Fugitive Police Chief Arrested Over Disappearance of Ayotzinapa Students BusinessMirror
go to original October 22, 2016

The former police chief Flores Velazquez, on the run for two years, is believed to have ordered the attack on the 43 Ayotzinapa students. (Noticieros Televisa)

Mexican authorities said they hope the arrest of a former police chief who had been a fugitive for more than two years will help them solve one of the country’s most notorious human-rights cases: the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students.

Felipe Flores Velazquez was arrested on Friday in Iguala, the town in Guerrero state, where the students were last reported alive in September 2014. At the time, he was the police chief there.

Renato Sales Heredia, head of the National Security Commission, said at a news conference on Friday in Mexico City that Flores was detained after visiting his wife in Iguala.

He is being held on suspicion of involvement in organized crime and kidnapping, Sales said. “The investigations indicate that this person was one of those responsible with coordinating the operation that turned into aggression against the students,” he said.

In a Twitter message, Mexican attorney general said the arrest and the prospect of testimony from the ex-police chief should help “clarify the facts of Iguala.”

Officials say they have arrested 131 people in connection with the disappearance, mostly local police and suspected drug gang members. The former mayor of Iguala and his wife are also among those detained. Some detainees have alleged torture by Mexican authorities.

Read the rest at BusinessMirror

Related: Ayotzinapa's Missing Students' Parents Share Outrage (Corpus Christi Caller-Times)

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