Forensics Reveal Mexico's Credibility Gap in Missing Students Case Patrick Corcoran - InSight Crime
go to original February 23, 2015

Mexico’s conspicuous effort to incorporate foreign forensic teams into its investigation of the Iguala mass kidnapping seems aimed at giving the inquiry a dose of credibility. But it may have accomplished precisely the opposite.

In the four months that have passed since 43 student protesters disappeared from Iguala, Guerrero, the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto and the victims’ families have brought teams of investigators from Argentina and Austria, and relied on laboratories in the US and Austria, to assist in the search for the students' remains. These teams were part of a broader attempt by Mexican authorities to tout their investigation as serious, open, and honest. The government also, for instance, celebrated the number of interviews, raids, and arrests it carried out as it pursued the culprits.

Ideally, these forensic teams would have supported the findings that Mexico’s government announced last month: the students were abducted by members of the Guerreros Unidos and their police allies in Iguala; they were taken to a trash dump in nearby Cocula, they were executed and their bodies incinerated, and their remains were finally thrown into a nearby river.

Instead, foreign forensic teams have been some of the leading voices casting doubt on the official narrative. The Argentines publicized a series of errors made by the Mexican forensic team, and they raised questions over assertions that the bodies were all incinerated in a single fire at the trash dump.

Additionally, foreign forensic teams have disclosed that the remains of other victims - unrelated to the 43 students - were present in the Cocula trash dump. These teams have also noted that they were not present when Mexican authorities recovered the garbage bags from the river - from which they sent 17 samples, but only manage to connect one of them to a victim's remains - leading to further worry that the recovery was somehow manipulated.

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