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WORLD NEWSMonday 28 September 2015

Mexicans march on anniversary of 43 students’ disappearance

Relatives of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa teachers’ college students lead a march marking the one- dents’ remains have been between 2007 and July
year anniversary of the students’ disappearances in Chilpancingo, Mexico, Saturday, Sept. 26, identified by DNA analy- 31, 2015, according to the
2015. One year ago, several students and bystanders were killed and 43 students vanished in the sis of charred bone frag- government. Unidentified
nearby city of Iguala. ments. While the march bodies often turn up in
was smaller than past clandestine graves of the
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) demonstrations, the case kind used by drug gangs to
has helped publicize the dispose of victims. But most
MARK STEVENSON of the disappearance of urday. thousands who have gone people disappear without
Associated Press 43 students by marching Activists said the move- missing since Mexico’s a trace.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thou- down Mexico City’s pre- ment might bring justice drug war started in 2006. The 43 students from a
sands of people marked mier avenue in an atmo- for Mexico’s disappeared, Peace and anti-crime ac- radical teachers college
the one-year anniversary sphere of defiant hope Sat- though only two of the stu- tivist Maria Guadalupe Vi- disappeared on Sept. 26,
cencio wore a skirt made 2014, after a clash with po-
of a Mexican flag splat- lice in Iguala, a city in the
tered with fake blood. southern state of Guerrero.
The names of three disap- Six other people were killed
peared activists from her at the hands of the police
violence-plagued home during the disturbances.
state of Tamaulipas were According to Mexico’s
written across her shirt. former attorney general,
Vicencio said the students’ local police illegally de-
movement “sets an ex- tained the students and
ample for all Mexicans to then turned them over to
wake up, and not be si- the local drug gang Guer-
lent.” In a meeting with the reros Unidos, which then
parents of the 43 missing allegedly killed them and
students earlier this week, incinerated their remains.
President Enrique Pena Ni- A group of independent
eto promised to create a experts assembled by the
special prosecutors’ office Inter-American Commis-
to investigate all of Mexi- sion on Human Rights took
co’s disappearances. apart that version earlier
More than 25,000 people this month, saying the fu-
disappeared in Mexico neral pyre simply couldn’t
have happened at the
American tourist killed in botched robbery in Colombia small area of a garbage
dump where prosecutors
J. GOODMAN belongings and shot him vibrant dining scene and daily on average. The city say it did.
Associated Press when he resisted. The at- dozens of high-rise apart- had a homicide rate last
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) tackers then fled. ment buildings and hotels. year of 26.1 per 100,000 res- “For me, the parents of
— An American tourist was Police offered a $16,000 Medellin, the country’s sec- idents, about five times the the students have taught
shot to death during an reward for information ond biggest city, is a far cry U.S. average but well be- us a lesson, about keeping
apparent robbery attempt leading to the arrest of from the 1980s when it was low major American cities hope for change alive,”
after leaving his hotel in a the perpetrators. The U.S. the headquarters for Pablo like Detroit and Baltimore. said Carlos Martel, a busi-
wealthy enclave of Medel- Embassy had no immedi- Escobar’s feared Medel- Seven Colombians were ness executive who at-
lin, Colombian authorities ate comment. Police said lin cocaine cartel, and it extradited to the U.S. last tended Saturday’s march
said this weekend. Mariani had arrived in Me- has been experiencing a year to face charges in the with his wife.
Police identified the victim dellin from Costa Rica, but boom in tourism. The New stabbing death of a Drug The parents of the missing
as John Mariani, 65, of New gave no other informa- York Times featured it at Enforcement Administra- students — many of them
York, and said he was at- tion on him. El Poblado No. 11 on its list of 52 places tion agent, James “Terry” barely literate farmers —
tacked Friday night when neighborhood where the to go in 2015. Although the Watson, who was killed dur- marched silently at the
his taxi was intercepted by shooting happened is one city remains a major cen- ing a botched “express kid- head of the demonstra-
gunmen in a car and on of the Medellin’s wealthi- ter of crime, violence has napping” by a ring that tar- tion. They have refused to
a motorcycle. They said est and safest enclaves. dropped since Escobar’s geted unsuspecting pas- accept the government’s
the assailants tried to take It is a leafy neighborhood heyday, when more than sengers hailing taxi cabs in version that their sons are
his wallet and personal that is home to the city’s a dozen people were slain Bogota.q dead and have called for
a new investigation under
international supervision.q