129 bodies recovered from mass graves in Mexico

NEWS of mass graves holding the remains of at least 129 people, uncovered in the Guerrero, Mexico, has been released by the country’s attorney general. The information was made public after a freedom of information request by the news agency Associated Press.
Sixty graves were uncovered between October 2014 and May 2015 as part of a search for 43 student teachers who were abducted in September, although none of the remains has been identified as belonging to the missing students.
Instead, the grim discovery unveils the death toll in an area in the grip of drug gang violence. Most of the bodies were male, but at least 20 women were amongst those discovered.
The missing students had taken part in protests in the city of Iguala, where they were taken into police custody. The events remain murky, but the official investigation concluded that police handed the 43 young men over to a drug syndicate. Gang members have confessed to killing the protestors and burning their bodies, having been told they were members of a rival gang.
In the wake of the students’ disappearance, the mayor of Iguala and his wife fled the city, but were tracked down and now face charges related to abduction, homicide and corruption. The city’s former police chief remains a fugitive.
So far only one of the students’ bodies has been identified – the charred remains of 19-year-old Alexander Mora Venancio were found on a rubbish dump.