Effigies of Iguala Power Couple Burned in 'Evil Spirits' Ritual at Mazatlan Carnival Damien Gayle - MailOnline
go to original February 16, 2015

Effigies of Jose Luis Abarca, former mayor of Iguala, Mexico, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were set ablaze in a ceremony to get rid of evil spirits at Mazatlan International Carnival.

A former mayor and his wife accused of the murder of 43 trainee teachers were the stars of one of the world's biggest carnivals before they were incinerated.

Effigies of Jose Luis Abarca, former mayor of Iguala, Mexico, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were set ablaze in a ceremony to get rid of evil spirits and ill feelings.

Former Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca and wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda. (AP)

The couple are currently in jail after they were charged with the kidnapping of 43 trainee teachers in Iguala last September. It is believed they ordered corrupt police to arrest the students and hand them over to gangsters. None of them have been seen since.

The scandal has rocked Mexico, which is fighting a long-running war against criminal cartels who control the flow of drugs to the lucrative U.S. market north of the border.

So when the time came for organizers of the International Mazatlan Carnival to choose a figure for its annual Quema del Mal Humor (Bad Mood Burning) ritual on Saturday, their decision had practically been made for them.

The climax of the ritual is the incineration of a giant puppet, usually modeled after a public figure. 'Think massive exploding piñata on steroids,' says one tourism website.

Organizers of the carnival in Sinaloa, which is listed as one of the world's top three by Forbes, chose the couple because they represented the most evil people locals could think of.

Read the rest at MailOnline

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