foree
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it's been 4 months since 43 students
from the aapa normal school were
attacked and disappeared by local police
and the gueros unidos drug gang in the
city of uala Guerrero in the course of
the investigation the Mexican
government's leads have indicated that
most likely the students were killed at
a dump incinerated there and then their
remains were thrown in a river where
they were later found but still 42 of
these young men remain missing and
technically the case is still open
almost a 100 people have been detained
and questioned in regards to the case
among them the supposed material author
of The Massacre Philipe Rodriguez known
as ELO or the brush however the parents
and Society at large have demanded for
the case to remain open in the face of
several questions the Mexican Government
hasn't been able to answer
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answer the parents have remained firm in
fact While most Mexican workers and
students took the customary winter break
for Christmas and New Year the aot Nappa
parents and students celebrated their
Christmas Eve by holding the
demonstration right at the doorstep of
Los Pinos the presidential residence
2 Days Later a couple thousand
protesters hit the streets with the
parents in a march to commemorate the
thre Monon Mark of the massacre
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until then the Attorney General's office
had only been able to identify one of
the missing students 19-year-old
Alexander MAA he was identified after
the University of inbrook in Austria
tested remains selected by the Argentine
forensic anthropology team a group of
independent experts however these
forensic experts also noted that they
could not guarantee that the remains of
Alexander MAA were really picked up at
the river as the government claimed
later scientists at insbrook said they
were not able to identify any victims
with the other assembled remains they
received and that their upcoming test
will be their last as the samples will
be destroyed in the process of analysis
when Vice news examined just two out of
82 total volumes of the government's
case File other doubts came up we found
that other victims might have been
killed that night although their
identities remain uncertain the
government has mostly ignored other
lines in the case magazines in Mexico
have also published several
investigations of their own questioning
the Attorney General's version processo
an oppositional political Magazine made
a string of intriguing claims about the
case but which we could not
independently verify journalist Annabel
Hernandez claims Federal forces were
involved in the attacks and
disappearances
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on January 12th fueled by the doubts
raised by the Argentine forensics team
and media investigations the aapa
parents normalista students and
unidentified masked individuals
attempted to storm the military base in
uala alleging that soldiers were
involved in some way in the
disappearances during this confrontation
parents and students as well as military
police were injured with rocks and
Bottles thrown from both sides later the
interior secretary miguelangel Osorio
Chung said the parents had been
previously invited to inspect the army
barracks but that they had refused the
invitation as of today parents of the
missing and their attorneys have refused
to set a date to enter the military base
that they stormed it's not clear
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why in the face of this situation at the
4month mark of the tragedy the parents
once again showed their conviction to
their cause in the streets of Mexico
City
the day after on the morning of January
27th during a televised speech president
Enrique Pano hinted to Mexican society
that it was time to move
on later that same day attorney general
Jesus muam called the media for an
important announcement this
all the students were killed and
incinerated at a dump outside IA he said
calling it a legal certainty and the
historical truth but is it
the prosecutor's office presented an
updated version of the events using a
video with a somewhat creepy and
inappropriate
soundtrack didn't present any new
physical evidence that would support the
claim no new victims were identified and
the government admitted that it will be
nearly impossible to ever properly
identify the victims From the Ashes and
bits of bone there is also no conclusive
proof in the end that soldiers or
federal officers were directly involved
in the attacks on the night of September
26 at least not yet
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but maybe Muro Karam is also speaking
too soon soldiers and federal forces
arguably bear responsibility for their
inaction for not protecting the students
as they should any other civilian under
attack from organized crime we tried to
schedule an interview with attorney
general Madam regarding these questions
but in Aid to the prosecutor eventually
told us that he would no longer be
giving interviews about the subject 4
months later there was still no Smoking
Gun directly linking the military to the
violence however there is a precedent
historically Mexican military units
stationed in Guero have been accused of
the violent repression of leftists and
dissidents particularly during the Dirty
War period in the 1970s most recently uh
military unit station in guo have been
accused of forced disappearance of
civilians by international human rights
Watchdog groups so the theories really
don't come out of the blue but so far
they remain
unproven that same night the parents of
the Disappeared held a press conference
to respond to the government's claims
demanding that the students be found and
that the investigation be
completed for
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but the case is still under
International scrutiny the interamerican
Human Rights Commission has designated a
group of four recognized human rights
lawyers to work on the case of the
missing students on February 2nd and 3rd
parents of the missing were present at a
report Mexican authorities delivered to
the United Nations committee on enforced
disappearances the committee said Mexico
still faced serious problems with
respect to the issue and specifically
mentioned the aapa case and the scores
of open complaints from the Dirty War
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