Mass grave of Mexican students

[David Guyatt]

Where's a cop when you need them?

Out killing students in Mexico's continuing dreadful drug war, it seems...

Mexican parents wait for news of 43 missing students following mass graves discovery



President Enrique Peña Nieto replaces Iguala's entire police force with federal officers

DUNCAN TUCKER

GUADALAJARA

Sunday 12 October 2014

Mario Cesar Gonzalez found out that his son was in danger when he received a phone call from one of his classmates. They had been attacked in the state of Guerrero, in the south-west of Mexico. Mr Gonzalez immediately made the 11-hour journey to the town of Iguala, where the incident had occurred.

[B][B]"I arrived that morning. It was a really ugly situation and I felt shattered. Three students had been killed and several others were injured, some of them in a very grave condition," he told The Independent on Sunday.[/B][/B]
[B][B]In total, six civilians died and at least 25 were wounded. One student was found with the skin stripped from his face and his eyes gouged out. Another 43 remain unaccounted for, including Mr Gonzalez's 22-year-old son, Cesar Manuel, who was last seen being bundled into a police car.[/B][/B]
[B][B]The entire country, if not the world, watched with mounting horror and dread last week as investigators uncovered mass graves, one filled with 28 charred remains. Four more mass graves containing burned bodies were found on Thursday.[/B][/B]
[B][B]What happened is still unknown, but the students appeared to disappear after a confrontation with local police, many of whom are now under investigation. Meanwhile, the mayor of Iguala, where they were studying, has also vanished with his wife and security chief and is believed to be on the run.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"Unfortunately, we don't have the slightest idea where our children are," said Mr Gonzalez, a 49-year-old welder who lives in central Mexico with his wife and two daughters. "Making all the inquiries with the state and federal authorities has left me psychologically worn out."[/B][/B]
[B][B]The missing students' parents remain hopeful that their children are not among those found in the mass graves. Mr Gonzalez notes that many mass graves used by local drug cartels have been found in Guerrero. "We have complete faith that they're still alive, God willing," he added.[/B][/B]
[B][B]To date, 34 people have been arrested, including 22 Iguala police officers and several suspected members of the local drug gang Guerreros Unidos (Warriors United).[/B][/B]
[B][B]On Thursday, the mayor's brother-in-law, an alleged leader of Guerreros Unidos, was arrested.[/B][/B]
[B][B]The missing students are all young male adults from poor families across Mexico who were training to become teachers at Guerrero's Ayotzinapa training college, which has a history for left-wing activism.[/B][/B]
[B][B]On 26 September, they travelled to Iguala to fundraise for a campaign against new education laws. After commandeering three local buses to take them back to Ayotzinapa that evening, they were ambushed.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Some believe the students were targeted for their political beliefs. Others have suggested they may have angered the Guerreros Unidos gang by refusing to pay extortion money.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Mr Gonzalez said he had no idea why the students were attacked, but blamed the government for waiting eight days to launch an inquiry. "Those eight days were crucial to finding out where they took them," he said.[/B][/B]
[B][B]The abduction of the students and discovery of the mass graves provoked protests across Mexico. Tens of thousands marched in Mexico City and dozens of other states on Wednesday to condemn the attacks and show solidarity with the students. President Enrique Peña Nieto, who declared the attacks on the students as "outrageous, painful and unacceptable", has dismissed Iguala's entire police force and replaced them with federal officers.[/B][/B]
[B][B]When asked how confident he was that the government would find and punish those responsible, Mr Gonzalez replied, "On a scale of one to 10? Zero. But if they don't arrest them, then we're going to find them."[/B][/B]

[Magda Hassan]

Guerrero: don't forgive, don't forget

That's the "Palacio de Gobierno," the seat of the government in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, in flames late Monday afternoon. Behind these were flames that sear, not the flesh, but the soul.

On September 26, cops from the city of Iguala massacred students from a nearby heavily-indigenous rural teacher's college. Six people were killed, dozens wounded, and 43 students were arrested and vanished ... "disappeared."

