hook, take your meds. 50 years ago was the exact same protest movement against the Establishment as what is happening in your arguments.

Quartzite ain't too bad if you can't handle Baja any more.

I've lived 50% of the time in Baja for many years, and I DO have an understanding. I know a lot of 'full-timers' who don't even speak a word of Spanish (other than Cerevza and Baño) so don't give me the "live here full-time BS"; that chit gets old as a tequila-bar verbal brawl of 'who's on first'. Your 'money' needs to find a new home, methinks.

Cisco - 11-10-2014 at 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Holy Mackerel!! What was the loan for? A national chain of Panda Expresses Mexico?

Quote:

[Edited on 11-11-2014 by EnsenadaDr]

Janene, that was not a lot of money by 'our' standards and we handle our corruption differently.

"The most pessimistic theory, or the closest we can think up, is that this is all part of a greater script in which certain truths about 9/11 will be revealed and then quickly a massive event will so engulf the world in chaos that it will be wiped down the memory hole, much like Donald Rumsfeld announcing that $2.3 trillion was missing from the US Department of Defense on September 10th, 2001.

The next day something blew up the accounting department of the Pentagon as well three towers in New York City and few spoke of it again."

I would be looking for the "massive event" to distract the masses from burning the gates at the Presidential Palace.

woody with a view - 11-11-2014 at 06:14 AM

Mexico doesn't stand a chance when the President is up to his eyeballs in graft!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-rail-bidder-owns-mexico...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The private home of President Enrique Pena Nieto was built and is registered under the name of a company connected to a controversial high-speed rail contract that he abruptly canceled last week, according to a report by a leading Mexican journalist.

The $7 million home on a 15,220-square-foot property in Mexico City's most exclusive neighborhood was built and is owned by Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, a company belonging to Grupo Higa, according the report published Sunday by Aristegui Noticias, website of journalist Carmen Aristegui.

Constructora Teya, another Grupo Higa company, was part of a Chinese-led consortium that received the $3.7 billion, Mexico-Queretaro high-speed rail contract, a project Pena Nieto showcased as part of his push to modernize transportation in the country. Opposition lawmakers criticized the rapid approval process that produced only one bidder as smacking of the insider favors long associated with Pena Nieto's political party, the institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The winning consortium included China Railway Construction Corp. and the Mexican firms Constructora y Edificadora GIA, GHP Infraestructura Mexicana, Prodemex and Constructora Teya.

A government statement released late Thursday said the bidding process will be reopened to give others a chance at the project.

According to the Aristegui article, the modern, all-white house with a lighting system to cast it in a variety of colors has never been declared by Pena Nieto in his disclosure statements. It says the disclosures of his wife, former actress Angelica Rivera, are confidential. The property is connected to a home owned by Rivera.

The article did not specify what laws if any are broken by the president using a house registered under another name.

Aristegui couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

The Office of the President issued a statement Sunday afternoon saying Rivera signed a contract to buy the house almost a year before Pena Nieto took office, independent of her husband. She had a down payment of 30 percent of the cost.

It notes that Rivera, a popular actress and singer, has the resources and is making payments to the builder, Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro. Once she has paid off the debt, the ownership of the house will be changed to Rivera's name, the statement said.

According to the Aristegui article, Grupo Higa and its affiliates were granted more than $8 billion pesos ($600 million) in construction projects in the state of Mexico when Pena Nieto was governor. Eolo Plus, an air-charter service owned by Grupo Higa, ferried Pena Nieto and other officials during his 2012 presidential campaign, while another Grupo Higa company printed campaign materials.

The article was also published Sunday by the investigative magazine Proceso.

Hook - 11-11-2014 at 09:02 AM

The actors change, but the story line remains the same, in Mexico.

EnsenadaDr - 11-11-2014 at 09:09 AM

Yes you are right Hook, however, this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Quote:

Originally posted by Hook
The actors change, but the story line remains the same, in Mexico.

motoged - 11-11-2014 at 12:24 PM

Woody,
Thanks for that link....it is one of the articles I was accused of "skimming" (" your reasoning is overly simplistic but then again I don't criticize someone who just skims over a topic and doesn't scratch below the surface." ).

It places the contract withdrawal in the lap of Mexico and NOT China !

I will continue to "scratch below the surface" and refrain from making stuff up... :biggrin:

EnsenadaDr - 11-11-2014 at 12:35 PM

Well, it looks like Mexico is putting the offer for a contract back in the lap of China again!! Glad we sorted that out Motoged, whew!!

Quote:

Originally posted by motoged
Woody,
Thanks for that link....it is one of the articles I was accused of "skimming" (" your reasoning is overly simplistic but then again I don't criticize someone who just skims over a topic and doesn't scratch below the surface." ).

It places the contract withdrawal in the lap of Mexico and NOT China !

I will continue to "scratch below the surface" and refrain from making stuff up... :biggrin:

woody with a view - 11-11-2014 at 05:26 PM

Ged, never stop scratching below the surface. When "something" comes up treat it well, amigo!

:light:

bajabuddha - 11-11-2014 at 06:24 PM

Yabut, if the surface itches, I scratch it anywayz. RASCA MI JUEVOS! :tumble:

Mulegena - 11-11-2014 at 07:09 PM

Back on topic:
It's not been proved nor disproved that these remains are those of the 43 missing students. I believe forensic studies were conducted by an Argentine forensic group.

