52 Detained Including Police, 3 Sought In Connection With 35 Murders In Iguala Mexico

28 remains of burnt bodies were discovered in multiple clandestine graves in the municipality of Iguala, Guerrero.

By H. Nelson Goodson

October 6, 2014

Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico - On Sunday, Iñaky Blanco Cabrera, the Guerrero State Attorney confirmed that 52 alleged suspects including 22 Iguala municipal police officers and 29 alleged members of the criminal organization the Guerrero Unidos (GU) have been detained in connection with the murder of 35 victims including 32 students. Three other GU suspects are  being sought and remain at large.

Cabrera confirmed that 28 burnt bodies were found in a remote area near the Pueblo Viejo in the municipality of Iguala after several suspects confessed where the victims were buried in shallow graves. The state and federal forensic departments are working to identify the bodies through DNA testing, but some of the suspects confessed that 17 of those victims were students that were kidnapped by the GU and corrupt municipal police officers when they ambushed three student buses from the Raúl Isidro Burgos school in Ayotzinapa in the municipality of Tixtla on Friday, September 26 and early Saturday, September 27.

DNA results will take between five days to three weeks. Mean while,  42 students remained missing since the weekend, according to authorities and family members of those still missing. 

Two of the suspects, Martín Alejandro Macedo Barrera and Marco Antonio Ríos Berber told authorities where the victims bodies were buried in Pueblo Viejo. Both suspects confessed to participating in the kidnappings and murder of 17 students.

Barrera and Berber said, that Francisco Salgado Valladares, from the Municipal Public Safety told them to go to the Pueblo Viejo area and that El Chucky, the leader of the GU ordered them to kidnap and to kill as many of the students they could capture.

Murder charges have been filed against Felipe Flores Velázquez,  Alejandro Tenescalco Mejía, Luís Francisco Martínez Díaz, former secretary of Public Safety and Civil Protection. Luis Alberto José Gaspar, aka, "El Tongo" and Norma Angélica Bruno Román were charged with organized crime and being Halcones (look outs) for the CU.

Four students, a woman passenger in a taxi, a faculty member and one of the bus drivers were identified as, Daniel Solis Gallardo; Yosivani Guerrero; Aldo Gutiérrez Solano was declared brain dead; David Josué García Evangelista, 15; Pedro Rentería, the technical director for the Avispones soccer team from Chilpancingo; Victor Manuel Lugo Ortiz, a bus driver and Blanca Montiel Sánchez. Gallardo, Guerrero and Solano were students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos school.

Evangelista, Rentería and Ortiz were in a soccer bus team called the Avispones (Bees) from Chilpancingo, the capital city of Guerrero and were shot by the suspects by mistake thinking they were from the Raúl Isidro Burgos school the intended target by corrupt police officers from Iguala. Los Avispones had played a soccer team from Iguala and had won the game on September 26. They were headed back home in their bus and two taxi cabs when they were intercepted and ambushed by police. 

The corrupt police officers had clashed with a group of students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos school after police ambushed three buses from their school and kidnapped students, two vans, two cars and a motorcycle driver. The students had thrown rocks at the municipal police officers and they returned fire.

Protests have been staged throughout Guerrero seeking justice and some of the protesters are alleging that the Governor of Guerrero, Angel Aguirre Rivero and the Iguala Mayor, José Luis Abarca Velázquez are responsible for the killings. Velázquez has fled to avoid prosecution and authorities say that he is a leader of the Guerrero Unidos.