Mexican Police Discover Mass Grave Near Town

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A clandestine grave holding an undetermined number of bodies was found outside the Mexican town of Iguala, where violence last weekend resulted in six deaths and the disappearance of 43 students, officials said Saturday.

Guerrero state prosecutor Inaky Blanco said the grave site was on the outskirts of the town, which is about 120 miles (200 kilometres) south of Mexico City. He did not say how many bodies there were, or whether there was any indication they could be some of the missing students.

Juan Lopez Villanueva, an official with the Mexican government’s National Human Rights Commission, said later that a total of six burial pits had been discovered. He also did not comment on whether the remains could be the students’.

The grave was on a hillside in rugged territory of Iguala’s poor Pueblo Viejo district. It was heavily guarded by soldiers, marines and federal and state police who kept journalists away from the site. A helicopter landed inside the cordoned-off area in mid-afternoon.

Iguala was rocked by a series of clashes and shootings last weekend.

State prosecutors said the first bloodshed occurred when city police shot at buses that had been hijacked by protesting students from a teachers’ college. Three youths were killed and 25 people wounded.

A few hours later, unidentified masked men fired shots at two taxis and a bus carrying a football team on the main highway, killing two people on the bus and one in a taxi.

After the violence, Guerrero state authorities said 57 students had been reported missing. That number was later reduced to 43.

Blanco has said local police were being investigated for roles in the disappearance. He said state investigators had obtained videos showing that police arrested an undetermined number of students after the first incident and took them away.

Officials say 22 officers are facing homicide charges.

Guerrero’s governor, Angel Aguirre, has said investigators are looking at the possible involvement of organised crime groups, which he said had infiltrated the town government.