Top 10 Mexican Mass Student Kidnapping Facts - WMNews Ep. 9
Collusion, corruption and crime allegedly have a stranglehold on Mexican society, and that apparently cost 43 students their lives. Welcome to WatchMojo News, the weekly series from http://www.WatchMojo.com that breaks down news stories that might be on your radar. In this instalment, we're counting down 10 crucial facts you should know about the Mexican Mass Kidnapping.
Top 10 Mexican Mass Kidnapping Facts
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#10: What Was the Cause of the Kidnapping? Confrontation
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On September 26th, 2014, over 100 student teachers were travelling to the city of Iguala, Guerrero in Mexico to protest what they felt were unfair hiring practices. Some sources report that the students appropriated or stole several buses to reach their destination, though it’s still unclear if that is fact. Their aim was to disrupt a conference run by María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, the wife of Iguala’s mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez, who had political aspirations of her own. What comes next is unclear: the mayor allegedly ordered his police force to prevent the protestors from reaching their destination, and instructed they be held.
#9: Where Did Everything Go Wrong? Kidnappings
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There are conflicting reports on what officially occurred with regards to the police confrontation: some sources say the police chased the hijacked buses, resulting in a shootout, and some say the students were shot at while waiting for transportation. What we know for sure is that police fired on the buses, resulting in the deaths of two students on the buses and leading many of the other students to flee. When all was said and done, there were six deaths and 25 injuries. According to reports, those who remained were taken by police. By the next day, when those 43 students did not turn up in any local jails, they were reported missing. The predominant theory about what happened to them in that time suggests that the 43 were handed off to the Guerreros Unidos or “United Warriors,” a local crime group. With information that led them to believe the students were members of a rival gang trying to threaten their power in the area, United Warriors’ top man Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado allegedly allowed them to be killed. That’s when the students were said to have been taken to a local garbage dump and killed, their remains burned and dumped in the San Juan River.
#8: Who Was Involved? Main Players
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This crime goes beyond simple corruption, with some suggesting that a triangle of collusion between police, drug dealers and politicians is in place. The main players in this situation are the students and teachers from an impoverished farming city, government officials who worked with the local police force, and the cartels who have a stronghold on the town. And the effects have spread even higher in Mexico’s governmental structure, with the governor of Guerrero – Ángel Aguirre Rivero – resigning amid pressure and protests in his state; the Attorney General of Mexico, Jesús Murillo Karam, keeping the public up to date on the investigations and related arrests, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto facing the biggest political and public security scandal of his administration.
#7: Where Did the Mayor & His Wife Go? Escape
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Early in the investigation, the Mayor of Iguala and his wife stated that they could not have participated in the kidnappings as they had alibis. However, within a couple of days, on September 30th – amid pressure from his own party – Abarca requested a month-long leave of absence. Soon after, investigators arrived at his home, finding it empty with Abarca, his wife and family missing. It was assumed the group had fled the country, and by the time Abarca and his wife Pineda were located and arrested in Mexico City on November 4th, 2014, they were among the country’s most-wanted fugitives. The following day, the former mayor was placed in a maximum-security prison on homicide, organized crime and forced disappearance charges, while his wife was also placed in federal custody.
#6: What Is the State of the Country? Corruption
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Mexico suffers from pervasive corruption at all levels of society, with it reaching to the government, the cartels and to law enforcement. The country was ranked 103rd of 175 on the Corruptions Perceptions Index – meaning there are far more countries that are perceived to be less corrupt in the world. The reported collusion between the cartels and law enforcement, and subsequent mistrust of law enforcement, has led to high levels of unsolved crime: for example, the unsolved-rate for murders in Mexico in 2012 was 98%. It’s thought that Mexican crime rates are actually much higher than currently reported, as many go unreported.
#5: What Was Mexico’s Reaction? Protests
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Since September 26th, 2014 tensions have been running high between supporters of the 43 missing students and police. Protests have emerged across Mexico, with the majority occurring in Mexico City as tens of thousands have gathered peacefully. On November 7th, the Mexican Attorney General announced that human remains had been found in a body of water, and that they were possibly the remains of the missing students. Less than a month later, when forensic specialists confirmed the identity of the one of the victims as one of the 43 students, the clashes between police and protestors intensified. The protests also spread to social media, where Mexicans who want significant change for their society take to Twitter and other sites to express their opinions. At the end of a press conference about the students, Attorney General Murillo Karam said “Ya me canse” which means “I am tired.” This quickly became an anti-government hashtag on Twitter and a symbol of the revolution.
#4: Who Offered Help? International Reaction
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Argentine forensic experts offered aide to Mexican investigators in the case. The remains recovered from the water were sent to the University of Innsbruck in Austria, a renowned lab that made headlines by helping to reconstruct DNA profiles of victims of the 2004 South Asia tsunami. That lab was able to identify the first of the victims found as one of the missing 43 students. U.S. President Barack Obama offered Mexico help in investigating the crime and strengthening Mexico’s criminal justice system, stating that an offense such as this one has “no place in civilized society.”
#3: Has This Happened Before? Drug War
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Since former Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the Mexican drug cartels in 2006, some estimates have suggested that over 120,000 people died as a result of the Drug War as of 2013, which does not even include the 27,000 missing persons. During their search for the missing students, investigators unearthed several mass graves, with hundreds of bodies being located across the country. These mass graves are a result of the constant battle for control of territory and drug trade routes by the Mexican cartels.
#2: What Were the Consequences of This Event? Aftermath
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At least 80 people have been arrested in connection with the missing 43 students, and over half of them were police officers in Cocula and Iguala. On November 25th, 2014, the founder and leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR), Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas resigned in the midst of the political crisis that followed the disappearance of the students. Due to his supposedly poor handling of the situation, thousands are also calling for Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, to officially step down. However instead, he proposed a plan for a nationwide overhaul of local policing, where the over 1,800 local police forces would be disbanded and placed under state government control, in the hopes of stamping out corruption for good.
#1: Where Are the Students? The Search
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On January 4th, 2015, Pineda was transferred to federal prison to await trial. The search for the remaining students continued into 2015 as well, as thousands gathered in cities across Mexico, calling for justice in the face of increasing violence and apparent corruption in their police system. As the University of Innsbruck persisted in testing the retrieved remains, family and friends of the missing students continue to hold vigils and protests, hoping that their missing loved ones might return. Did these facts surprise you? To vote for which news story is covered next, head over to WatchMojo.com/suggest, and be sure to hit that subscribe button for more newsworthy top 10s every week.
