Jose Luis Abarca Velazquez, the former mayor of Iguala, has been charged with the murder of six students killed by the police in September.
According to The Guardian, Abarca is allegedly connected to the disappearance of 43 students from a teacher college in Ayotzinapa. The students traveled two hours to Iguala and were attacked by the police under assumptions they were in town to disrupt an event by Abarca’s wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa.
During the attack, six people were killed and 43 students were handed to a drug cartel, where they were murdered and thrown into a river. The Guardian states:
The accusation of murder, related to the six people who died during the initial attacks against the students, was announced on Thursday by the authorities in Guerrero state, where Iguala and the student college are located.
The six deaths in the initial attack have been somewhat forgotten amid the political crisis over the federal government’s failure to locate the 43 missing students, which has prompted continuous national and international demonstrations.
Among the six killed were three students, including Julio Cesar Mondragon, who was found in the street with skin peeled off from his face and eyes gouged out. A teenager, a bus driver, and a woman were also shot and killed in the attack.
After the shooting and mysterious disappearance of the remaining students, Abarca and his wife went into hiding for four days before being discovered by the police. Maria is currently being questioned by police about her involvement in the kidnapping of the students.
Abarca also faces more charges of organized crime, kidnapping and murder if convicted of killing the 43 students.
While parents are refusing to believe the bodies burned are the students, some of the carcasses were sent to a laboratory in Austria to be identified.
SOURCE: The Guardian | VIDEO CREDIT: News Inc.
