New mass student abduction case in Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

3. Bringing up the bodies: Mexico's missing students draw attention to 20,000 'vanished' others

Bringing up the bodies: Mexico's missing students draw attention to 20,000 'vanished' others

The shocking disappearance of 43 student teachers lifted the lid on the open secret of Mexico’s many others who’ve disappeared amid drug-fuelled violence

Jo Tuckman in Iguala
Wednesday 26 November 2014 14.49 EST


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A husband and wife, both members of the citizen’s search brigade, talk with two members of the Gendarmería, part of the Mexican federal police.

Photograph: Keith Dannemiller/for the Guardian
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They found the first grave in a thicket of spiny huisache trees clinging to the hillside outside the town of Iguala.

Under a pounding midday sun, about a dozen men and women watched as an older man plunged a pickaxe into the heavy soil. Some offered advice on where and how to dig; mostly they looked on in silence

When he turned up a human femur, Mayra Vergara turned her back and broke into silent tears. She had hoped that today she might find some clue to the fate of her brother Tomás, a taxi driver who was kidnapped in July 2012, never to be seen again. But whoever lay in the shallow grave, she said, they deserved more than this.

“Even if it isn’t my brother in there, it is still a person. A person who deserved a proper burial,” she said, her face contorted in anger and grief. “And the question is when? When are they going to do something for us?”

Even if it isn’t my brother in there, it is still a person. A person who deserved a proper burial

The disappearance and probable massacre of 43 student teachers after they were attacked and arrested by Iguala’s municipal police two months ago has focused world attention on the horror of Mexico’s drug violence – and the official corruption that allows much of it to happen.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/26/mexico-missing-students-thousands-vanished-grave-diggers