Also vanished are Iguala's mayor, who told radio interviewers shortly before going on the lam that he knew nothing of the events until reading about it in the newspapers, since he had been at a dance that night; the mayor's wife, honoree at the festivities and sister to four former capos of the Beltrán Leyva cartel and founding leaders of its successor, Guerreros Unidos. Also not to be found were the owners of the main movie theater, the supermarket, the shopping mall, the jewelry store and many other Iguala businesses.

But that is not so surprising once you realize that one name appears time and again on title deeds and incorporation papers: namely and to wit, the name of hizzoner the mayor.

The chief of police is also gone, albeit he is not the same person as the mayor, only an accomplice. Also an accomplice is the governor of the state of Guerrero, who not only is not a fugitive, but refuses to resign his position. The picture above captures the reaction of a broad section of the population to his demural.

The Iguala massacre will go down in history with the Tlatelolco massacre of hundreds of students in 1968 as one of the greatest crimes of Mexico's rulers.

And the country's political class has followed its usual pattern of pretending nothing has happened: President Enrique Peña Nieto said it was a local matter and it took him nine days, until Monday October 6, before he could bring himself to take even a smidgen of responsibility, and that only after mass graves with the charred remains of 28 persons were found. He spoke again on Friday the 10th, two weeks after the massacre and after more clandestine graves were found. "En un Estado de Derecho no cabe la impunidad," he thundered, which means, "under the rule of law, there is no place for impunity."

He did not, however, explain what such idyllic clichés have to do with Mexico, as the mayor of Iguala --his whereabouts still unknown-- nevertheless managed to get a judge to issue an injunction against the mayor being arrested or questioned.

From my perch as co-host of an Atlanta Spanish-language talk radio show with a mostly Mexican audience, watching these events unfold over the past two-and-a-half weeks, has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. President Peña Nieto seems to think the whole thing can still be papered over with a few phrases promising to punish those responsible, now that his explanations of the division of responsibility between federal and state authorities has failed to satisfy.

But watching the TV news videos of the burning "Government Palace" only keeps pushing through my mind the ending of a song I first heard sometime in high school, nearly a half century ago.

Down on our knees we're begging you please,
We're sorry for the way you were driven.
There's no need to taunt just take what you want,
and we'll make amends, if we're living.
But away from the grounds the flames told the town
that only the dead are forgiven.
As they crumbled inside the ringing of revolution.
http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com.au/2014...chive.html

[Magda Hassan]

While the mayor and his wife were finally arrested with a few others who admitted to killing the students it is far from the justice which is needed. The underlying corruption is untouched and the big fish still swim. Now the state government palace has been torched by those protesting the murder of the students. Mexico is actually on the brink of revolution. Not sure if the students death will be the trigger. There are many simmering resentments in Mexican society but their deaths have triggered a huge response from a normally frightened and apathetically resigned populace.






An interesting film I saw recently and not unrelated to the death of the students and the role of corruption caused by illegal drugs is Narco Cultura http://narcoculture.com/ It is in English and gives a look into the Mexican songs, narcocorridos, which glorify the Narcos Drug Lord as some sort of Robin Hood (they are nothing like him but that is what some think) and the 'respectable' businesses which seek to capitalize on it but it is a lot more than that too. It looks at the lives of some who live in Juarez City on US border with El Paso on the US side and how they live with the drug war on the front line. Terrifying, sad, infuriating, tragic, human. It is on Netflix.

[Magda Hassan]

One reason Mexico is on the verge of revolution is because the Attorney General at a press conference about the murdered students haughtily dismissed, in the tradition of Marie Antoinette, the journalists and families legitimate questions by saying that he had had enough and was tired of the questions. This has resulted in a #YaMeCanse hashtag (Enough, I'm tired) on social media which trended to number one but has not been covered at all by the MSM as far as I can see. A media black out.

