2014 Iguala mass kidnapping
| 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping | |
|---|---|
| Part of Mexican Drug War | |
Photo issued by the Government of Guerrero
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| Location | Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico |
| Coordinates | 17°33′13″N 99°24′37″W / 17.55361°N 99.41028°W |
| Date | September 26, 2014 9:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. |
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Attack type
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Shootout mass kidnapping |
| Deaths | 6 (shootout) 2 (human remains identified) |
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Non-fatal injuries
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25 |
| Victims | 43 (kidnapped) |
| Perpetrators |
Guerreros Unidos Iguala and Cocula policemen Mexican Federal Police (alleged) Mexican Army (alleged) |
| Motive | Unknown |
2014 Iguala mass kidnapping describes the incident where 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico on September 26, 2014. According to official reports, the students commandeered several buses to travel to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. During the journey, local police intercepted them and a confrontation ensued.
Details of what happened during and after the clash remain unclear, but the official investigation concluded that once the students were in custody, they were handed over to the local Guerreros Unidos ("United Warriors") crime syndicate and presumably killed. Mexican authorities claimed Iguala's mayor, José Luis Abarca Velázquez, and his wife María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, masterminded the abduction. However, there are also reports linking Federal forces to the case, some stating that military personnel in the area deliberately omitted helping the students in distress. Others state a direct involvement of the Mexican Army in the kidnapping and murder of the students.
Both Abarca and Pineda Villa fled after the incident, but were arrested about a month later in Mexico City. Iguala's police chief, Felipe Flores Velásquez, was arrested in Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero, on October 21, 2016. The events caused social unrest in parts of Guerrero and led to attacks on government buildings, and the resignation of the Governor of Guerrero, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, in the face of statewide protests. The mass kidnapping of the students arguably became the biggest political and public security scandal Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had faced during his administration. It led to nationwide protests, particularly in the state of Guerrero and Mexico City, and international condemnation.
On November 7, 2014, the Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam gave a press conference in which he announced that several plastic bags containing human remains, possibly those of the missing students, had been found by a river in Cocula, Guerrero. At least 80 suspects have been arrested in the case, of which 44 were police officers. Two students have been confirmed dead after their remains were identified by the Austria-based University of Innsbruck.
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Wikipedia