Investigation Into 43 Missing Ayotzinapa Students Deeply Flawed, Evidence Review Finds Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein - Reuters
go to original September 4, 2015

Ayotzinapa Mexico: Parents of 43 Disappeared Students Seek Meeting with Pope (Democracy Now/Alex Vogager)

Mexico's investigation into the abduction and apparent massacre of 43 students last year is plagued with errors and omissions with key parts needing to be redone, a Reuters review of the evidence shows.

The government says its investigation is thorough, and proves the students were murdered by a drug cartel in league with corrupt local police who mistook them for members of a rival gang and burned them to ashes at a rural garbage dump.

But evidence of flaws in case documents reviewed by Reuters show how municipal and federal police, and the army knew of the students' movements before they were abducted in the south-western city of Iguala last September.

Lawyers familiar with the case documents also said the government's team had lost evidence, did not properly investigate all leads, and failed to provide scientific proof to back up its account that the students were abducted and incinerated and their remains dumped in a river.

The claim undermines the government's assertion that local police confused the students with members of a criminal group called Los Rojos (The Reds), rivals of the Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors) gang that it says murdered them.

Lawyers also found a host of problems and say authorities cut corners because they were in a hurry the close the case, which drew international criticism.

Read the rest at Yahoo News

Related: Inter-American Commission to Present Report on Ayotzinapa Teachers (Prensa Latina)

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