MexicoMexico to use drones, satellites in a renewed effort to find dead students
Mexico said it would launch a new search, joined by international experts, for the remains of dozens of students training to be teachers who were abducted and apparently massacred in 2014. Forty-three students were abducted by corrupt municipal police, and then turned over to a local drug gang to be killed. Apparently, the gang leaders believed the students were linked to a rival drug gang in the area.
Mexico said it would launch a new search, joined by international experts, for the remains of dozens of students training to be teachers who were abducted and apparently massacred in 2014.
The plan, which includes a new investigations team and the use of drones and satellite technology, would help President Enrique Peña Nieto in restoring public trust in the ability of his government’s ability to combat corruption and Mexico’s endemic culture of impunity.
Al Jazeera reports that forty-three students were abducted by corrupt municipal police, and then turned over to a local drug gang to be killed. Apparently, the gang leaders believed the students were linked to a rival drug gang in the area.
Forensic experts have identified the remains of one of the group from a bone fragment, and have identified a possible match for a second victim.
An international team of experts looking into the case said in September that the government theory of how the gang members incinerated the students’ remains, ground up the charred bodies, and then dumped the ashes in a river, is questionable, especially since the government’s initial investigation was sloppy and disorganized.
“There will be a new task force that will relaunch the investigation,” Eber Betanzos, Mexico’s deputy attorney general for human rights, said in Washington at a meeting of the experts looking into the case.
The Mexican government signed an agreement with experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to employ satellite technology and land and water drones to look for the students remains, possibly buried in hidden graves.
The government still insists, however, that the outside experts will not be able directly to question the military personnel who were on duty on the September 2014 night when the students disappeared, and who were told not to do anything as the students were attacked by local police.
Angela Buitrago, a member of the outside expert panel, said her group still hoped to question the troops because they considered it crucial to the investigation. “It’s not the same to have a third party asking questions,” Buitrago said. “Something is going to be missing, or doubt will remain about why something else was not asked.”
