Investigation into massacre of Mexican students continues

(Vatican Radio) In Mexico investigations continue into the disappearance of 43 students on September 26, 2014.

In September a report by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission disparaged  the government’s claim that the students were killed, kidnapped and incinerated in a rubbish dump because they were mistaken for members of a drug gang. Instead, it says they were victims of “forced disappearances.”  

For over a year the families of the missing students have been leading protests in Mexico and the United States, hoping to find out the truth about their children’s fate.

In the latest turn of events, the top brass of the Mexican Army has finallly agreed to allow investigators to meet with members of a Battalion, which was in the área at the time when 43 student teachers were abduced and disappeared. James Blears in Mexico reports that this could be a significant breakthrough.

Listen to the report by James Blears: 

The student teachers were arrested by Municipal Pólice during a protest rally on September 26th 2014, in the Southern City of Iguala, and then handed over to gangsters. They were never seen alive again.  Only one bone fragment has been identified.

Up to now and on direct orders, the 27th Battalion of the Mexican Army, which was in this área at the time, but didn't intervene, have refused point blank to be interviewed. But now...and belatedly, investigators of an Independent Inquiry, have been granted access to them.  Several are demanding to question individual soldiers.  But as yet...the exact format for gleaning data and information has yet to be mutally agreed by both sides.

Minister of defence General Salvador Cienfuegos, who's stood firm until now concerning Access or interogations,  has also spoken of the discontent of the Military being caught up in a policing role for which they're neither trained or suited, in Mexico's eight year Drug War.

The ghastly fate of the 43 students is known, if not accepted by all.  The search for their remains continues.