Mexico declares missing students dead, questions unanswered

World Today

Felipe de la Cruz, father of one of the 43 missing students, speaks during a press conference in Mexico city, on January 27, 2015. Mexico’s Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the investigation gave them “the legal certainty that the students were killed”. (AFP PHOTO / RONALDO SCHEMIDT)

In Mexico, parents of the 43 missing college students angrily rejected an official statement that their children had definitely been killed and incinerated after being seized by police in the southern state of Guerrero.

In an emotional news conference on Tuesday, the parents accused the government of hastening  the investigation even as they still have many unanswered questions – and hope of finding their children alive.

Their reaction came after Mexico’s attorney-general stated that all students were definitely dead.

In a news conference, Jesus Murillo Karam cited confessions and forensic evidence showing that a fire blazed for hours at a temperature sufficient to turn 43 bodies into ashes.

The conclusion was based on the testimony of a suspect arrested two weeks ago, who said he was called to get rid of the students, as well as 39 confessions, 386 declarations, 487 forensic tests, 16 raids and two reconstructions.

However, DNA tests were only able to positively identify the remains of one of the students, and an Austrian laboratory assisting in the case has said it appears impossible to identify the others.

Lawyer Vidulfo Rosales, who is representing the families of the students, said on Tuesday that relatives will bring a formal complaint before the Committee on Enforced Disappearances at the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights early next month.

Report was complied with information from The Associated Press