Search for 43 Students Turns Up 129 Other Bodies

None of them are believed to be the missing Mexican students
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 27, 2015 5:38 AM CDT
Search for 43 Students Turns Up 129 Bodies
A woman shows a hand painted red in front of a banner that says "Justice for Ayotzinapa" during a march of relatives of the 43 missing students yesterday.   (Marco Ugarte)

The search for 43 missing college students in the southern state of Guerrero has turned up at least 60 clandestine graves and 129 bodies over the last 10 months, Mexico's attorney general's office says. None of the remains has been connected to the student teachers who disappeared after a clash with police in the city of Iguala on Sept. 26, and authorities don't believe any will be. Prosecutors say the students were turned over to a drug gang that killed them and incinerated their bodies in a case that has put attention on the huge number of people who have gone missing in Guerrero and other Mexican states where drug violence is widespread.

The number of bodies and graves found from October to May could possibly be higher than in its report, the attorney general's office says, because its response to a freedom-of-information request from the AP covers only those instances in which its mass grave specialists got involved. More than 20,000 people are listed as missing across Mexico, and there are many "disappeared" in Guerrero, a state that is a major opium producer and the battleground among several cartels warring over territory and drug-smuggling routes. (Three prison employees have been charged with helping cartel boss Joaquin Guzman escape.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X