2014 Iguala Mass Kidnapping
On September 26, 2014, 43 male students from the Rural
Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico.
According to official reports, they commandeered several buses and traveled to
Iguala that day to hold a protest at a conference led by the mayor's wife.
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.
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, remains a fugitive. 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. (Wikipedia)
