The mayor of the city of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, right, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, were accused of participating in the disappearance of 43 students. (Alejandrino Gonzalez/AP)
MEXICO CITY — The fugitive Mexican mayoral couple accused of provoking the confrontation that led to the disappearance and possible deaths of 43 students in the western state of Guerrero have been arrested, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.
Federal police spokesman José Ramon Salinas confirmed in a tweet that the mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were detained in Mexico City, weeks after they went on the lam.
The disappearance of 43 students from a small teachers’ college in southern Mexico in late September has become a defining case in Mexico’s struggle to establish law and order.
An intensive search has not turned up any information about the students’ whereabouts, and many people assume they’ve been killed. As anger has mounted, government buildings in Guerrero have been torched and tens of thousands of protesters have marched in Mexico City and nationwide demanding answers. This week, more protests are planned for the capital and university students said they will go on strike.
Authorities have said that the students were coming into Iguala, a city about 120 miles south of Mexico City, for a protest but the mayor, not wanting them to disrupt a speech his wife was giving, told police officers to stop them. In the ensuing standoff, the police opened fire, killing six people, and rounded up others. Federal officials think the students were then handed over to a drug gang working with police.
Relatives of 43 Mexican students who disappeared from Iguala and are feared dead held a march demanding the return of their loved ones. (Reuters)
The outrage led to the resignation of the Guerrero governor and has posed the most serious political crisis for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. More than 50 people have been arrested. A warrant was issued last month for Abarca and his wife, who had fled.
Mexican officials did not issue immediate details about the circumstances of their arrest. The newspaper El Universal reported that the couple was caught in a raid early Tuesday morning in a private home in the Iztapalapa neighborhood, in the southeastern part of the city.
Joshua Partlow is The Post’s bureau chief in Mexico. He has served previously as the bureau chief in Kabul and as a correspondent in Brazil and Iraq.
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1E1ozxL
0 comments:
Post a Comment