Edited to correct my initial error in reporting of the forensics study.

[Edited on 11-12-2014 by Mulegena]

EnsenadaDr - 11-11-2014 at 07:16 PM

Austria? Can't Mexico do its own forensic studies? This story is getting crazier by the minute.

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulegena
Back on topic:
It's not been proved nor disproved that these remains are those of the 43 missing students. I believe forensic studies are being conducted in Austria as of this writing.

EnsenadaDr - 11-11-2014 at 07:22 PM

somebody posted a story that Mexico sent remains to Argentina and it has ruled out that the remains were the students.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/in-english/2014/mexico-guerrer...

Mulegena - 11-11-2014 at 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Austria? Can't Mexico do its own forensic studies? This story is getting crazier by the minute.

Quote:

Beg your pardon. Testing was not done in Austria, my error in reporting. Tests were done by an Argentine forensics team. I believe this is an elite group that were called upon to satisfy the grieving families of the 43 still-missing students.

Please see www.lopez-doriga.com and go to the Noticias Desticadas list on the right side of the home page. An article appears at the top of this list, c&p'd as it appears.
Publicado el 11 de Noviembre del 2014
24 de los 30 cuerpos encontrados no son de los jóvenes
Peritos argentinos corroboraron la versión de la Procuraduría General de la República, pues afirman que los cuerpos encontrados en las fosas de Iguala, no pertenecían a los normalistas desaparecidos.

El Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense recibió los resultados del laboratorio The Bode Technology Group, donde se afirma que 24 de los 30 cuerpos encontrados en las primeras fosas de Iguala, en la zona de Pueblo Viejo, no corresponden a ninguno de los jóvenes normalistas.

La PGR ha permitido que los peritos argentinos participen en la exhumación de los cuerpos, así como en la investigación de la identidad de ellos. Por su parte, los padres de los normalistas han manifestado en repetidas ocasiones que confían más en los resultados de los sudamericanos.

El equipo de los peritos argentinos también participa en la identificación de los cuerpos encontrados en las fosas de La Parota; además de recabar la evidencia que se pueda del basurero de Cocula y el Río San Juan, lugares que, de acuerdo a declaraciones, fueron ocupados para el asesinato y calcinación de los jóvenes.

Con información de El Universal

EnsenadaDr - 11-11-2014 at 07:46 PM

Thank you for the correction, Mulegena.

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulegena

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Austria? Can't Mexico do its own forensic studies? This story is getting crazier by the minute.

Quote:

mtgoat666 - 11-11-2014 at 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Thank you for the correction, Mulegena.

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulegena

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Austria? Can't Mexico do its own forensic studies? This story is getting crazier by the minute.

Quote:

Articles I read said the forensics team was brought in from Argentina.

Does it matter what country?

Mexico's elected leaders and career civil service should be ashamed of what they have let mexico become! Clean house of the dead wood!

monoloco - 11-11-2014 at 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mtgoat666

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Thank you for the correction, Mulegena.

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulegena

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Austria? Can't Mexico do its own forensic studies? This story is getting crazier by the minute.

Quote:

There wouldn't be anyone left.

EnsenadaDr - 11-11-2014 at 09:55 PM

Same could be said about the US Congress.

In the U.S. Congress .................

MrBillM - 11-12-2014 at 09:46 AM

Last week brought HOPE.

For CHANGE.

DENNIS - 11-12-2014 at 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mtgoat666

Mexico's elected leaders and career civil service should be ashamed of what they have let mexico become! Clean house of the dead wood!

It isn't the individuals. it's the system. Remove the "deadwood" individuals and it creates a vacuum that is filled automatically....immediately.
"Serpico" was a good movie, but...............

luv2fish - 11-12-2014 at 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by monoloco

Quote:

Originally posted by mtgoat666

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Thank you for the correction, Mulegena.

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulegena

Quote:

Originally posted by EnsenadaDr
Austria? Can't Mexico do its own forensic studies? This story is getting crazier by the minute.

Quote:

There wouldn't be anyone left.

Somebody posted on a different thread, " we'd have a thousand cops shooting at each other" If indeed they were to clean house. By all the protests and burning of government buildings, I think we're on the brink of a revolution. We even had a protest up in L.A. Hopefully things will change..

Change

bajaguy - 11-12-2014 at 11:03 AM

If things were to change, would the replacements be any better then what is there now??? Dennis is correct. it is the culture, that is all they know and it will probably never change

DENNIS - 11-12-2014 at 11:20 AM

"Power Corrupts." and this is more about power than money.

CHANGE

MrBillM - 11-12-2014 at 07:46 PM

Is over-rated.

Looking back from the Home-Stretch, the system has worked pretty well and life in the USA has been pretty Damned Good.

Admittedly, the BEST was the '50s, but the rest has been OK, too.

We "may" even survive the Kenyan Despotic Desperado. That's looking up in the last week.

motoged - 11-12-2014 at 09:59 PM

Mr. Bile,
Just crawl back into your racist hole in Off Topic... :barf:

bajabuddha - 11-12-2014 at 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by motoged
Mr. Bile,
Just crawl back into your racist hole in Off Topic... :barf:

TRIPLE DITTO.

Trolling should be left for catching fish, not smelling like one.

A Crawl for ALL

MrBillM - 11-15-2014 at 10:03 AM

We are Free to Crawl as we please.

Bringing a degree of cynical sanity and distinctive difference to each subject we wish to address.