Mexican marines guard the site where an unspecified number of bodies were found in clandestine graves. (Agence France-Presse)
Iguala:
Federal forces on Tuesday patrolled a southern Mexican city where 43 students disappeared following an attack by gang-affiliated police, as investigators sought the motive in a case that has shocked the nation.
Hundreds of federal police took over security in Iguala, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mexico City, on Monday after the discovery of a mass a grave on the outskirts raised fears about the students' fate.
Authorities say the municipal police and its gang allies shot at buses carrying the students on the night of September 26. Several students were later seen bundled into patrol cars.
Another bus carrying a football team was attacked outside the city. In all six people, including three students, were killed before the 43 went missing.
Gang hitmen told investigators they then executed 17 students and dumped them in a mass grave. Authorities say it will take weeks to confirm the identities of a total of 28 bodies found in pits.
But one big question remains unanswered: why did the police and the Guerreros Unidos gang attack the students?
The attorney general has dispatched around 30 investigators, forensic experts and criminologists to crack the case, which could rank among the most horrific in a drug war that has left 100,000 people dead or missing since 2006.
"The motive has not been established yet," a federal official told AFP.
Mayor, wife in spotlight
But Mexican media cited an intelligence agency report pointing to possible roles by the now fugitive mayor and his wife, who is the president of the local family services department, known as DIF.
The report, cited by El Universal newspaper, says Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa told her security chief to ask the police to repel the students because she feared they would interrupt a speech she was giving that day.
The police's arrival led to a physical and verbal clash with the students, who then headed to their buses, the document says.
The public security director ordered his men to stop the students. When they got out of the bus, the officers began to shoot, killing three, the CISEN intelligence service document says.
Mayor Jose Luis Abarca Velazquez, who said he never knew about the shootings because he was at a party with his wife that night, actually told the police director to chase and punish the students, the CISEN document says.
El Universal says intelligence services accuse Abarca and his wife of having links to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, whose chief Hector Beltran Leyva was arrested in central Mexico last week.
An official in the attorney general's office refused to confirm the document's authenticity, citing secrecy requirements during the investigation.
Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing the victims' families, told AFP last week one theory among the relatives is that the mayor and his wife wanted to prevent the students from interrupting speeches they were both going to deliver.
President vows justice
President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose vow to tame crime in Mexico has been challenged by eruptions of violence in several states, vowed Monday to punish those responsible for the "shocking, painful and unacceptable" crime.
The students came from a teacher training school known as a bastion of radical protests, but survivors say they merely went to Iguala to collect funds for their studies.
They do admit commandeering buses to return home that night, a common practice among the students to move around the state.
Authorities have detained around 30 people in the case, including 22 Iguala police officers, while the security chief is on the run.
The army disarmed the entire police force on Monday and they were taken to a military base to undergo evaluations while investigators check whether their guns were fired in any crimes.
A banner signed "Guerreros Unidos" appeared in the town on Monday demanding the release of the 22 officers within 24 hours.
Hundreds of federal police took over security in Iguala, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mexico City, on Monday after the discovery of a mass a grave on the outskirts raised fears about the students' fate.
Authorities say the municipal police and its gang allies shot at buses carrying the students on the night of September 26. Several students were later seen bundled into patrol cars.
Another bus carrying a football team was attacked outside the city. In all six people, including three students, were killed before the 43 went missing.
Gang hitmen told investigators they then executed 17 students and dumped them in a mass grave. Authorities say it will take weeks to confirm the identities of a total of 28 bodies found in pits.
But one big question remains unanswered: why did the police and the Guerreros Unidos gang attack the students?
The attorney general has dispatched around 30 investigators, forensic experts and criminologists to crack the case, which could rank among the most horrific in a drug war that has left 100,000 people dead or missing since 2006.
"The motive has not been established yet," a federal official told AFP.
Mayor, wife in spotlight
But Mexican media cited an intelligence agency report pointing to possible roles by the now fugitive mayor and his wife, who is the president of the local family services department, known as DIF.
The report, cited by El Universal newspaper, says Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa told her security chief to ask the police to repel the students because she feared they would interrupt a speech she was giving that day.
The police's arrival led to a physical and verbal clash with the students, who then headed to their buses, the document says.
The public security director ordered his men to stop the students. When they got out of the bus, the officers began to shoot, killing three, the CISEN intelligence service document says.
Mayor Jose Luis Abarca Velazquez, who said he never knew about the shootings because he was at a party with his wife that night, actually told the police director to chase and punish the students, the CISEN document says.
El Universal says intelligence services accuse Abarca and his wife of having links to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, whose chief Hector Beltran Leyva was arrested in central Mexico last week.
An official in the attorney general's office refused to confirm the document's authenticity, citing secrecy requirements during the investigation.
Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing the victims' families, told AFP last week one theory among the relatives is that the mayor and his wife wanted to prevent the students from interrupting speeches they were both going to deliver.
President vows justice
President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose vow to tame crime in Mexico has been challenged by eruptions of violence in several states, vowed Monday to punish those responsible for the "shocking, painful and unacceptable" crime.
The students came from a teacher training school known as a bastion of radical protests, but survivors say they merely went to Iguala to collect funds for their studies.
They do admit commandeering buses to return home that night, a common practice among the students to move around the state.
Authorities have detained around 30 people in the case, including 22 Iguala police officers, while the security chief is on the run.
The army disarmed the entire police force on Monday and they were taken to a military base to undergo evaluations while investigators check whether their guns were fired in any crimes.
A banner signed "Guerreros Unidos" appeared in the town on Monday demanding the release of the 22 officers within 24 hours.
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