Remains to be compared with DNA from students
IGUALA, Mexico— Mexican forensic experts recovered 28 charred bodies from a clandestine grave on the outskirts of this city where police engaged in a deadly clash with student protesters a week ago, Guerrero state’s chief prosecutor said Sunday.
State Prosecutor Inaky Blanco said the corpses were too badly damaged for immediate identification. And he could not confirm if any of 43 college students reported missing after the confrontation with police were among the dead. He said genetic testing of the remains could take up to two months.
Blanco said one of the 30 people detained in the case had told investigators that 17 students were taken to the grave site and killed there. But he stressed that investigators had not confirmed the person’s story.
State police and prosecutors have been investigating the Iguala city police for misconduct during a series of violent incidents aweek ago that resulted in six shooting deaths and more than two dozen people injured. Investigators said video showed police taking away an undetermined number of student protesters after a confrontation.
Twenty-two officers were detained soon after the violence, and Blanco has said eight other peoplewere arrested in recent days, including seven members of an organized crime gang.
As investigators worked at the grave site, up to 2,000 protesters blocked a main highway in the state capital of Chilpancingo demanding justice. “You took them alive, wewant them returned alive,” read a huge banner hung across the road linking Mexico City and Acapulco.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission opened its own investigation into the case for possible serious human rights abuses, such as forced disappearances by Iguala city police.
Anger over the discovery of the graves exploded Saturday night when a group of young people from the teachers college attended by the missing protested outside the governor’s residence in Chilpancingo.