Mexican official's gaffe fuels protests in case of 43 missing students

Drug cartel members have purportedly confessed to killing students, burning their bodies

The Associated Press Posted: Nov 08, 2014 11:35 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 08, 2014 8:09 PM ET


A lack of answers from federal and local authorities concerning the disappearance and purported murder of 43 students near Iguala has sparked growing protests demanding accountability in the killings. (Marco Ugarte/Associated Press)



An off-the-cuff comment by Mexico's attorney general to cut off a news conference about the apparent killing of 43 missing college students has been taken up by protesters as a rallying cry against Mexico's corruption and drug trade-fuelled violence.

During the session that was televised live Friday, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam announced that two suspects had led authorities to trash bags believed to contain the incinerated remains of the slain students, who haven't been seen since being led away by police in the southwestern town of Iguala on Sept. 26.
This is the site, pictured on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, where according to investigators, drug gang members made 43 teachers college students disappear, piling their bodies like cord wood on a pyre that burned for 15 hours. (Alejandrino Gonzalez/Associated Press)

After an hour of speaking, Murillo Karam abruptly signalled for an end to questions by turning away from reporters and saying, "Ya me canse" a phrase meaning "Enough, I'm tired."

Within hours, the phrase became a hashtag linking messages on Twitter and other social networks. It continued to trend globally Saturday and began to emerge in graffiti, in political cartoons and in video messages posted to YouTube.

'I'm tired of corrupt politicians'

Many turned the phrase on the attorney general: "Enough, I'm tired of Murillo Karam," says one. Another asks: "If you're tired, why don't you resign?"
Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam says it will be challenging to get the DNA required to confirm the remains are those of the missing students. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)

Other people used it to vent their frustrations with messages such as "Enough, I'm tired of living in a narco state" or "Enough, I'm tired of corrupt politicians."
Mexicans have reacted with outrage to the disappearance of the students from a rural teachers college and a government response that has failed to fully explain what happened.
Investigators say Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, ordered police to confront the students, who had gone to Iguala to raise money and had commandeered passenger buses for their use. The couple reportedly feared the students would disrupt an event being led by the wife.

Police handed students to cartel

Iguala police fired on the students in two incidents, killing six people. Officers then allegedly turned over 43 arrested students to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, which is rumoured to have ties to the mayor's wife.
The former mayor of the town of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, left, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were arrested hiding out in a Mexico City slum last week. The pair have alleged ties to a drug cartel in Guerrero state. (The Associated Press)

At least 74 people have been arrested, including Abarca and his wife, who were found Tuesday hiding in a dilapidated home in a rough section of Mexico City.
Murillo Karam's press conference Friday included video of alleged cartel members confessing to the killings and telling of their roles in the murders, while another video showed hundreds of charred fragments of bone and teeth that had been dumped in and along the San Juan River in the neighbouring town of Cocula.
The taped confessions included graphic details of cartel members piling the students' bodies like cord wood on a pyre that burned for 15 hours and then wading into the ashes to pulverize, bag and dispose of remaining teeth and bones.

DNA testing difficult

The attorney general said the state of the remains will make it hard to say definitely whether they are the students.
"The high level of degradation caused by the fire in the remains make it very difficult to extract the DNA that will allow an identification," Murillo Karam said.
Relatives holding posters with images of the missing students march in protest in Guerrero. (Marco Ugarte/ Associated Press)

He said authorities were putting their last hope with a specialized laboratory in Austria. It is not known how long the process could take.
Manuel Martinez, a spokesman for the families, said the "YaMeCanse" rallying cry was proof that their demand for answers is gaining strength.
"The people are angered and I hope that they continue support us," he said Saturday.

'Vanished' Mexicans

Filmmaker Natalia Beristain was among hundreds of people posting YouTube videos tagged #YaMeCanse.

