Former Mexican Mayor Charged With Abduction of 43 Missing Students

MOSCOW, January 14 (Sputnik) — Jose Luis Abarca, a former mayor of the southwestern Mexican city of Iguala, Guerrero state, has been charged with last year's kidnapping of 43 students, the Attorney General's office said.

Prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for Abarca and 44 others on charges of kidnapping the students who went missing in Guerrero in September, Tomas Zeron de Lucio, director of criminal investigations at the federal Attorney General's office, told reporters late Tuesday.

The former mayor is now in jail facing further charges of organized crime and homicide. His wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, on Monday was charged by the Mexican federal court for money laundering activities related to Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. Both Abarca and his wife were arrested in Mexico City in November.

On September 26, a group of policemen, accompanied by armed gang members from local drug cartels, abducted students who were peacefully protesting discriminatory hiring and funding practices in Iguala.

According to Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo, the police, under orders from Abarca, handed the 43 students over to the Guerreros Unidos gang. Some of the students were reportedly choked and others shot dead. Murillo said evidence showed that the gang burned the bodies and threw the ashes into a nearby river.

In December, one of the students was confirmed dead following the identification of remains found near a dump, according to investigators.