'Missing Mexican students dead'

Mexico City, Nov 8 (IANS/EFE) The 43 teacher-trainee students missing since September in Mexico's Guerrero state are dead, an official said citing statements from three detained suspects.

Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam Friday said that Patricio Reyes, Jhonatan Osorio and Agustin Garcia confessed to having killed the students and burnt their bodies.

More than 70 people, including police and public officials, have been arrested in connection with the events that took place the night of Sep 26 in Iguala, Guerrero, when municipal police fired gunshots at the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a teacher training facility.

Six people were killed that night, 25 were injured and 43 students were abducted and handed over to members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.

The cops were allegedly acting on orders from Iguala's former mayor Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, who were tracked down Monday after being on the run for weeks.

"I have no doubt there was a massive homicide there," Murillo said.

"They burned them, clothes and all," he added.

Some of the students were dead or unconscious before being set ablaze, apparently suggesting that the others were burnt alive.

For the purposes of investigation, the students will continue to be classified as missing until the remains are definitively identified by specialists from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said Murillo.

Reyes, Osorio and Garcia told investigators they took the 43 students to the Cocula dump and set them on fire.

After watching the bonfire burn for more than 14 hours, the killers collected the ashes and bones in eight garbage bags and tossed the bags into a nearby river, he said.

Authorities managed to recover one of the bags intact and its contents will be analyzed to confirm the suspects' account, Murillo concluded.

--IANS/EFE

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