Parents of Missing Mexican Students Ask Local Drug Gang for Help in Search Suman Varandani - International Business Times
go to original April 2, 2015

As Mexico passes the six-month anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students, its citizens remain furious at the progress of the investigation. Produced by Nathan Frandino. (Reuters)

Some of the parents of the 43 Mexican students missing since Sept. 26 last year are now seeking assistance from the leader of a drug gang to find out what happened to their sons, the Associated Press reported.

The case of the college students - who disappeared after a confrontation with local police in the Guerrero state and are believed to have been handed over to drug gang Guerreros Unidos -- has become a national symbol of the depth of corruption inherent in the country's war on drug cartels. While the federal government has maintained that a local drug gang likely killed the students and incinerated their bodies, relatives of the missing students have rejected the government's account. They suspect that the army may also have been involved in the disappearance, according to media reports.

This week, several relatives hung banners in the city of Iguala, seeking help from Santiago Mazari Hernandez, the alleged leader of the Reds gang, a rival of Guerreros Unidos, AP reported. In February, the Reds claimed that the gang had nothing to do with the students' disappearance and said that their leader was open to meeting with relatives to talk about the case.

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"Mr. Santiago Mazari... we ask you to please help us find the whereabouts of our sons, because this bad government has not been serious with us. To the contrary, it has hurt us with its lies. We are poor people, and they have stepped on our dignity," the parents wrote in a message presented on a highway in the state of Guerrero. (Edgar de Jesús Espinoza)

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