Experts dismiss Mexico's account of apparent student massacre

Mexico's official account of the abduction and apparent massacre of 43 students last year does not add up, a team of international experts said on Sept.6, citing deep flaws in the government's investigation and dismissing its claims that the victims were incinerated in a garbage dump.

The case provoked a global outcry after the missing students were abducted in the city of Iguala in southwest Mexico on Sept. 26, 2014.
   
The government's failure to capture the killers or even persuade Mexicans that its investigation was serious has hit  President Enrique Pea Nieto's reputation, and the report on Sept.7 was certain to pile more pressure on. 
   
Commissioned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and conducted by respected investigators from Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Spain, the report blasts holes in the Mexican government's central claim that the students were burned to ashes in the nearby town of Cocula.
   
"That event never took place," one of the investigators, Carlos Beristain, told reporters on Sept.6, citing evidence from the site. "There should be a refocusing of the investigation based on these facts."
   
The parents of the victims cheered the report, and vowed not to let up on the government until their children are found, adding their faith is with the independent experts and they no longer trusted official investigators.
   
"We've had enough of the government's crap," Mario Cesar Gonzalez, the father of one of the missing students, said at a press conference. "We're poor, but we're not stupid."
   
Mexico Attorney General Arely Gomez said she would seek a new probe to ascertain whether the missing students were in fact burned in the dump, adding that the government...