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world news Diamars 29 maart 2022

Experts say Mexican probe into missing students falsified

(AP) — A group of in- police climbing around the
ternational experts said area where the students were Zerón fled to Israel in August
Monday the Mexican gov- allegedly killed with little 2019, where he may have
ernment falsified inves- control. connections to an Israeli firm
tigations into the disap- that sold the Mexican gov-
pearance of 43 students in The students from a radi- ernment spyware during his
2014 from the start. cal teachers’ college were time in office.
abducted by local police in
Former Colombian prosecu- southern Guerrero state who Zerón oversaw the criminal
tor Ángela Buitrago said the presumably killed them and investigation agency of the
experts found evidence that burned their bodies. Attorney General’s Office
authorities withheld or falsi- and also its forensic work in
fied evidence from the start But investigators sought to the 2014 case. Most of the
of the search. quickly resolve the crime students’ bodies have never
through illegal searches, de- been found, though burned
“It was falsified from the first tentions and torture of sus- bone fragments have been
day to the last day,” said Buit- pects. matched to three students.
rago, who is part of the Inter-
American Commission on Mexico has asked the Israeli The investigation had long heard from since. of Mexican officials that the
Human Rights group sup- government to extradite a been criticized by the fami- students bodies were inciner-
porting the investigation. former top security official, lies of the 43 students who Zerón was at the center of the ated in a huge fire at a trash
Tomás Zerón, who was the disappeared in September government’s widely criti- dump.
Buitrago said investigators, head of the federal investi- 2014 after they were detained cized investigation, which
prosecutors and military per- gation agency at the time of by local police in Iguala, in has failed to definitively de- Many of the suspects ar-
sonnel altered crime scenes the abduction. He is being the southern state of Guer- termine what happened to rested in the case were later
and records. A government sought on charges of torture rero. They were allegedly the students. Two indepen- released, and many claimed
drone video obtained by the and covering up those disap- handed over to a drug gang dent teams of experts have they had been tortured by
experts showed marines and pearances. and slain, and have not been cast doubt on the insistence police or the military.

Indigenous tell pope of abuses at Canada residential schools

(AP) — Indigenous leaders from to respond to Indigenous demands gates then gather Friday as a group for Nearly three-quarters of the 130 resi-
Canada and survivors of the for justice, reconciliation and repa- a more formal audience, with Francis dential schools were run by Catholic
country’s notorious residential rations — long-standing demands delivering an address. missionary congregations.
schools met with Pope Francis on that gained traction last year after the
Monday and told him of the abus- discovery of hundreds of unmarked The encounters Monday included Last May, the Tk’emlups te Sec-
es they suffered at the hands of graves outside some of the schools. prayers in the Metis and Inuit lan- wepemc Nation announced the dis-
Catholic priests and school work- guages and other gestures of deep covery of 215 gravesites near Kam-
ers. They came hoping to secure a More than 150,000 native children in symbolic significance. The Inuit del- loops, British Columbia, that were
papal apology and a commitment Canada were forced to attend state- egation brought a traditional oil lamp, found using ground-penetrating
by the church to repair the harm funded Christian schools from the or qulliq, that is lit whenever Inuit radar. It was Canada’s largest Indig-
done. 19th century until the 1970s in an gather and stayed lit in the pope’s li- enous residential school and the dis-
effort to isolate them from the influ- brary throughout the meeting. The covery of the graves was the first of
“While the time for acknowledge- ence of their homes and culture, and Inuit delegates presented Francis numerous, similar grim sites across
ment, apology and atonement is long Christianize and assimilate them into with a sealskin stole and a sealskin ro- the country.
overdue, it is never too late to do the mainstream society, which previous sary case.
right thing,” Cassidy Caron, presi- Canadian governments considered Caron said Francis listened intently
dent of the Metis National Council, superior. The Metis offered Francis a pair of Monday as three of the many Me-
told reporters in St. Peter’s Square af- red beaded moccasins, “a sign of tis survivors told him their personal
ter the audience. Francis set aside several hours this the willingness of the Metis people stories of abuse at residential schools.
week to meet privately with the del- to forgive if there is meaningful ac- The pope showed sorrow but offered
This week’s meetings, postponed egations from the Metis and Inuit on tion from the church,” the group ex- no immediate apology. Speaking in
from December because of the pan- Monday, and First Nations on Thurs- plained. The red dye “represents that English, he repeated the words Caron
demic, are part of the Canadian day, with a mental health counselor in even though Pope Francis does not said she had emphasized in her re-
church and government’s efforts the room for each session. The dele- wear the traditional red papal shoes, marks: truth, justice and healing.
he walks with the legacy of those who
came before him, the good, the great “I take that as a personal commit-
and the terrible.” ment,” Caron said, surrounded by
Metis fiddlers who accompanied her
In a statement, the Vatican said each into the square.
meeting lasted about an hour “and
was characterized by desire on the She said what needs to follow is an
part of the pope to listen and make apology that acknowledges the harm
space for the painful stories brought done, the return of Indigenous arti-
by the survivors.” facts, a commitment to facilitating
prosecutions of abusive priests and
The Canadian government has ad- access to church-held records of resi-
mitted that physical and sexual abuse dential schools.
was rampant at the schools, with stu-
dents beaten for speaking their native Canadian Bishop Raymond Poisson,
languages. That legacy of that abuse who heads the Canadian Conference
and isolation from family has been of Catholic Bishops, insisted the Vati-
cited by Indigenous leaders as a root can holds no such records and said
cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol they more likely are held by individ-
and drug addiction on Canadian res- ual religious orders in Canada or at
ervations. their headquarters in Rome.