
By Lizbeth Diaz / Reuters
Mexico’s official account of the abduction and apparent massacre of 43 students last year does not add up, a team of international experts said on Sunday, citing deep flaws in the government’s investigation and dismissing its claims that the victims were incinerated in a garbage dump.
The case provoked a global outcry after the missing students were abducted in the city of Iguala in southwest Mexico on Sept. 26, 2014.
The government’s failure to capture the killers or even persuade Mexicans that its investigation was serious has hit President Enrique Peña Nieto’s reputation, and the report on Sunday was certain to pile more pressure on.
Commissioned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and conducted by respected investigators from Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Spain, the report blasts holes in the Mexican government’s central claim that the students were burned to ashes in the nearby town of Cocula.
“That event never took place,” one of the investigators, Carlos Beristain, told reporters on Sunday, citing evidence from the site. “There should be a refocusing of the investigation based on these facts.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/06/us-mexico-violence-idUSKCN0R60RU20150906