"Senor Murillo Karam, I, too, am tired," she said. "I'm tired of vanished Mexicans, of the killing of women, of the dead, of the decapitated, of the bodies hanging from bridges, of broken families, of mothers without children, of children without fathers."
"I am tired of the political class that has kidnapped my country, and of the class that corrupts, that lies, that kills," she added. "I, too, am tired."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mexican-off...-1.2828785

[Magda Hassan]

[David Guyatt]

Bravo. What they've down is impressive, but was also imperative for them. I hope they are allowed to continue on unhindered.

[Magda Hassan]

Bravo. What they've down is impressive, but was also imperative for them. I hope they are allowed to continue on unhindered.

I just hope they continue whether they are allowed to or not. They are just doing what should be done by the 'elected' officials anyway. Since they are too busy either collaborating with or hiding from drug cartels they have no legitimacy any longer.

[Magda Hassan]

Breaking: Mine workers kidnapped from Torex Gold (TXG.to) project (UPDATED)
Posted: 07 Feb 2015 06:18 PM PST
According to early reports, yesterday Friday between 10 and 15 employees working at the Torex Gold (TXG.to) Morelos mine were kidnapped by a gang of around 20 people some 300 metres from the entrance to the mine. Their whereabouts are still unknown today, Saturday afternoon.

UPDATE: Latest reports put the number of kidnapped employees at 12, with 11 of them members of the management team. They were ambushed at around 7pm local time yesterday evening by an armed gang who are now demanding a ransom payment. The kidnapped members of staff are apparently Mexican nationals from Coahuila, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí and Sonora states.

And don't say that IKN didn't try to warn you all.

UPDATE 2: An un-named director Gabriela Sánchez, VP of investor relations at Torex (TXG.to) spoke to Mexican press a few minutes ago and said that only one of the people kidnapped works at the mine. She said that to this point the company has received no ransom demand. She also says that the company will publish a news release in a few hours' time.

UPDATE 3: Here's the first English language wire report, out just a few minutes ago. Extract:

There were conflicting reports Saturday on how many were taken and whether some were workers for Media Luna, a Canadian-owned gold mining project in the municipality of Cocula, where police officers were charged with participating in the student killings.A state prosecutor's spokesmen said 12 people were taken, including some mine workers. A second government official said that 19 were taken and eight later released and that those held included some mine workers. Both insisted on not being quoted by name because the case had not been officially announced. The state official said the kidnappers were disguised as police or military.But the president of Toronto-based Torex Gold Resources Inc., which owns the mine, said the reports about his employees being abducted were false. Fred Stanford told The Associated Press he had confirmed that nine of his workers who were reported kidnapped were not taken and that he had conflicting information on a 10th employee."One may be involved, but because of a family matter. It has nothing to do with the mine," said Stanford, who is also Torex Gold's chief executive officer.Stanford said Torex Gold has about 250 employees in the area, but at least 1,000 more who are contract workers.

UPDATE 4: Ok, there's something strange about this story.Here's the latest report in which high ranking officers of the Federal Police in Guerrero (who are, for the record, the same body of people that tried to cover up the disappearance of the 43 students in November 2014) have said that there has been no kidnapping at all and the whole story is a lie. They go on to say that the whole thing is due to "communication problems" and at this point there is only one person known to be missing, a worker at the mine who was in the field and nobody knows exactly where he is but with the implcation he was out doing his job normally. To quote the police spokesperson (translated), "The story about the kidnapping of 12 people is a lie...up to this point the report is false."

However, one of the employees at the mine, Juan Zuñiga Méndez, said this afternoon that the commander of the local Community police force told him that a group of armed men had kidnapped workers at the mine while they were travelling in a shuttle bus service. In Zuñiga's words, "They told me that not only workers but also civilians who were commuting from their day's work (had been kidnapped) and to date we don't have the confirmed total of people, but it is a fact."

UPDATE 5: This is a very interesting report on events, which names regional head of the narco gang "La Familia" as the person behind the kidnapping and gives a lot of details on what happened.

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com.au/2015...-from.html